Jam Addiction

Certaines personnes/some people have a lot of confiture/jam in their refrigerators. Certaines personnes think it's perfectly OK to go out and leave guests alone in their apartment completely surrounded by jam jars. Certaines personnes happen to be on vacance in Barcelona and are not going to see this post. These certaines personnes have tremendous amounts of jam in their frigo. And lurking on their pantry shelves.Certaines personnes have uncles who make their own honey/miel, so don't even think of giving them a fancy jar of honey when they run out. No way! Certaines personnes have boxes of jam tartelettes just hanging around. Certaines other personnes can only get up close and personal with a jar of jam when it's through a camera lense and behind glass barriers. They are allowed to get chummy with jars of paint pigment.
BUT THAT IS IT. PERIOD.
At Fortum & Masons.
It's best to keep certaines personnes at a distance from the jam jars. They have been known to attack a jar of jam with a spoon and not stop till they hit bottom.

Certaines personnes were contemplating taking these mini jam jars home, but thank gawd they were too embarrassed to do so.

They made the fatal error of going to the top floor at F&M for a tres cher afternoon tea.

Certaines personnes nearly missed their plane lingering over jam at CDG admiring gazillion jam jars.

Certaines personnes are late posting today but they'd much rather be in Paris, even if it is raining on Bastille day.

BONJOUR CERTAINES PERSONNES!

At Bergdorfs

Imagine you're standing in front of Bergdorf Goodman's windows on 5th Avenue.The display team has been collecting vintage mannequins for 6 years. Here is their collection in all it's past glory... The old heads are so much more intriguing than the new... They have such stories to tell, so evocative... In San Francisco, my friend, Rebecca Martinez was bidding on these same heads on eBay. They kept getting away from her...finally she contacted the winning bidder (Bergdorfs) and they arranged to send her heads to photograph. Enfin her "Challanged Beauty" exhibit in BG's windows on now. There is something poetic about these is there not..?Reminiscent of Wallis Simpson in Galignani's window in Paris... This BG mannequin reminds me of... Tilda Swinden in I AM LOVE - Did you see it yet? You must. Tilda is in Bergdorf's
again and again...
Galerie Lafayette still uses real faces...
An old/new mannequin in Paris...

you got designer shades,
just to hide your face and
you wear them around like
you're cooler than me.
and you never say hey,
or remember my name.
its probably cuz,
you think you're cooler than me.

Bergdorf Goodman has their own blog on their windows..

Bastille Day

If you were wearing a striped shirt yesterday, dressed in blue, wore a beret, carried a quilted bag... And dragging around a small dog around, you were appropriately dressed for Bastille Day in New York. Then you were allowed to eat all the tarte framboise to your heart's content... Or tarte citron... Patisserie Payard was calling the dress code, so stripes rule... President was handing out free fromage tastes...L.A. Burdict had practically free, very intense cold chocolat for a mere $2 created especially for the day... Galeries Lafayette had free Paris maps for all... Not free, but I should have bought it -a Girl's Guide to Paris sac... Really yesterday's fair should have been called Macaron Day in my opinion...Macaron Cafe had lots of flavors and colors...

Paris Metro

There is something about a Metro sign that just says PARIS
The sign at station Concorde.
So many ways to spell P A R I S. Getting lost in the Metro - where would we be without those maps with their special coating making them indistructable to our pointing fingers. Never get lost again on the Paris Underground! Learn who decides what color each line will be. Study over earliest Metro maps from 1886 and find out who designed them. Those funny seats in the stations? Who designed them? It's all inside this book and ooodles more information to keep the armchair traveler happy for days. Or just gaze at the pictures longingly as I do. Even the typeface is the same used inside the Metro! Who knew? I was doodling whilst listening to NPR Weekend Edition - Secret Stations And Boyhood Love On The Paris Metro.
British author, Mark Ovenden, waxed poetic about the Metro. I had to get this book. It's full of wonderful Parisien graphics to drool over. Paris and the Metro are so integrated. At Station Sevres-Babylon the walls are covered with elegant huge ads for Le Bon Marche just like back in the '20's.
Same thing with astonishing Jean-Paul Goude, Galeries Lafayette posters/afiche at Station Chausee d'Antin La Fayette.

I took a look at the graphics in one of New York's posher stations, 60th and Fifth avenue. What did I find?

Parrot mosaics and ads for 'Drink Muscle Milk'.

Hello Bergdorf Goodmans! You can do better than that.

Every detail about the Metro is well thought out. Like these location maps that greet you when you step off a train. In New York if you find one, it's placed at knee-level. You have to get on the floor for a good look. What's up with that MTA?

What's not to love about the Metro? Certainly maintaining the arte deco signage adds to Paris glamour.

A few doors down from the Vaneau station is a mini version in a jewelry shop window - how witty is that?

Everyday I eat on Metro map placemats under a bigger Metro map on the wall. Am I crazy? Absolutely not. Only the best designers created these - you can't go wrong.

I added to my collection a Metro map makeup/pencil case. I kicked myself again and again that I did not buy the eraser and matching notebook.

Who doesn't dream about sleeping in Metro map sheets?

Author Mark Ovenden's 2 British cats,Yin and Yang sleep amidst piles of Metro paraphernalia, lucky ducks.

Londoner Mark visited Paris on a school trip. He wanted to stay in the underground but his teachers insisted on the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre so he had to move back to Paris and wrote this book. We're very lucky for it.

This is my Metro map covered in scotch tape and marked up to a fair thee well. I refuse to leave home without it.

I own Mark's Transit Maps of the World. If you love maps and I don't mean chocolate maps, you will love this book too.

Bear is an avid Metro map reader. If you hang out with map readers, you will end up one - c'est comme ca.

Dogs do not pay to ride the Metro I'm happy to report...

Have expat cats Yin and Yang been on the Metro?

Mark didn't say.

BONJOUR PARIS UNDERGROUND!

Watch this little video - almost as good as being there.

Did you know you can take a TOUR of the Metro? It's true.