Elle Tricote and I miss Paris.

When we got back from our vacation I spent a week getting over jetlag. That weekend we went to Bryan, Texas for a family reunion – a blur of cute babies and good food. So it wasn’t until after we got back from that that I finally sat down to try to finish the two old posts and write new posts to fit to the pictures I’d taken. All this to say I’ve been playing catch up, and the details have gotten a little blurry but I wanted to get the stores reviewed before I moved on to what’s happening now.

Speaking of blurry, most of my pictures on this blog are by cell phone camera. The pros for cell phone camera: it’s almost always in my pocket, it’s discreet and I can quickly upload the photos directly from my phone. There’s really only one con and that’s the quality of the pictures. Kind of a big downside, I know. And one of the two main issues with the pictures is that I am not always patient enough to get a good shot, the other really is the phone. It doesn’t like red, and unless the lighting is fairly perfect already – it’s either too dark or there’s a little white spot in a very dark room.

The point is I was in a hurry, and the photos I took with my little phone camera of the shops that I went to are not my best work. But, since I am now in a different country, they are the ones you are stuck with.

Elle Tricote

The day before we were supposed to leave Paris I’d intended on going to this store. It is in the 16th, and just around the corner, I thought, from where we were staying. But the weather was so nice DH and I spent more time at Place des Vosges than we’d intended, and the store shut before I could make it over there.

But I was not to be deigned; I would make it to this store. I loved the name and felt it had to have some good knitting vibes. So with our taxi going to be arriving at 12:30 to take us to the train station, I left the house at 10:30 to walk to the little store to check it out. I didn’t have time to figure out how to get there by metro, and I didn’t have the Euros (we were about to leave the eurozone, so I didn’t want to pull out more) to take a cab. So I walked very quickly in the rain to this store. Twenty-five minutes in the rain with icky shoes, wet socks, drenched jeans, when you aren’t really sure you know where you are going, is a very long twenty-five minutes. This little shop was worth it.

You are greeted by this case of fabulous buttons, and dress forms with wonderful knitted clothes.

 There’s a wall of all sorts of yarn. There was yarn I knew well, mixed with yarn of which I’d never heard.

 It really is a boutique. A two room little store filled to the brim with finished objects, yarn, and all the little bits you didn’t know you had to have. The ladies were welcoming and both were mid-project. It was everything that was missing from Le Bon Marché.

And of course all of the finished objects were chic. I loved the hat in the above picture, and the shawl blew me away. I had to get a picture with it spread out.  

Of course I couldn’t leave this little place of wonder before I bought something. I needed to support this little jewel. I didn’t have a lot of time to pick and choose but these colors jumped out at me.

I hope I have enough to make a small shawl out of each.

On the way back it stopped raining enough for me to take this picture.

It’s no place special, except that it’s in Paris. I think there’s a little hole in my heart that is filled by just being there. And the food, I miss the food, too.

Picture by DH

DH took the above shot. Yes, I am planning on getting it framed.