Sometimes you have to travel in Paris to get what you want, but once you arrive the trip is usually worth it. Last week, for instance I walked over to the very convenient Bouchara, the large fabric store next to Galeries Lafayette to pick up some thread. It was gone. Boarded up with huge panels announcing the arrival of yet another H&M clothing store.

This meant that for my next home fabric buying spree, I’d need to head to the Marché Saint Pierre, taking yet another Metro line to Anvers in the 18th arrondissement, and fighting through the throng of tourists heading up to Sacré Coeur. But it was a beautiful day in Paris today, and I decide it was time to get active.

The Marché Saint Pierre is actually a grouping of fabric stores, some four stories high, tucked just below Montmartre. On the Square Saint Pierre you’ll see one of Paris’ remaining carrousels – the same one seen in Amèlie Poulain – and the original iron and brick market building. This is now an arts center. And to the east along Rue’s Livingston and Orsel the many fabric stores from the huge and professional Reine, to the cheaper Dreyfus (much like a fabric bazaar) and Moline with its trim and buttons store. Other fabric stores line the surrounding streets and there’s a convivial atmosphere of friends shopping, fashion students and costume designers. This is where you go to find French Toile de Jouy (and even top names like Pierre Frey at Reine) and elegant, embroidered “Giverny” patterns at Moline. Certainly there are small local shops in other neighborhoods that sell threads and yarns, but in Paris, this is where everyone comes for fabric. Plus, it’s hard to resist glancing up at Sacré Coeur.

The hotel Meurice has begun monthly wine tastings with their Chef Sommelier Nicolas Rebut, baptized “Les Nocturnes du 228.” For 90 euros a person you get a lively lesson in wine, with a different region featured in each two-hour session. The setting is the beautiful 228 bar, recently relooked by Philippe Starck, and the cocktail hour tasting includes canapés from  Michelin three-star chef Yannick Alléno. All in all not such a bad deal by Paris standards. The next date is April 2 for white wines of Alsace, then May 7 for wines of the Loire Valley. Burgundy is September 3.

See www.lemeurice.com. Or call 33/1 44 58 10 66 for reservations.

A bright light in the February sky is the opening of the Giorgio De Chirico retrospective at the Museé d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.

De Chirico (1888-1978) is one of those hard to categorize artists. His austere but very poetic paintings of plazas and colonnaded buildings defined his metaphysical period. When De Chirico came to Paris in 1911, he would have an influence on the growing Surrealist movement, only to return to Italy and follow his own path, with his almost theatrical compositions. New for me out of the 170 paintings, drawings and sculpture were his many self-portraits (some in period costumes) and the fact that he revisited his own most famous paintings later in life, copying his own work.  He called these “replays” a way of separating himself from the famous artists he had become. And while I can’t say I enjoyed all of his work, I’ll consider it a warm up to shows that are coming up this Spring, like Dali and M.C. Escher at the Grand Palais.

Before heading into the De Chirico exhibition, I went next door to the Palais de Tokyo (the two “twin” museums share a plaza) to check out the boutique and the scene. The Palais de Tokyo, with its restaurant, DJ, cool Japanese monster gifts and art magazines has become a hangout for both art students and hip Moms from the surrounding neighborhood. The museum even had a “Baby disco” this year and still has a one room hotel on its roof, the Everland (www.everland.ch) that will stay in place through May 1, 2009 and which is auctioning off the last nights on Ebay for about 1,040 euros at last check.

While I was leafing through magazines a loud voice filled the hall. It was a performance artist staging a diatribe on the euro – I think.  His moans and screams, set every child in the place howling.   I finally had to leave, but hey, I was there.

De Chirico. 11 Avenue de Président Wilson; Metro Iéna or Pont Alma. February 13- May 24, Open Tuesday to Sunday 10am-6pm. Closed Monday. www.mam.paris.fr