Home Stuff

We have a long weekend for Canadian thanksgiving and The Husband and I decided to get some stuff done around the house instead of going away. When we purchased our townhouse this past summer our plan was to add pieces and accessories a little at a time, every month. This way we don't break the bank and we can really scour for what we want. Our first priority has been our dining and living area. Still so much I want to do but it's starting to take shape.

Oh, and here is the before.

Eiffel Tower Tonight

Paris By Night

Paris Today

Hanging around at the Tuilleries, next to the Louvre, watching kids sail boats.

Then, spent the afternoon wandering around the Marais district. Lots of great shops and eateries.

If you know who I'm married to, you'll know why I have this obligatory jumping photo

Food

Yesterday was a food day. During the day, we found three very popular patisseries that sell macaroons and decided to sample some at each. We tried Laduree, Dalloyau and Sadaharu Aoki. All amazing...but my two favorites were the matcha green tea ones at Sadaharu Aoki and the chocolate one from Dalloyau below.

Then we had dinner with Paul, Sophie and Helen at a French restuarant near Paul and Sophie's apartment in the city.

Travelholic Shoppaholic Strikes Back

In Provins today (see last post for more details), we came across a little shop called "Objets de Decoration". Let me tell you, totally up my ally since we're only buying house stuff this trip. All the housewares were very frenchy and I would have loved to have pretty much anything in that shop for our place. Here are a couple of my favourites:


Being a photo lover and scrapbooker, I heart these raw wooden photo boxes. Unfortunately too bulky to bring home so I'm going to re-create them using blank boxes and my Cricut.

Pretty white porcelein plates

Gotta love anything decorative in white...

And this white candle-holder, I couldn't leave without...it's coming home with me!!!

After purchasing the candle holder and walking around the town, we returned back to the store a couple hours later to pick up a little tray that I also couldn't leave behind. Bad Jo!

Aujourd'hui En Noir et Blanc

Today we headed one hour outside of Paris to a little, walled, medieval town - Provins. Beautiful countryside scenery and buildings from the 1100's. Provins has been well preserved and is one of UNESCO's world heritage sites.

Treasure Hunting in Paris

Today we headed to a Paris flea market at Port de Clignancourt. We were hoping to find some vintage finds for our new home since it is the largest market in the world and is known for its antiques. We only covered a fraction of the market and will probably head back in a couple of days to scour for more treasures since I LOVED IT there. Good thing I have a fluent-in-french-husband who bargained on my behalf all morning. Today's vintage treasures included:

-the cutest little white, embroidered apron
-two large square pillow cases to go with the shaggy rug in the my living room
-black and white postcards of Paris from the early 1900's written in beautiful cursive(that I plan on framing)
-vintage colored postcards


Other things we saw today:

cute wooden bird cage

vintage suitcase with the ship tags still on...900 euros

vintage parisian soap labels that I might go back for to frame in my bathroom....loved the colors...

p.s. to all my crafty friends out there, I found the most awesome vintage label-like rubber stamp from the late 1800s that was used on stationary ... totally my kind of thing...but the vendor would not budge on the 30 euros because it's apparently rare and I just couldn't justify it : (

Home of Mickey Francais

Laduree

Laduree is a famous Parisian tea house (est. in the 1860's) with the most amazing pastries, especially macarons. When I'm craving Paris, I'm likely craving the desserts from here. I'm going to buy some of the ingredients while we're here and possibly learn from those who know how to make it and then attempt to create them at home. I'm thinking this will be my fall project.

Paris In Black and White

Today = Eiffel Tower, Champs de Mars, Trocadero, Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysees, Laduree, Galeries Lafayette

...off to see French Mickey Mouse tomorrow