One Outfit, Four Photos

Getting it done without a tripod involves some teenage self-photoing.  (You'd use two hands, too, when you're using the fancy cams!)

 Vintage jungle shirt, equally old quizzical look.

Jungle + plaid.

Vintage plaid skirt + orange tights + Madewell boots.

Close-up of necklace from Hod, my favorite jewelry store in Paris.

Around, Lately

They finally finished the Spring windows at the Tsumori Chisato boutique on Rue Barbette.  It's all tropical up in there now.  I am loving the lizards and new prints that are on the photo-montaging tip, but in a distinctly Tsumori way.  

And then I happened by the Ladurée store on Rue Royal to see this!  Limited edition Tsumori Chisato macaron boxes.  It's a Tsumori world and we all just live in it.  (I wish.)

Just when I had sworn off Ladurée in order to avail myself of the other fine purveyors of macarons in this city, they entice me with a box like this.  But to be honest, those boxes are for the Asian tourists who (are the worst to get stuck behind in line and) drop some mad yen/yuan on treats from Paris.  As for me, they could just put the damn macarons directly in my palm/mouth as I indulge immediately, though I usually end up with a bag.  Whatever.

On a side-side note, I tried some Jean-Paul Hévin macarons this weekend.  His flavors are pretty basic (which I am not opposed to), the most interesting being creme brulee.  I'll tell you, he beats Laduree big-time on the chocolate tip, but I think they've got him on vanilla.  Pistachio was a toss up because Hévin halves his with chocolate, making it an unfair fight.  Despite this, I give the pistache prize to Hévin.  It's gloves off, gentlemen.

I lunched next to this guy at  Le Loir dans La Théiere on Friday.  He looks like the 4th musketeer with that hairdo, no?  Speaking of Le Loir, it has the most fabulous savory tarts and desserts.  I had a pumpkin and blue d'auvergne savory and then a chocolate sweet tart.  Just check out these images and you'll see what I'm talking about.

I am really feeling these needlepoint, southwestern horse totes in the window at Shine.  The window was en cours when I snapped this, so I'll have to check for the creator on Monday.

Upper Marais antique store.

Is that like the House of Pain?
Surely not.

Have I grumped on here about how Republique is an absolute mess these days?  There's a big project on to expand it, make it more pedestrian friendly, etc.  (Which is just going to mean more bum-friendly, let's be real.  I've seen the trashcan fires burning.)  Well, the whole thing's torn up now, and they keep re-routing us pedestrians farther and father out on rougher and rougher ground, adding precious minutes onto our morning commutes (and mud and grime onto our nice shoes).  I mean, look at this mess!  Apparently, the pizza place just had the truck dump its saffron right out front!  What else were they to do?

And this guy seems to be wondering how the hell he ended up where he did.  Actually, I saw him following what looked to be his old route, when he suddenly woke up in the midst of concrete barricades.   Poor soul.

Foggy tower seen from the Place de la Concorde.

 Serious chains on Place de la Concorde.

This guy was overjoyed when he thought I might actually enter his store.  He was all a-wiggle!  Alas, I just took his photo and moved on.  Sorry bub, maybe if you had better product...

Stuff on Walls #127

Today Is The Day

I'm coming clean.

It's fairly obvious that I'm pretty taken with all things cute and furry, especially when in the form of cats or dogs.  This in and of itself is not so abnormal, and I've got enough friends similarly smitten with cute baby animals to make me feel pretty alright about it.

When I started Instagram-ing, I found bonkers pictures of poodles with blowouts, big-eyed cats, and tiny dogs with bigger wardrobes than me... most all from Japan.  I also found photos directly from the cat cafes of Tokyo.  I fell immediately in love with all of the kitties dining ensemble...

But really, I found myself swooning over the same cat again and again:  DANIEL.

Daniel is a Persian kitten and, dare I say, the most adorable resident of the cat cafe Kitty Box.  He has become my prize in the Cracker Jack box that is Instagram.  When a shot of Daniel pops up, I sense it will be a good day.  (Or if it's not, I've got a piece of fluffy adorableness to look at when shit goes south.)  He's not my "type", for sure--he's too white, too fussy-looking.  But scroll below and I think you will see that there's more to Daniel than his looks.  This cat has character;  note the intensity in his eyes... and his contortioning!  Someone get this guy a Fancy Feast commercial!!  But my favorites are when he looks a little rough--fur mussed and tear stains evident.  Like he's definitely had his paw in the, erm, cookie jar.

So without further adieu, I give you Daniel:

Now please, try not to obsess.

Sweater Celebration

It feels like Spring is in the air here in Paris, though it's still February.  The days are getting longer and the sun has even made its presence known again.  Though it's nearly Spring and all of the shops windows are full of sandals and springier things, I want to give a shout out to my favorite sweaters of the past season.


The first two come from Moonchild.  I was lucky enough to get not one, but two--TWO!--sweaters from Moonchild for Christmas!  (It was a "Very Moonchild Christmas" at the Everdingleston residence this year.)  The brand was created by a former April77-er and is handmade of alpaca yarn in Peru.  There's sort of a hippie/mystical/unisex thing going on, which may not be totally "me" but which I dig.  I mean, what's sexier than a hairy man in a handknit deer intarsia sweater?  With fringe.

I love the condor on the back.  

Beautiful, right?

The last sweater comes all the way from South Korea... though it was from the States originally.  Leave it to me to go all the way to Asia to buy an American sweater.  But as you can see, this sweater is rad enough to not be mad for long about the distance between its place of origin and its place of purchase.

HORSES!

Handknit horses!  With a black-and-white stripy border!

Sorry for the photoverload, but isn't this sweater the b-e-s-t??

And it's 100% cotton and dry-handed and substantial but not too heavy.  Just in case the horses weren't enough.