Sunday continues in Paris

After our climb at Sacre Coeur, we wandered the beautiful neighborhood on the way down.

I love all the architecture...in my next life, I want to be an architect!

Love this pink little Cafe. Isn't it cute?

We stopped along one tree-lined street at this little Patisserie.

I had to try a macaroon. I ordered a pistachio one. OH. MY. GOODNESS. It was SOOOOO Good. I mean really WOW good. I know tomorrow we end up going to La Duerre, and yes those are good macaroons...but this one seemed just a little more homemade, a little more love in it. I want to go back just to visit this little bakery. Look at the ceiling at this place!! Love!

We then visited this cute little store, I picked up a couple beaded flowers, and odds and ends.

After the day of adventure we met one of the gals from our Chateau stay for dinner at Chez Julian. We got there a little early so Why not have another Hot Chocolat we asked?!? No good reason not to. We stopped at this little Cafe across from the restaurant.

We watched as these two dogs met, sniffed, played/fought, whatever, the owners weren't concerned so neither were we! Good clean entertainment!

Chez Julien was simply delightful.

We ate outside under a canopy. Here was the menu:

Enjoyed some delicious wine, dinner and stories.

What an incredible day!

-Rach

Sunday in Paris

The market in Paris was SO much fun. Booth after booth filled with wonderful goodies. The VERY first booth I found a few vintage stamps that I purchased. One is a Z stamp with a Zebra that I am using for my ABC vintage pages swap!

The prices were higher than the brochante shopping we did in the South of France, but we still managed to find some fun things we loved. Jackie found more rosaries, and Jeanne found a beautiful painting. Ann and I fell in love with one booth that had old cards with fabric samples on them.

I only took a picture or two at the market....I guess again I found my eyes and hands too busy looking for that perfect treasure to stop and take photos!

Anyhow I will share my finds with you soon once I take photos of them.

After our trip to the market, we headed back and ate at Cafe Trocadero right near the Eiffel Tower.

It was a nice break and I enjoyed some a Hot Chocolat.

Cheers!

And now onto some major touristing!!

We decided to head over to Sacre Coeur.

Little did I know what was to come. Jeanne was interested in heading to the top to get some glimpses of the amazing views. Ann and Jackie were ok to stay on the ground....I said SURE WHY NOT?!? I am not afraid of heights, so I saw no reason to NOT go. I figured the stairs would be quite a climb, but after the week of Chateau meals I figured it might do me some GOOD!

WELL...I didn't realize the stairway was SOOOO NARROW and twisty. I am a little clausterphobic! I would've take a photo but I was too focused on breathing and moving as quickly as possible to get to a point where I had OPEN space!

The pathway to the top was strange....lots of stairs of course, but some inside and some outside, basically climbing up the roof of the building! The above picture represents how I was feeling, gasping for air :)

Back inside up more stairs..and then I made it! ALIVE!!! (the Eiffel Tower in the distance) If I look a little tired and sweaty....I WAS!

What a beautiful view, it was worth it!

We walked all the way around the top.

The circular pathway gave you 360 degree views of the whole city. Awesome!

The stone work was incredible. Imagine how they got all the stone up so high!! I'm sure back in the day they didn't have a power lifter crane hoisting these babies up to the tippy top!!

I was a little nervous to head back down away from this open space...

The walk down was MUCH better I could see farther in front of me, and I knew about how long we were going to be in there.

Back on the ground again...happy to stay there for a little while :)

And the day isn't even half over!!

-Rach

And now onto Paris....

Saturday morning we left our little Chateau to ride from Toulouse to Paris. It was quite an ordeal and sight to see us pulling our luggage down the stairs at the train station, under the tracks and back up to the other side....oh you haven't seen my other purchases yet...so you might not understand that my luggage probably weighed over 150 pounds, at least......oh yea.

Anyhow we managed with teamwork to get all the luggage on the train and stowed. I zoned out on the 6 hour trip and was happy to be off the jiggly train and into Paris that evening.

Jeanne, Jackie and I checked into our cute hotel room at the Marriott in the 16th and headed for a bite to eat with our friend Ann. After dinner we took quite a stroll around the area.

We saw the Arc De Triomphe. There are hundreds of people on top of that....if you look really close you can tell there are people there.

we thought about going in for a closer look....however this was the scene to run across the street to the actual monument:

I REALLY didn't want to die the first night in Paris. I really didn't want to be THAT tourist to be splat on the road.

So we enjoyed the view from here:

We walked all the way down the Champs Des Elysees and over to the Eiffel Tower of course. Please forgive the shaky picture, wasn't quite sure of the night shots without a tripod!

A long long day...and we have an early morning at the flea market on Sunday...but we were in PARIS!!!!

Night,

Rach

Our last evening in the South of France in FULL WOAD

Our last evening at the Chateau was both fun and a little sad. It was such a great week at Chateau Dumas with Kaari and her family from the French General. I would so recommend attending next year if Kaari decides to host it again. Truly a trip of a lifetime!

We all wore our Wode for the last evening and our group shots!

Kaari and I - THANKS AGAIN KAARI for a Wonderful Trip!

Jackie and Michelle

The CREW!

Alexis, Jeanne, Me (apparently saying WE ARE #1), and Jackie

Thanks for such a great week LADIES! :)

-Rach

The Cherry on Top in France!

After our shopping day Friday morning, we took one last stop. Little did we know what we were going to see behind this door. ..............

We were told we were going to an old, closed down hat factory that had some left over ribbons, etc. Ok, there could be some finds in there.....Then we walked in. Michelle had been here last year, and was as giddy as a school-girl....as we walked in and everyone fanned out across the two floors, the oooohs and aaaahs started, the hearts started racing, the empty boxes were grabbed and began to dawn on us that THIS WAS THE MOMENT!!! This was the moment we really were going to remember as the CHERRY ON TOP!!

We all grabbed empty boxes and started piling ribbons in. There were old hat labels, I grabbed a few rolls of those, grograin ribbon, satin, velvet, and seam binding.....all vintage French Ribbon......

I would have taken more pictures, but that would've meant less time I had to pile more ribbon in my box.....AND I should note that at no point while I was stacking the ribbons up, did I know how MUCH this was going to cost! None of us did....pile on, ask later.....

Aren't those drawers adorable?? I wanted to take that set of drawers right back with me, but didn't think American Airlines would check them....

We each piled our treasure on the ground and waited our turn for Gee, the owner, to go through and price it for us. His nephew was there writing the totals down for him. I think Gee got a kick out of the fact that all these crazy American women descended upon his old factory, which was apparent he still loved, and screamed, hysterically laughed all the way while picking treasures to take back to the US.

As I waited I had NO idea what the total was going to come to. I was bracing myself to either pay a small fortune or return some items to the factory.

I was SOOOOO pleased when he started adding items, and I would hear him say "gift" in French, which brochante owners would do on occasion too when you bought a LOT. Lizzie was telling me the count as he added it up, and she then said, Now he is coming down in price....and then he finally told me the total. I was amazed, not cheap, but NOT TOO much!!

This was my haul!!!

The blood was still coursing through my veins at an amazingly fast rate as we walked away all giddy from our scores. I stood next to the car waiting for it to be unlocked, and just said, "I am so happy right now!" And I really meant it!

Makes me smile just thinking about it!!

Soon you will have an opportunity to share in this amazing haul!!! More to come on this and my other AMAZING find....... (I know I used AMAZING far too much in the post....however, I don't take any of them back....because this day was AMAZING!)

Have an AMAZING night!

-Rach

Rainy Thursday in France

Our Thursday morning was suppose to include a 90 minute hike to this small town, but the rain was coming down, and we opted for a little car ride to visit this wonderful church that had the most amazing OLD rugs just hanging on the walls.

This was the street just outside the church. I again love the blue shutters!! (Mental note, next house...blue shutters!)

We then visited this wonderful artist's studio. She has created wonderful rug art for years. It really is a dying art. These creations can take months or years to make. The one she was working on was really bright orange and purple and black, kind of a crazy cartoon design. She actually was RE-DOING it. Someone else had made one, and the person purchasing it didn't like the way it came out, so now she is doing it. AMAZING. Can you imagine sitting at this loom for months?! Talk about patience! I COULDN'T DO IT!

This is another one of her beautiful pieces. She takes a photo of a piece of art and can create a rug exactly like it!

The full loom below. It sure takes a lot of hand-eye coordination!

Even with the rain, we made the best of the day. We enjoyed a hot chocolat at a nearby coffee shop, and then back to the Chateau.

-Rach

Tea Party Anyone?

Lizzie's Mother came to visit us on Wednesday. Mama Jo, as we all called her was such a special woman. She brought down all her cherished tea sets to share this wonderful afternoon Tea with us.

Mama Jo also made all the food which was all so tasty, especially her walnut cake. YUM-O!

We had little cucumber sandwiches,

little cupcakes, and more.

Drinking tea of out of a cute teacup just makes the tea taste so much better, this is totally true.

After we all enjoyed the tea and treats, we had one of Kaari's friends share with us some information about vintage fabrics, and she shared some of her recent finds with us. I love textiles! What a fun job she has created for herself!

What a wonderful Wednesday we had!! Still so much more to come! We haven't even gone to Paris yet!

-Rach

WOAD Day!

Woad Day was Wednesday. Woad day was one of my favorite days in France. It was a relaxing day at the Chateau. We started by hearing a little history about Woad from the Queen of Woad, Denise. She taught us how it was made and how it went back ages for the Royal families in France. We then went out to the vats of woad that were ready for our linens, clothing, basically everything we brought, bought, or could scrouge up from our luggage.

Really once you get started you can't stop. The two vats were a lighter blue or lighter woad, and a darker one. I chose darker for most of my items, I just really love a dark blue...sorry dark woad! Think of woad like an indigo, but woad.

After you soak your item in the vat, you pull it out and it begins to oxidize when it hits the air. So basically it turns from a pee green color to the beautiful shades of blue that you see here.

It is an amazing transformation right in front of your eyes!

Kaari used some of her French General fabrics for some woading experiment. We were told there were only so many shades of woad that could be created. Kaari and her sister Molly took the challenge and won!

Some of my woad creations!! I had brought a number of items to woad, and grabbed a few others out of my suitcase! The floral bag was the gift that Kaari gave us, originally a Khaki color, but a few of us thought why not WOAD it!! I Love it WOADED!

To top off this day I not only had the most AMAZING massage I've ever had in the middle of the day, but after our Woading, we had a Delightful Tea Party....

That is coming up next!!!

-Rach