Louis Vuittonless in Paris

The Carnavalet Museum

We finally managed to go see the Louis Vuitton and Paris exhibit at the Carnavalet Museum on one of my days off this week. (I’m now working about 3-4 days a week and taking French classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. My Canadian accent is a big hit with my teacher.) Our visit turned out to be surprisingly educational, and my other half was far more engrossed than we both had assumed he would be.

This looks suspiciously like a children’s brochure…because, it is.

The exhibit was a retrospective of the brand and its evolution over the last 150 years or so. (The first knock-offs appeared in the 1860s!) It turns out that the popularity of the beautiful, amazing old trunks (and the brand obviously) was largely attributed to Europeans’ travels to the colonies. There were wardrobes, toiletry kits, tool sets, doctor’s bags, picnic sets and even trunks that contained fold out beds, desks and shelves. Trunks for dolls, baby teeth, jewelry, hats, the Red Cross… the list goes on. Turns out that photos were interdit (whoops – cough). But it was quite something to see. “Don’t you think one of these would be practical for our trip to South Africa?” I turned and said to N, who laughed, and then walked to the opposite end of the exhibit space. I guess that’s a no.

Sunday Yumday

Macaron towers on the Fabourg Saint Honore.

C’est parti

Our Parisian life is in full swing. We’ve spent hours wandering the streets of our neighbourhood and discovering all the little gems. The best of which has been Le bar à soupes, a little restaurant that cooks up 6 amazing soups each day. We had supper there on Monday. One of the specials is a 3 soup sampler, which was excellent because it was too hard to make up our minds. I had: Pea and mint, Mushroom, and Apple, Tomato and Ricotta (amazing). I know we are going to become regulars.

That’s a lamb shoulder from the bistro across the street. The potatoes were the best part. That’s not a slight against the lamb, the potatoes were just fantastic.

We’ve begun taking French classes at the Alliance Française, we found this butter, we survived the first day of the winter sales and I’ve been back to work subbing. We also running several times a week. Not only because the gyms here aren't great (they really aren't) but because of the alarmingly rapid rate at which was are consuming the butter. We made it to the Notre Dame on Saturday (7.5 km)!

We’ve spent all of our evenings doing homework (the teacher does not like becoming the student!) trying to organize our wedding (still totally happening) and finalizing our trip to South Africa next month! It's the good kind of busy!

Snapshots

We’ve settled into our new little apartment and neighbourhood. It’s been great! We’ve gotten to know the area, have found the best boulangerie to buy baguettes and enjoy the biweekly market. Everything we could possibly need (and more) is within about 5 min walking distance. (We’ve sold our car). We go running along the Seine, which is really pretty, but you miss a lot of the scenery when you are looking down so you don't run in dog poo. After a bit of a cold snap (and it was cold!) it’s been really pleasant and I’ve loved walking around and discovering all the neat places hidden in the streets around us.



I downloaded a new app on my phone that lets me take photos with different filters and decided to test it out while grocery shopping. And you all get to indulge me. Grocery shopping in France means going to at least 3 or 4 places, one for bread, another for cheese (and we eat beaucoup of both), one for fruits and veggies... I wanted to play with my new toy so I took a bunch of photos along the way. The photo at the top is the Bastille monument. Above are photos of our bakery and the busy café on our street (one of the busy cafés) and below are a few other snaps from a block or two away.