You can find Geraldine Valluet’s shop on one of the little streets heading up to the Sacré Coeur in Montmarte.

Her jewelery is so diverse I thought that several jewelers were displaying their wares in her shop, but once you start looking closely you realize that there is something recognizable in all her work.

What I was especially taken by was the capsule line of children’s jewelery – a far cry from chunky plastic beads in bright colours. Here we are talking about silver chains and bracelets with delicate little semi-precious stones in pastel colours. I guess the kind of thing I would like my daughter to wear, (though I am not so sure it is the kind of thing she, as a 2-year-old would really appreciate). This is not the kind of jewelery you buy to play dress up, but is more for special occasions or as a memento.

You can contact Geraldine to book an appointment for custom-made jewelery, and you can also buy online internationally.

-Emilie

I love, love, love the Villlage St. Paul, which is a great place to know about if you are in Paris for the weekend, as it is one of the few areas open on a Sunday. Sandwiched between the rue St Antoine and the Seine in the 4th, The Village consists of several little courtyards which are all interlinked and filled with little shops. Most of them are antique dealers, but you can also find Niou there, a lovely little toy shop.

It is the best place for me to go if I am looking for a present and want to find something unique and fun.

Niou stocks the Wheely Bugs , PlaySam, Automoblox and lots of other toys we have reviewed here on Babyccino.

The other day I was having a browse around the shop and I was listening to the owner show a friend of his the new stock he had received. He was excited like a kid to have all these great new things in his shop. For me that was the best advertisement for Niou; it is the kind of place in which you feel that the shopkeeper has hand-picked every single item and loves what he does.

-Emilie

When the girls were in Paris, Esther and I were chatting about the different perceptions we had about Japanese design. Esther, coming from a background in architecture views Japanese style as clean, minimalist, muted colours and general zen-ess, whilst, with my background in animation, I think of Japanese style as bright, funky and crazy. Japan seems to be one of these countries where both of these extremes can exist in perfect harmony.

In the elegant St. Germain I found a little Japanese kids’ clothing shop called Berry’s Berry which definitely reflects more my idea of Japanese style than Esther’s. It could never be described as understated and minimalist! Flanked on the one side by elegant Serendipity, a kids furniture shop and Talc an understated wonderful French kids’ clothes shop, Berry’s Berry is cheap, bright and very cheerful with an twist! (more…)

Having a child at the Maternelle means that I have been spending my precious evenings occupying myself with a generation-old task. Like my grandmother and I am sure my great-grandmother before me, I have been sewing name tags into every jumper, coat, bag, spare pair of trousers etc. that might be taken to school and then lost! NOT my idea of a fun-filled evening!

Since starting this labourious task I have found that my favourite haberdashery shop Entree Des Fournisseurs has solved my problem! They sell beautiful cotton woven etiquettes that can be ironed on!

Entree Des Fournisseurs actually merits its own post, but for now I am just going to sing the praises of its online shop and name tags. The iron-on function is just an added bonus; I would have gotten my name tags there anyway, as the ribbons and colours to choose from are really nice, or at least as nice as name tags can humanly possibly get…

The website is in English and in French and they do deliver internationally!

-Emilie

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…)

There is nothing better than a good candle to create a civilized atmosphere after a long day with kids.

Some of my favorites are the scented Cirier Candles. CIR is one of the oldest candle producers in France and they produce candles for Guerlain, Cartier, Fragonard and many more.

Our friend Belinda introduced them to me (she bought so many that the owner of the shop thought that she was going to start up a shop)! The lovely thing about these candles is the little shop in the 6th arrondissement in Paris in which the staff take their time with every customer to find the right candle for the right occasion. I love their poetic description of each scent.

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Good old Zara has done it again: they have managed to invade the home decoration market with stylish rip-offs of more expensive brands.

I was in one of the Paris branches the other day and found a whole department dedicated to kids. They had lovely bed linens and furniture (I love the old-style French highchair), children’s sleepwear and indoor shoes, all as pretty as the brands they are trying to emulate. There are two shops here in Paris but you can also order all the goods online in most European countries.

- Emilie