Wednesday 16 December 2009

-2°C SNOW!


Le Bonheur des Dames - front window display

Hi there, this is France calling!

The most important thing about today, the 16th, is that it is my son, the Crown Prince's, birthday. The travelling trio, the prince's household, are spending their Australian summer break freezing their dangling bits off in Japan & Korea where it's rather cold at the moment! I'm sure you get the picture, dear readers. Happy birthday, David!

Not that the weather here is all that different. Yesterday's maximum was apparently a whopping zero, but as I wasn't outside for that heatwave, my personal maximum was only -2°C. Tomorrow, Thursday, it's supposed to snow. As someone not used to really cold winters (Brisbane maximums in Winter are often 23°C), I'm excited about the prospect. I'm pretty sure those of you who are used to cold winters think that I'm nuts. LOL.


My language and culture classes go from 9AM to 6.30PM, Monday to Friday. As you can imagine, I'm mentally stuffed by the end of the day. To counteract this mental fatigue, I explore the neighbourhood close to the school during my lunch hours. Most days, you will find me (sandwich au jambon in hand) trotting along the boulevards looking in the second hand book windows, staring open mouthed into the model doll house shops, or something similar. Yesterday, I found a cross stitch shop!







Le Bonheur des Dames is located just off the Grands Boulevards. It is one of two outlets for the creations of Cécile Vessière. This particular shop is run by her son, Monsieur Vessière, and he was kind enough to let me take lots of photographs for the blog. Fellow stitchers, let me tell you how beautiful the samplers of this talented designer are! She stitches nearly everything on either natural linen or on a cream fabric.Her stitching themes include the seasons, the months home, country and the sea. I particularly liked her table cloths, but they aren't the size of my table for eight, sadly (I'd need two life times to stitch them).

The shop didn't have a large range of other designers (a token number of DMC) but there was one designer that I've never heard of - FUYICO. Very pretty. For me, the highlight was the sampler of Thea Gouverneur's Paris in the front window (see above). Shoe shopping be damned! LOL. I could have spent Ali Baba's fortune in this shop alone!

Meanwhile news from Australia is two-fold. The threat of a transfer to far flung places has disappeared and so Lucy & Harry will now be able to live the term of their natural lives with me. Also, The MOTH is packing to leave on Saturday morning. By Sunday lunchtime, Paris time, we will be reunited!

Happiness & laughter to one and all,

Felicity

P.S Thursday, 17th December: Snow is lovely the first time you see it on a brand new day. This evening, I almost broke my neck on my way home, so I can see the less romantic side of it. I'm not quite as nuts as you thought, dear readers.

3 comments:

Alberta said...

Happy Birthday wishes to the Crown Prince!

As to the -2' and white...we has similar conditions after those bitter cold temps of last week...and it's downright balmy!

Enjoy yourself is Paris!

Anonymous said...

Hi Felicity,
been catching up on your Paris news and wondering if you were enjoying the snow ^^ Will text you over the weekend to confirm time for our rendez-vous on Monday - what do you fancy doing? More walking and lèche-vitrine or shall we find a nice café/bistro and sit inside in the warm?

Felicity said...

Snow is good when you have never seen it fall before, Claire! It was a bit slushy yesterday evening on my return from work, and I was concerned I might break my neck ... ah well. I keep getting told that the French health system is good. LOL