For fun, read the article but replace "Tati" with "Wal-mart". Not that I'm comparing Tati with Wal-mart in any way, it's just amusing to put the adoration in an American context...

Is it kind of like Zara, in Spain? Cheap trendy clothes?

No, I guess not. I got confused by the adoration. ;)

*sheds tear for Wal-Mart* *reconsiders* *fetches eye-dropper, catches and replaces tear*

Nothing like Zara. Not even much like Wal-Mart. More like Grandpa Pigeon's without the hardware. Or the A&S or Bradlees stores in the NYC area. I can't remember any of the details right now, and all my books are at home, but there's a great short story told by a Maghrebian woman about her first years in Paris, after her family had immigrated. At one point she's completely lost in the city, and does the unthinkable: she speaks to a cop. He asks her where she lives. She doesn't know, exactly, except that she lives near Tati. And that makes it all clear for him. He brings her back to Goutte D'Or, the neighborhood near the Tati mentioned above, and she recognizes where she is. Of course, folks there are nervous she has brought a cop to the neighborhood. There are several overlaid points to be made in the story, the main one, for the moment, is that Tati is/was a landmark for a lot of non-rich Parisians.

With magnificent website like this... When I click, I get: The page cannot be displayed There is a problem with the page you are trying to reach and it cannot be displayed. Magnifique!

Help me! I think my eyeballs are seared from the brightness.. (Oh, and LanguageHat, I've stuck a screenshot for you here</gratuitous self-linkage>)