Hats By Katrinka: Paris - Day One and Two

A few more pictures of my first day in Paris. As mentioned in yesterday’s post, we visited Notre Dame then took an early evening Bateau Mouche to see the Paris sights at sunset on the Seine.

We’d worked up huge appetites so walked over to Crêperie Port-Manech near our hotel for a light dinner. Here is my entree, a buckwheat crepe filled with goat cheese, tomatoes and (Canadian) bacon. We all ordered but couldn’t finish dessert crepes as well. Here our friendly waiter lights the brandy on Susan’s dessert.

Monday, while the other ladies in our tour took a Lesage ribbon embroidery class, Vida and I took the Eurostar to London to see The Golden Age of Couture: Paris and London 1947-1957 exhibit at the V&A. I truly got the better end of that deal, having taken ribbon embroidery classes before. I saw two couture exhibits in my eight days abroad and I much preferred this London exhibit to the Paris one. I am more a fan of Dior, Chanel, Balenciaga and Fath than of Lecroix. Though Lacroix’s clothes are wonderful and theatrical they have little to do with being wearable, I think. More on that later. An unexpected bonus at the V&A was the number of Théâtre de la Mode dolls displayed at the beginning of the exhibit. I own that book but had never seen any of the dolls up close. Marveilleux! (Sorry but picture taking was not allowed. There is a book available on the exhibit at Amazon.) I had first class treatment on the Eurostar between Paris and London and highly prefer this train to flying. The Alsace countryside was so beautiful and the trip was only a couple of hours.

Tuesday we began our day with the Archivist at Tassinari et Chatel. This family owned firm has been supplying tapestries to royalty and others since the reign of Louis XIV. It was incredible to see their archived samples of woven silks that hang in Versailles and other French palaces. Here are two designed for Napolean Bonaparte. We were even allowed to touch!

Next we were off to lunch at the Musee Jacquemart-André, a lavish 18^th century home and art collection that has been turned into a small but delightful museum. Lunch was served in the ballroom and I had a delicious salad that included foie gras. Some of our party just had dessert. I was too busy eating to take any pictures.

After lunch came the biggest challenge of our day. This was making our selections of couture fabrics at Tissus Edré. This tiny shop carries end cuts from the couture houses and I must say that I got a little carried away. I was stopped only by my inability to carry any more. Here's what I bought. Lacroix and Chanel cuts mostly. Haute Couture, not Prêt à Porter,they emphatically stated.