We’ve been back from Paris for just over a month. I thought it was about time I shared some of our adventure with you.

Paris was fun, exciting to share with Supergirl (SG) and exhausting. We saw tons of stuff, ate wonderful (non-GMO, non-high fructose, non-partially hydrogenated, non-artificial, non-Monsanto) real food, and had a lovely time.

There were a few negatives, though.  Since the attacks last fall, security at most of the museums was airport level and waiting lines were longer than usual. Also, the street cleaners were on strike until our last day there, so normally-sparkly Paris was a little messy and a bit stinky in places.

The Brussels attacks happened while we were there, but this did not seem to affect how Parisians went about their daily business. Whether it’s due to being trusting, naive or jaded, we never felt unsafe.

We saw the: Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, flower and bird market, St. Chapelle, Pompidou Center, Louvre, Cluny, Catacombs, and Versailles. We also took a late night ride in a bateau along the Seine.

And we shopped a bit.

I bought my favorite scarf 11 years ago at Anoki on Rue Mouffetard, so we went back there and DH and I both got new scarves.

I also found these pretty, small cloth zipper pouches that I can use to carry stitching projects around with me. The small one has an ongoing project inside it that I carry in my purse. I’ll share it with you soon.

At the Louvre book store, I found this beautiful gold work, silk ornament. They had several, but SG thought this was the best one. It is hand stitched. I had to laugh when I read the label that said that it was made in England.

Here’s a closer look.

After several days of museums, we took a day just to shop.  We visited a few toy stores, but I only got to two needlework shops.

First, we went to Maison Sajou. Luckily, they had a place for DH to sit while I shopped. It is mostly a cross stitch store, but I did find a few treasures. I had “pre-shopped” online to save time, so I mostly knew what I was looking for.

On the left is a kit for an Eiffel Tower bag. I thought it would make a good orts container next to my sewing chair. Unfortunately, the Eiffel Tower is cross stitched and I am cross-stitch challenged. I found that I couldn’t decipher the chart. My DIL (SG’s mom) is a talented cross stitcher, so I will be enlisting her to help when I’m ready to tackle this.

On the lower right  in the above photo is a tiny wooden case with the Sajou label that looks good with my French fashion dolls.

Something else that attracted me was their miniature (1/12 scale) Maison Sajou store, complete with shelves of threads and ribbons. I thought that this tiny thread display, with real thread spools, would look good with my all-bisque and tiny dolls. For the price I paid, I assumed that it was ready to display. You know what they say about the word assume…

It’s a kit.

Maybe SG will help me assemble it this summer.

The other needlework shop we visited that day was Le Bonheur des Dames in Passage Jouffroy. It was a tiny cross stitch shop and the only person working did not understand English at all.

We visited several bead shops near the Pompidou and I found these tiny faux turquoise and faux coral beads for my dolls.

SG found Paris very enlightening. On our second day, she asked why we couldn’t get food like that at home.

She tasted pink champagne. Didn’t like it, but thought it smelled good.

At the Louvre, she was fascinated by the statue garden and all the male nude statues. We discussed penises…

While waiting outside the Catacombs in a long, long queue, we observed and discussed pigeon mating rituals.

She learned a little bit of French. She can now say quarante-six et quarante-sept (46 and 47). Those were our room numbers.

Early in the week, she decided that we should decide which cafes were our favorites for breakfast, lunch and dinner and revisit the best ones on our last day. We did.

I’ve always loved museum gift shops, but unfortunately, they have little to offer pre-teen kids. Most of their children’s items were too baby and the rest of the merchandise was “boring”. Surprisingly, SG had a hard time finding anything buy.

I didn’t have that problem. I also got more scarves, some pate, acacia honey, a book on medieval animals and various other treasures. DH got a new Laguiole knife for himself and a small one for SG. We delivered it, unopened, to her parents for supervision. I told her that we’d practice whittling this summer.

Tonight is SG’s Spring concert. She plays the cello in the 4th grade strings orchestra. She told me that she’s not real sure about the notes in the Star Wars theme, so she will probably “air bow” that one.

Oh, by the way, just after we got back from Paris, she earned her Brown Belt in Tae Kwan Do. Watch out.