Paris at a Certain Age

Charles de Gaulle Airport Store

I've never seen another airport with a lingerie store!

Christmas in Paris!

In Galeries Lafayette at least.....

Inès La Boutique du Patchwork

In contrast to Le Rouvray, this is a more ‘American’ style quilt shop. It’s located in the 11th arrondissement, not a tourist quartier at all. The customers were all local Parisiennes on the day of my visit. Inès carries typical French floral prints, but also novelty, Japanese and other fabrics more commonly seen in the US. In fact, I found panels featuring border collies that I bought to make placemats for my friend Donna who has a beloved border collie named Lily. There is a good selection of French quilting books with modern designs and Provençal, Marseillais and other traditional techniques. The volume of quilting notions and accessories made me miss my Bernina and want to hit the old machine à coudre* asap.

*sewing machine

Le Rouvray Quilt Shop: "We Speak Patchwork Fluently"

Le Rouvray was first an historic French farm whose building foundations date back to the Middle Ages, then an antique emporium in the same location in Normandy and now is a renowned quilt store in Paris. Owner Diane de Obaldia’s journey to founding the first quilt store in France is as interesting and complex as a fine patchwork quilt.

She discovered quilts as a child via her Tennessee grandmother. After college in Michigan, she entered the world of design, initially as a stylist, then as an haut couture model. She traveled throughout Europe, met Coco Chanel, and worked in the House of Dior and with Pierre Cardin.

Love and marriage brought her to the farm in Normandy (rouvre means ‘oak’ in old French). While there, she began searching for French antiques, at first for decorator friends, later for her own shop. She brightened the walls of her antique shop with American patchwork quilts.

After an exhibit of antique quilts at Musée des Arts décoratifs created a sensation in the 1970’s, she decided to open Le Rouvray in Paris. The store is right across the Seine from Notre Dame in the Latin Quarter on a charming rue in a 17th century building (also near Shakespeare and Company Bookstore). It specializes in French style fabrics and has a good selection of Provençal prints and toile de Jouy. They also carry a line of Free Spirit Fabrics featuring Le Rouvray designs. This historic shop is a must-see for quilters and fabric lovers who visit or live in Paris.

Shopping Cathedral

Today I needed to visit a big Paris department store for a story I’m writing and chose Galeries Lafayette. Mon Dieu! It’s a fairytale city of shopping in a cathedral setting. As you approach, the building rises up like the Titanic.

Actually, it’s three buildings that swallow up a few blocks. Outside there are street vendors hugging the walls, selling all sorts of trinkets and doo-dads. I never made it past the main building. A shopper would have to camp out for a few weeks to cover the whole terrain. Not only do they sell everything you can imagine, but they have an extensive selection in each category of merchandise. They should offer GPS devices at the Welcome Counter, because it’s entirely possible to get lost here. Instead they feature a command center with maps in many languages, just like at the Louvre.

The building is composed of 9 floors (7 above the entry floor and one below) of stacked rings surrounding a vast central open area crowned by an enormous stained glass cupola. Each floor ‘ring’ is punctuated by art nouveau arcades resembling balconies in a grand opera house. You expect to see top-hatted gents and bejeweled and gowned ladies applauding tenors and sopranos. Only instead of opera divas, high-end cosmetic displays occupy downstage.

The cupola is breathtaking, like looking out through a giant’s jewelbox.

If you can take your eyes off the stained glass, a shopper can find all of life’s necessities. There’s a bank, a travel agency, ATM’s, hair salons, spa, souvenir store, 14 restaurants (including a champagne bar, Maxim’s and a special restaurant for kids), full bridal services and registry, a huge floor of children’s wear, baby registry, post office, fashion shows, shoe repair, computers/electronics, a well-stocked bookstore, and everything from furs to furniture. Not to mention the complete gourmet shop. A person could live well indeed inside Galeries Lafayette.

I finished my day in this consumer cathedral by visiting their little exhibit on the history of corsets. In case you missed it: