An Idiot Abroad #3: Paris
Boosibri
Posts: 12,417 ✭✭✭✭✭
Reader beware, this will probably read more like a travel journal than a numismatic adventure.
I set out this moring for Paris, loupe in hand, hoping that the Paris coin shops would be open on Saturday. Despite my week long French excursion, only Saturday and Sunday will be spent in the city itself.
My flight time from Dublin was a reasonable 6:50am and I stopped to get some breakfast in the airport lounge. Just as on St. Paddys day, everyone was drinking. Sipping my americano quietly, anticipating a full day of site seeing and potentially coin buying, I couldnt quite grasp the allure of a morning Bulmers with my smoked salmon and egg whites.
I arrived into Charles de Gaulle around 10am I proceeded through passport control and to the metro station to take me into the city centre. While standing in line another tourist mentions that there is a strike on the rail lines, with now only one train running per hour. Doesn't seem like a big deal at the time...I get my ticket and make my way to the train which shows up promptly on the hour.
Stop after stop people pile in until the train is so crowded but just when it seemed that the train was packed to complete capacity, the riders at each successive stop manage to squeeze on. (Pic take at stop 3 of 10). This train ride was a living hell for 30 minutes with angry, stinky, and amazingly crowded Parisians. The highlight of the trip was when one, very large, woman tried to force her way on around stop 7. No luck but the space she did manage to make allowed for the 2 skinny guys pushing her to hop on as she resigned herself to either take a taxi or wait another hour for the next train.
I arrived at Gare De Nord in a very foul mood and decided during the walk to my connection, back and up 3 flights of stairs to get tickets and then right back down to my starting place, that I hate the Parisian metro. I get to my stop, walk to the hotel and head out again, loupe in hand, to Rue Vivienne, the numismatic heart of Paris.
Rue Vivienne is located a few km north of the louve and contains about 1 city block of nothing but coins shops, currency exchange and metals dealers. As expected, only about half of them were open today. The larger French auction companies, cgb.fr and iNumis are located here as well as 20 other companies all with basically the same four or five words mixed together...monnaies, numismatique, change, maison de, etc.
I walked into my first shop which seemed to be the best shop in retrospect. As with their names, all shops felt roughly the same... waiting area, secured teller windows, well more than half stationed by women. I walked into he first shop which was adorned by a large coy in a fish tank and several nude photographs on the wall. I waited behind a Russian buying several ounces of gold and proceeded to ask my generic "im looking for any collectible US coins which you might have". I've found that starting very generically helps the conversation along. When I ask "do you have any US gold" or "rare US coins" I either have to back track to then ask about silver or am subject to someone elses interpretation of rare.
The teller went back and brought out two trays of coins, one filled with common gold and one with Morgan's. The gold was nothing special but the Morgans were actually interesting. Unlike what I saw in the UK and Ireland, the French seem less intent on scrubbing their coins with a brillo pad and trying to pass them off as original, or worse yet, not even caring. There were several CC Morgans from the 70's and 80's, all raw in EF-AU. Many more from the other mints. The prices were high from a quick scan through Coinfacts and I know nothing of Morgan varieties. To the Morgan cherrypicker, this is a good spot.
I went shop by shop either being told that they had no US coins, no graded coins or they were just plain closed. I got to the end of the street having visited several shops, spending all of 5-15 minutes in each depending on the teller and his/her desire to actually look to see what they had or the presence of a computer catalog. All in all it was an interesting excusion but a fruitless one. Perhaps if I break from my meetings early this week I will head back for another round.
After having lunch I walked south to La Siene and strolled down the river, taking a river cruise. Stopping a few times to check my PM's, and actually buying this 49-C $2.5 from Charlottedude on the BST to pair beautifully with my 49-C $5 (also pictured)
Alls well that ends well. Now off to a trip through the Catacombs and a museum or two before heading north to the chateau where I will spend my week. Next weekend is off to Brussels. While I will have my wife and son with me on this trip, our itinerary conveniently weaves through to many numismatic oriented stores (little does she know)
ps. My wife got me a Fitbit for Father's Day and I think I blew it's circuits. 25,000 steps and 12 miles walked.
I set out this moring for Paris, loupe in hand, hoping that the Paris coin shops would be open on Saturday. Despite my week long French excursion, only Saturday and Sunday will be spent in the city itself.
My flight time from Dublin was a reasonable 6:50am and I stopped to get some breakfast in the airport lounge. Just as on St. Paddys day, everyone was drinking. Sipping my americano quietly, anticipating a full day of site seeing and potentially coin buying, I couldnt quite grasp the allure of a morning Bulmers with my smoked salmon and egg whites.
I arrived into Charles de Gaulle around 10am I proceeded through passport control and to the metro station to take me into the city centre. While standing in line another tourist mentions that there is a strike on the rail lines, with now only one train running per hour. Doesn't seem like a big deal at the time...I get my ticket and make my way to the train which shows up promptly on the hour.
Stop after stop people pile in until the train is so crowded but just when it seemed that the train was packed to complete capacity, the riders at each successive stop manage to squeeze on. (Pic take at stop 3 of 10). This train ride was a living hell for 30 minutes with angry, stinky, and amazingly crowded Parisians. The highlight of the trip was when one, very large, woman tried to force her way on around stop 7. No luck but the space she did manage to make allowed for the 2 skinny guys pushing her to hop on as she resigned herself to either take a taxi or wait another hour for the next train.
I arrived at Gare De Nord in a very foul mood and decided during the walk to my connection, back and up 3 flights of stairs to get tickets and then right back down to my starting place, that I hate the Parisian metro. I get to my stop, walk to the hotel and head out again, loupe in hand, to Rue Vivienne, the numismatic heart of Paris.
Rue Vivienne is located a few km north of the louve and contains about 1 city block of nothing but coins shops, currency exchange and metals dealers. As expected, only about half of them were open today. The larger French auction companies, cgb.fr and iNumis are located here as well as 20 other companies all with basically the same four or five words mixed together...monnaies, numismatique, change, maison de, etc.
I walked into my first shop which seemed to be the best shop in retrospect. As with their names, all shops felt roughly the same... waiting area, secured teller windows, well more than half stationed by women. I walked into he first shop which was adorned by a large coy in a fish tank and several nude photographs on the wall. I waited behind a Russian buying several ounces of gold and proceeded to ask my generic "im looking for any collectible US coins which you might have". I've found that starting very generically helps the conversation along. When I ask "do you have any US gold" or "rare US coins" I either have to back track to then ask about silver or am subject to someone elses interpretation of rare.
The teller went back and brought out two trays of coins, one filled with common gold and one with Morgan's. The gold was nothing special but the Morgans were actually interesting. Unlike what I saw in the UK and Ireland, the French seem less intent on scrubbing their coins with a brillo pad and trying to pass them off as original, or worse yet, not even caring. There were several CC Morgans from the 70's and 80's, all raw in EF-AU. Many more from the other mints. The prices were high from a quick scan through Coinfacts and I know nothing of Morgan varieties. To the Morgan cherrypicker, this is a good spot.
I went shop by shop either being told that they had no US coins, no graded coins or they were just plain closed. I got to the end of the street having visited several shops, spending all of 5-15 minutes in each depending on the teller and his/her desire to actually look to see what they had or the presence of a computer catalog. All in all it was an interesting excusion but a fruitless one. Perhaps if I break from my meetings early this week I will head back for another round.
After having lunch I walked south to La Siene and strolled down the river, taking a river cruise. Stopping a few times to check my PM's, and actually buying this 49-C $2.5 from Charlottedude on the BST to pair beautifully with my 49-C $5 (also pictured)
Alls well that ends well. Now off to a trip through the Catacombs and a museum or two before heading north to the chateau where I will spend my week. Next weekend is off to Brussels. While I will have my wife and son with me on this trip, our itinerary conveniently weaves through to many numismatic oriented stores (little does she know)
ps. My wife got me a Fitbit for Father's Day and I think I blew it's circuits. 25,000 steps and 12 miles walked.
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Comments
Latin American Collection
And yes, I also haunted La Bourse for coin dealers.
I can just feel the angst from that train ride.
"If I say something in the woods and my wife isn't there to hear it.....am I still wrong?"
My Washington Quarter Registry set...in progress
I can tell you what my Wife would say to me.
"You have all this money to buy coins and you are too cheap to take a taxi"!
<< <i>I can tell you what my Wife would say to me.
"You have all this money to buy coins and you are too cheap to take a taxi"!
€160 and am catching one in 2 hours to Chateauform de Mello.
Latin American Collection
<< <i>
<< <i>I can tell you what my Wife would say to me.
"You have all this money to buy coins and you are too cheap to take a taxi"!
€160 and am catching one in 2 hours to Chateauform de Mello. >>
We rode in one there once some years ago. I swear we were part of the Bourne movie.
bob
<< <i>Cool little report... the packed trains remind me of what I saw in chunks of Italy, man did they pack people on those trains.
Don't know if you've ever been to or flown out of Brussels before, but their airport security is a total pain in the rear. They opened up our duty-free bags to examine the stuff we bought and were giving us crap... I had an 8oz can of red bull, they seized it from me and wouldn't let me drink it... ridiculous. I also had to talk to like, 6 people before they would let us board our plane. >>
Thanks for the tip... Will be sure to prep my wife for that adventure.
Latin American Collection
Funny that you went all the way to France to buy something on the BST!
Check out the Southern Gold Society
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
<< <i>Interesting report- seems there are opportunities with world coins >>
I agree. Problem is nothing is graded and the propensity to mess with coins is very high here. I've studied up on British gold and the coins that circulated in early America and I've seen few pieces so far that I just loved, but I look.
Latin American Collection
If I were there looking for coins, it would probably for dirty gold from the Napoleonic era and earlier. The later stuff is mostly pretty common and (to me) uninteresting.
I found that the metro was crowded all the time. You had a fighting chance if you entered near the start of the line. We had a funny moment when our 4'10" little New York-born tour guide literally threw my 5'10" and extremely tentative son into a packed train at one if the Louvre stops. He was scarred from the experience, in an amusing way, for the rest of the trip. We still laugh about it.
Enjoy!
as for coy - that's a phonetic spelling and pronunciation for the sound that non-japanese call it.
the proper spelling is koi - there are actually two syllables (mora for the japanese) there. ko-i -- the ko is pronounced like co in cove and the i is the long ee sound. The emphasis is on the ko and the i is weaker but fully pronounced.
<< <i>Great Read.
as for coy - that's a phonetic spelling and pronunciation for the sound that non-japanese call it.
the proper spelling is koi - there are actually two syllables (mora for the japanese) there. ko-i -- the ko is pronounced like co in cove and the i is the long ee sound. The emphasis is on the ko and the i is weaker but fully pronounced. >>
Good clarification. Proves my title was appropriate.
Latin American Collection
<< <i>
<< <i>Great Read.
as for coy - that's a phonetic spelling and pronunciation for the sound that non-japanese call it.
the proper spelling is koi - there are actually two syllables (mora for the japanese) there. ko-i -- the ko is pronounced like co in cove and the i is the long ee sound. The emphasis is on the ko and the i is weaker but fully pronounced. >>
Good clarification. Prices my title was appropriate. >>
nah. I've japanese in-laws.
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I, too, was surprised to see women behind the coin counters in Germany. Not the same coin vibe over there.
This year, I am on my way to Munich and Salzburg. I think I am all set for Salzburg and I plan on doing some buying there. I know there are shops in Munich, but I will be with my wife and another couple, and there is only so much time.
But keep these posts coming.
Tom