From rags to riches

This is one for the craft lovers amongst us. Right at the foot of the Butte de Montmartre, the hill on which the Sacree Coeur is perched upon, is an area inhabited by material and haberdashery shops. Down every little alleyway you find shops selling everything from thick brocade, flimsy chiffon, bold prints, delicate prints, zips, ribbons, thread… in short everything you could ever imagine.

The two main shops are the Marche St Pierre (according to their website the biggest fabric department shop in the world) and Reine, but on top of that there are a multitude of little shops, most of them selling coupons (samples) at insanely low prices. You have to shift through a lot of junk to find the gems, but as a bargain hunter, I actually get a kick out of it. (more…)

ALSO IN THE AREA:

Geraldine Valluet

Emilie | September 23, 2008 | Add Comment | Email This Post

A little museum just for little ones

I am really enjoying the fact that my oldest daughter is morphing into a little person with whom I can actually start having interesting conversations with. Don’t get me wrong, we are not spending hours discussing the details of the theory of relativity, nor does she have a particular view on who should be the next US president, but she has started asking interesting questions and describing what she is feeling and seeing, which is really rewarding after 2½ years….

The flip side of this is that she is not content anymore to play for hours with a tupperware container filled with a couple of pasta tubes, but now needs to be stimulated and entertained. This is not always an easy thing to do especially now that the summer is over. (more…)

ALSO IN THE AREA:


Nuxe Spa	L’Apriori tea room

Emilie | September 16, 2008 | Add Comment | Email This Post

Natural History

The summer is over, school is about to start and it is time to get back to enjoying the cultural delights of Paris! I am a bit jumping onto Courtney’s bandwagon here as her post about the Natural History Museum in London inspired me to pack the family in the buggy and head down to the Grande Galerie de l’Evolution in the Jardin des Plantes here in Paris.

It was a complete success! The gallery originally opened in 1889 but was completely refurbished in 1994 to become the Galerie de l’Evolution. It is a perfect place to take kids because it isn’t overwhelmingly big, but every animal they could ever want to see is displayed (7,000 in total)! (more…)