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Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts

weekend wishes


I hope you are having a wonderful weekend so far!  It is going really nicely here.  The weather is perfect and I am doing a little "summer cleaning" as Spring completely passed me by.  I found out yesterday that our container has left France and I could not be more excited!  It means a lot of work but hopefully fun work to come.  Keeping our fingers crossed that it all goes well!

Just a few things that caught my eye this week ...


Another fantabulous looking lemon tart recipe.. (I say looking because I like a good photo with my recipes)
I am completely smitten with Jenny's art..  simply wonderful to have an original piece!



image via christina for greige
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Lunch at Merci's Used Book Cafe

This is the first trip that I have gotten to visit the Used book cafe at Merci.  Each time we have been running late and closing down the store..  This time I was able to visit Merci, lets just say often (read 5 or 6 times), because it was just around the corner from our apartment.  If I lived there all the time I would be poor.. I love their stuff and my apartment would be amazing!!  We had a chance to have a late lunch there one afternoon and it was perfect!  We sat in my dream spot by the window over looking the door so I could see the people coming and going.  The waiter was sweet and the food was wonderful.  I loved it and vowed to stop again during out trip but never made it back to eat there. 

That day the little mini was getting a make over and so was the shop, which was super fun to watch unfold over the few times that we visited.






This was by far one of the best things I have ever eaten.  Amazing and perfect.

Don't miss our upcoming sale @greigeshopsale on instagram!


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Flea markets of Paris...


When we visited Paris last month our goal, aside from eating and drinking everything in site was to shop.  I know it is terrible right!  We were in the process of trying to fill our first container to ship back to the States.  We started out in Paris at the flea markets and could have shopped there for days but as you know travel does not always allow for days and days of endless browsing and then going back to make final purchases and decisions.  Things move so fast it can be hard to know if you have made the right choices for weeks to come.  I know I should have bought the chairs that are shown below, I am kicking myself now for doubting my first inclination.  I love these chairs and I hope that they find a wonderful home somewhere in the world.. they are so amazing! 

Aside from that I tried not to pass up anything that spoke to me.   I finally had to realize that anything is possible with the right amount of determination and dare I say money behind it.  We did end up dragging dress forms and multiple goodies back with us on the metro, yep they looked at us like we were crazy but whatever, they did that every time we spoke to them in English after starting with "bonjour".  It was amazing to buy furnishings and accessories with the idea that we would be having them here in such a short time.  I am looking forward to getting all of our goodies and setting up for our first container sale!
 



We loved all of the displays, the talent in these flea markets blows away what we see here at home.  Although I must say that we have to remember these are permanent spaces not pop ups.





This space was amazing, I wanted every book!  I love the green blue!



This big guy was so cool and calm, he just wanted to chill not shop.


These two I did not manage to leave.  They are perfect and I love them.  I will also love them when they get home to me in my living room thank you very much!


I did pass this sweet little thing up.. I was tired and did not even ask the price - a mistake I know!


Gorgeous!




This vendor said this was a painting of his mother in law.  His booth was super cool!

(This picture is for Loi)



images by christina for greige

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Recovery...

 Just wanted to share a few of my favorite instagram pictures from the trip.  I promise to go through my photos over the holiday weekend and share a bit with you next week.  Every time I visit Paris I fall for it all over again even though she really makes you work for it!  I am exhausted when I return from these trips both physically and mentally!   This weekend I will do my best to fully recover!

I also want to extend a huge THANK YOU to the girls that were nice enough to guest post for us while I was away!  I could not have done it without you!  Thank you to Andrea, Si, and Shari!




 

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Design Traveler: Andrea of The French Basketeer


Design Traveler Visits: Le Domaine de Chantilly, France
When thinking of Paris and châteaux, Versailles, Fontainebleau and perhaps the Loire Valley come to mind. But just a short distance from central Paris lies a gem of a château that has been carefully restored and offers some serious eye candy of paintings, decorative arts, gardens and equestrian displays.



The Domaine de Chantilly passed from different parts of the same family without ever being sold, from 1386 to 1897. The Château first opened to the public in 1898, less than a year after the death of the final owner, Henri d’Orleans, Duke of Aumale. As with the Louvre, the Château de Chantilly was improved, expanded, destroyed and rebuilt over the course of centuries. Its long history is complex, fascinating and, well…very French...

 
Chantilly was at its peak in the 17th century, when André Le Nôtre (who would be later become the head gardener at Versailles) created a Grand Canal, water features and parterres. Chantilly came alive with grand balls and fireworks displays, visits from Louis XV and plays by Molière.



The fun came to a halt during the French Revolution, when the collections of the Château were seized and carted off to the Louvre and the Château served first as a prison, then was partially demolished. The Château regained its glory in the 19th century when Henri d'Orléans, the fifth son of King Louis-Philippe, inherited the property (and great wealth) in 1830 at the age of eight.


 
Today, a visit to the Domaine includes the Renaissance-style Château, with grand entry hall and hunt theme, intimate chapel, a generous painting gallery, library with over 1,300 manuscripts and 12,500 books, private apartments and gardens. The collections are presented today just as they were in the 19th century as Henri d’Orleans had arranged them. The collection can be considered a mini-Louvre, with representation by many great French and Italian masters such as Raphael, Corot, Watteau, Poussin, Delacroix and Clouet.



The private apartments have been undergoing extensive renovation since 2005, and the details behind that work are interesting from a design standpoint. The largest expense of restoration work on the Château is gold leaf. Pure, 24 karat gold leaf is used, not paint, and there is a lot of it. The walls and relief are cleaned, to uncover the original colors, and not completely repainted. The paint is made especially for the Domaine with a base of what is called colle de peau, or animal glue, which holds well for centuries and has been used since ancient times.


The Domaine de Chantilly is a marvelous and carefully restored château with its collection of period decorative arts, paintings, book & manuscripts. In addition to being beautiful, it is also fascinating in that it is the personal collection of one man, Henri d’Orleans. If you have visited the Louvre or Versailles, you will love this Château, for the intimate portrait it paints of the tastes and life of one of France’s royal sons after the monarchy. In the spring and summer, the Domaine also presents a series of live horse shows and dressage demonstrations in the Grand Stables.


 
For more information on the Château de Chantilly, visit www.chateaudechantilly.com
* * * * *
Andrea Drexelius is a devoted Francophile and divides her time between Laguna Beach and various destinations in France. In addition to importing classic French market baskets, she writes extensively on France. The first of her e-book series Rêve will focus on Paris (including Chantilly) and will be published imminently.  Information on Rêve and her blog can be found HERE.











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Off...


I am off today, bound for Paris.. I am looking forward to sharing our adventures with you.  We are so excited to be going and bringing treasures back this time.  Keep your fingers crossed for us in hopes  that we find wonderful things!  

Follow along with me -

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Paris bound..


I am spending most of this week wrapping up projects here, shipping and packing for our trip to Paris. I will be posting prep and travel photos on instagram if you want to follow along or you can check out the facebook page too.  Our pool project should be finishing up too... so exciting!  Wishing you a wonderful Monday!



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