i love fleas but paris is calling
ok. this will be my last post about fleamarkets and brocantes for awhile. i’d hate for get (yikes) boring and better get to all the other things there are to do while i’m here! but this is a tip for when you come: get Aladin magazine, it’s full of antique fairs, brocantes, etc throughout paris and all of france. today i circled about 10 (there are even more tomorrow)! and i made it to two of them…one a vide grenier at voltaire (sort of a thrifty ho-down with live music and so not what i was into)!
but i took a chance and ended up at a charming brocante in the 16th where you almost can’t go wrong…it’s an upscale neighborhood which and had high and low end stuff and good prices
it’s always a bit of trial and error, you never know what you’ll find so you sort of have to explore as many neighborhoods as you can handle. i was exhausted but then again i went to 2 others that weren’t in the mag that i forgot to mention!
(pink chairs are everywhere)!
This hood was tres belle and i rode the bus back which really helped with the lay o the land.
tomorrow i’m going to Coco Chanel’s apartment. supposedly if you’re with the press you can get in and i’m going to use all i’ve got!
bebe boudoir
somebody stop me! i must have taken 400 pics today! i guess i’m a little misty for ma famille…i took lots of pics of baby things thinking of my twin nieces. one happens to be obsessed with paris right now (at 3 and a 1/2)! so i promised to bring back some pretty things. and i want to redecorate their room with all the pink furniture i’m finding!
this is one of the little divas, clare, holding a bouquet of um, violet leaves
the other is fiona (aka fififoufou), but she is as hard as a butterfly to photograph! here they are making mudpies instead of playing with their real toys. well it IS more fun, n’est pas?
so this post is for them, i know, i know, you’re NOT babies anymore! but still i fell in love with all the bibs and bonnets!
the details are exquisite
i’d love to get them furniture, especially pink chairs like this pair
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or this pair! then they can each have one
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the pic below is what got me started on this whole tip!
of course, things in paris always has to have that little bit of sex appeal, even lil red riding hood…that outfit! 
i have to be strong
or i’ll end up broke in paris, which is everything i don’t want to be! it’s just so damn beautiful i almost can’t take it! everyone is gone as of today, even my partner in crime, aka ‘the other claudia’. we had such a fantastique time and clear skies have been the perfect backdrop for exploring new nooks and crannies of this ever changing city! luckily some things remain constant. one is a tiny market in the center of paris at Marche d’Aligre. it’s mostly small random stuff but like everything in paris, there’s always something magical happening. today we stumbled on original handpainted designs for textiles from the 20′s thru the 70′s. i could have bought the entire batch! oh well, i did get a few and managed to get lots of pics which is almost as good. the market is everyday (almost) so maybe i’ll go back tomorrow…
and just my luck there’d be a chloe outlet on the way home…
i’m apartment hunting with a friend tomorrow, she’s just about to make a decision, and i love to check out real estate anywhere!
i’m counting my blessings being able to get on the net tonite, i only have a tiny window so i’d better jet and take care of some biz…one more for the road…this isn’t really grafitti, more like outdoor art!
even the trash in paris is pretty!!
ok gotta run! bonne reve!
on and on till the break of dawn
well paris as usual has got me hypMoTized!! today we were at clingancourt and each time i come more passions are revealed, from original works of art, (i adore femme fatales
and coquettes from the roaring 20′s), to sketches of furniture, entire rooms and privee hotels…
this is an original watercolor
complete with mirrored nightstand…
not to mention the powderpuffs! we have a small but wonderful group who are searching for clocks, jewelry and, yes, apartments! it’s so much fun but i am exhausted! i’d love to share more pics but better rest up for Montrieul, a monday market hardly anyone goes to. who knows what awaits! i know this pic is horrible, i can’t get my camera to behave indoors consistently. anyway he was so cute and french, i thought he was charmant anyhow!
these are our lovely ladies, they expect me to have bells on so i better get to snoring!
le gang’s all here
our fab guests made it to paree, we trudged around all day yesterday thru the marais, getting to know way TMI and shopping great haunts.
we did manage to go to carnavalet although no one was too into it but me! anyway it was both free and on the way… i fell in love with this little piece of a Fragonard painting they had framed over a mirror in a little oval room. gave me lots of ideas.
well today we’re off to the maison et objet, le greatest trade show on earth!
just for fun i thought i’d show you my test shots. OBVIOUSLY i haven’t perfected the night shooting, but that’s when so many wedding cake ceilings come alive, i could just eat paris sometimes!!
and
i know they’re not great but you get the idea, oui!?
isn’t paris silly??
today’s the day
that we say goodbye to aunt mickee. she loved butterflies and this store display was so sweet it reminded me of her. (my pics didn’t capture how pretty they are but i didn’t feel like getting yelled at for taking photos so i had to sneak it again)…
they also reminded me of some of the things i’ve seen on gorgeous blogs like this one
in my travels yesterday i wandered thru st germain and thought it would have been fun to go to school here…
it’s like a playland in that arrondisment, so crooked, so pretty it’s almost cliche’
they have a new system here where you can rent bikes for just a couple euros a day…tonite we’re going for a midnite ride so we can have the streets all to ourselves. check them out at velib.
ooh and notice the apartment for rent just above…
maybe i’ll hold out for this one tho! a girl can dream don’t forget!!
and by the by, stateside, my article was published on the NY fleas in Oct’s Romantic Homes Magazine. More of course bien sur! Bon journee for now!
ok, so i have fun with furniture
i’m about to get knocked off line any sec but just wanted to upload these pics and say hey. my friend who assists me with the trips aka ‘the other claudia’ arrives at 8 am so i don’t know how much i’ll get to be here for awhile but you know how i love it so i’ll do my best!
anyway, shopping for a client brought me to clingancourt today (insider’s tip: Clingancourt is open on Mondays, no one goes so you have the whole place to yourself, just get there by noon, they closed up today around 3 and you need lots of time, 3 hours is the minimum but then again i could live here…)
as i was going thru my pics i realized i’d taken a bunch of these 2 and 3 part chairs/ottomans/chaises. they’re just so french and i absolutely adore them. they were all over today!
Well hope you had a great holiday weekend, tomorrow we start to plot our course for the guests arriving this week. First stop is Musee Carnavalet where they’re hosting an exhibition on 40′s fashion. This is a typical Schiapparelli masterpiece. Plus the expo is in a mansion that was Mme Sevigne’s home where she hosted salons and it’s still fully decorated!
life is but a dream
i’m starting to feel a lot more normal, the solitude of paris is sort of calming. and i finally got my luggage! i think it ended up in japan cause the new sticker said JAP on it! in the am i got to head out to one of my favorite markets, Vanves. it’s a smaller market but always loaded with beautiful and unique pieces like this original 30′s watercolor and handpainted vampy box. the only problem with it is the vendors, they’re so annoying and don’t like you to take pics so i had to sneak all of these! i don’t care cause i do what i want but i did get yelled at by one of them today. that b#$%!
still i just love to dream about who these ladies were, what they were doing…and of course there’s always just eye candy
more
and sweet love notes like this one with the bluebird of happiness from 1903
andoriginal handwriting on pieces you can’t believe are allowed out of a museum from 1683…geez i should have bought that!
there’s definitely something for everyone, even this gent found something to love! i have lots more but i’m on a curfew according to paris’ free wifi…as you may know it cuts out at 11pm so bonne nuit and thank you for your good wishes on my luggage, it worked!
and finally, these are for you aunt mick, i saw you everywhere today and always will whenever i see a butterfly or daisy. i miss you so much
and you don’t stop
i have to thank each and every one of you for everything you’ve done for me. you may not realize it and i certainly didn’t either, but this place has become such a haven for me. just knowing i have this sort of support makes my life so much more full and beautiful. some people write and when i ask if they have a blog, they say they don’t know who would care to read their struggles etc. well i thought the same thing, and as i sit here i am crying to feel the love that you have brought me, and i am so grateful i can’t even express it, it’s so much larger than i am. i took your advice today and went out strong. ok i did buy a bottle of wine and bread, had to take a pic of it even, it seemed so french! i’m starting to see life’s beauty again. anyway one glass did me in and i passed out at 8pm. i just woke up… paris has this new (to me) free wifi access to all but unfortunately they only have it till 11 pm and it’s dangerously close to that! i feel like cinderella as i write this, trying to get it out as fast as i can, i want to write you all personally and thank you, visit your worlds and kiss YOU! but i am against the clock, so please know i am coming and will be back to myself because of you whether you wrote or not! merci!!!
maybe i’m a spoiled brat
but it’s just that nothing horrible has really happened to me. well of course it has, actually but i guess it seems like this is unnaturally horrid. aside from being in paris with no luggage and crashing my hard drive with 13,000 pictures, it’s turned cold and is acting like fall. i haven’t been able to reach my family for a couple days, and i think it’s gotten worse for my aunt. i feel really isolated and wonder what i’m doing here. of course i have an obligation to the group coming in a week, but maybe staying here for the month was a bad idea. i have just as many problems here as in nyc. i don’t mean to complain, if you know anything about me it’s that i love to see the humor in things but right now i’m just not feeling it. most of the pics i took yesterday are already deleted, they had no heart. these are from carnavalet and the Tuilleries, i do think it’s funny that the gates are spears with tassles, how forebodeing! anyway, off to fax info on what was in my bag to Air Chance!
i need a croissant!
