All of that is an unecessary prelude really... the real story starts like this...
I had a few hours to kill in Köln before catching my next train. I went walking through the city. I was blown away by all the high street stores. Every shop you could name. From the UK or France or Germany or Italy - Pimkie, Body Shop, l'Occitane, HandM, Next, Benetton, Penney's/Primark - they all had huge branches in Köln. I don't really favour high street shops but I couldn't help be astounded. Brussels was similar but not as big, and not all together on the broad pedestrianised street: Hohe Strasse and Schildergasse.
And then I meandered on to smaller streets. And loved what I saw there too. Designers with workshops behind their shops. So a shopfront, and then maybe a mezzanine floor where the clothes were being sewn and made situated above the till / dressing room / stock room. And there was more than one of these! I loved it. Eagerly, I asked the shop owners and designers for their business cards. I saw it as maybe an option for me. An alternative to returning to my dreary desk in Dublin.
And on my next visit to Köln, I was excited to revisit this street. Of course, I hadn't made any life changes. I had returned to my safe job. So I was seeking inspiration and reassurance that these alternative places existed.
But I couldn't find the shops. I walked along the streets where I thought they were. I had mislaid the business cards. I remembered "Breite Strasse" very distinctly. I walked it and the adjacent streets. No luck. Maybe they'd gone?! Maybe they couldn't survive? The dream isn't a practical reality. Other "cool" shops were now inhabiting the streets in the area. Gentrification.
I have visited Köln twice at least since. And each time, I've walked in the vicinity of Breite Strasse hoping to see something I'd missed. It's put me off Koln. I don't like the place as much anymore. With the hipster Belgian Quarter. Sure, I've discovered the amazing Die Wohngemeinschaft hostel, the fab hairdresser a few doors up, Mythos, and the lovely coffee shop called Yummy Müslibar.
But back to Paris... the other day I was going through my old travel diaries. And I was delighted to find, tucked into the back of the Paris scrapbook, the business cards for the designer-maker shops in Köln. With trepidation, I checked their webpages. And I was ecstatic to discover that they both still exist!
rkm-kleiderkunst.deI blame the map on one of the business cards for my confusion. The map highlights Breite Strasse and other streets in the area and only has a big spot on the shop location... but *doesn't* hightlight the actual street that the shop is on.
schinkelwitz.de
The street name? Auf dem Berlich. And I can't wait to go back to Köln and walk along it.
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