SewSewNerdy: We are so very lucky

There are so many ways that Wayne and I are lucky, but yesterday I really felt our great fortune for having such wonderful friends over here in France.
I spent most of the day with Segolene fabric shopping around Paris. We started in Montmartre, of course. We looked in a few of the smaller shops along rue D'Orsel, but didn't see anything we were interested in. These are the stores to check out if you are looking for fabric for costumes for dance, skating, or Carnival. They have it all--feathers, faux leather, spandex, whatever, and in between the fabric stores are "merceries"--notions stores. Some are just buttons, appliques and patches, but some of the bigger ones have knitting and needlework supplies, crafts, thread, zippers, scissors, etc.
We finally got up to Marche St. Pierre, one the biggest fabric shops in the area.

Fabric is universal

Segolene!

There are essentially 2 types of fabric stores here: ones that sell by the meter and ones that sell pre-cut lengths, or 'coupons'. I wouldn't call these remnants since most I saw were about 3 metres. I found a nice piece of stretch denim in a woven stripe for 10 Euros.

Our final stop in Montmartre was Tissus Reine, aptly named "Fabric Queen". I love this shop, as do sewists from all over the world. I found some corded trim that I hope will finish my latest Chanel style jacket. I talked Segolene into some linen. Apparently her sewing teacher, who is 86 and makes her baste everything, does not approve of linen because it wrinkles, so I think Sego will be doing this project on the sly.

Lunch in the sun

Next we headed to a shop I'd heard about on Ravelry--a tea shop in a knitting shop, or maybe it was a knitting shop in a tea shop. In any case, Segolene and I had coffee and pastries and I found some sock yarn. My phone wasn't working, and Wayne wasn't at the apartment to look up the address, so we HAD to stop at a cafe and have Croques (grilled ham and cheese) in the sun while we waited for him to call back.

I'm sorry I didn't take any photos of the shop--I just might have to go back to do that. For knitters this is a must see, though: L'oisive The


France Duval Stall

Our final stop was her favorite shop, France Duval Stalla. This is a very small shop, but she has everything you need for a complete project. She had about 6-8 colors in her pallette, a warm grey, mauve, teal blue, gold (called "banane"), etc. From what I can remember, she had cotton jersey, a cotton/poly knit matelasse, a cotton fleece, woven linen, woven cotton and laminated cotton in matte and glossy. All the fabrics were very high quality, but well priced. She also had thread, zippers, cluny lace, bias and cording, and appliques, all in matching and coordinating colors.

After a little more walking and a quick look in Bon Marche, we headed home.
It was nice to see Segolene (it has been 10 years), and to spend time with a fellow fabric junky.

I went back to the apartment to rest for a bit, find out where we were meeting the Homelidays gang, and let our friend Thomas know.

We ended up in a really hip pedestrian street filled with people and restaurants. We walked up to the restaurant early, and when I looked around, I saw Momo, Linda and Sara sitting at a bar. Since we were early, Wayne and I walked for a bit.

When we got back to to the restaurant, Thomas was waiting for us. Cedric and Ludovine arrived a little later with Lea, their "petit puce" (little flea).
We could not have wished for a better night of friends and food. I felt like we have been welcomed into the true French experience.


Thomas, Wayne, Cedric

Eggplant

The restaurant, Il Tre, an authentic Italian restaurant--imports everything from Italy (except the vegetables, which were very fresh.

What a wonderful day!