Here's a fun story. Husband and I pack one suitcase, with another suitcase tucked inside, for our…read moreten day trip to Europe. Case is all packed, loaded in the car, and only when we unload it at LAX do we realize that the internal frame of the suitcase is damaged and the wheels bow outward, making it hard to roll. Oh, it won't be so bad, we reassure ourselves, as we promptly check the luggage and don't think about it until the next day.
Then we get to London-Heathrow, and had to haul the luggage through the airport and the Tube station and then by bus to our hotel. And it is bad. But I didn't have to carry it, so I continued to not think about it.
After several days in London we head north for a conference. My husband and I split up -- he goes off to Warwick for the day and meets up with me that night in Leicester. I, meanwhile, had to handle the luggage because I was heading straight to Leicester, our final destination for the day. Once I had to haul the luggage, you'd better believe I acknowledged that we had a problem. And boy, what I problem it was. Picture me, in a business suit, dragging a 50-pound suitcase, by now wheels so bowed they might as well not be there at all, uphill to my hotel. I'm pretty sure I cried.
So at this point we agreed that we should buy another suitcase, because the second one was meant for overflow, since suitcase contents always manage to grow, rather than shrink, during a trip. For the next leg of our trip my husband smartly transferred all the content to the second suitcase, but we were (read: I was) unwilling to part with the bowlegged suitcase until we have a replacement -- because I feared getting to the last day of our trip and not having a way to carry things back. Hauling the empty case around was OK, but still cumbersome, and we were totally over it by the time we arrived in Paris.
So this was the predicament that haunted us as we traveled through Paris. We saw all the ads in the Metro for some kind of awesome suitcase sale, but knowing that a place advertising in the Metro probably isn't the place to go, I resisted seeking it out. (Plus, the deals were for sets of luggage, and we just needed an odd one-off piece.) Perfect kismet struck us when after leaving the Catacombs we were following what proved to be a missed connection with an address on Yelp for something else altogether and ended up in front of this suitcase shop, Baboune. I swear, there was a chorus of angels backing our entrance to the store.
We were impressed by the selection, and saw many viable options. The prices were good - apparently things were on sale (or perhaps they're always that way), but it was within the budget I had in mind for a new suitcase. We left our first visit empty-handed, wanting to stop on the way back. We vigorously discussed suitcase as we went on with our intended errand, and faithfully returned later the same day.
We ultimately purchased a simple hard-sided roller suitcase and were impressed with its light weight, apparent durability, and the shop's fair price. I loved the proprietress who was very friendly despite language barriers, and very kind as I stumbled through my broken two years of college French. I'm hoping that our French suitcase will survive more trips than our crummy American (probably not American-made, but whatever) one.
A month later, and I am still relieved that we found this place. It gave our trip a happy ending, and the price was reasonable and well located literally at the steps to the Metro.
