Paris at a Certain Age

Lily's Legacy

We attended a lovely fundraiser for a special cause: a sanctuary for senior dogs, large senior dogs.

Alyce Mayn started Lily's Legacy in Petaluma after her experience adopting an older dog, Lily, transformed her life. Lily, a beautiful and loving  golden retriever, only lived four months, but in that short time she not only provided love and affection, she inspired a mission. Today Alyce directs a non-profit, all volunteer rescue and sanctuary that delivers care, exercise, training and placement for senior large breed dogs that would otherwise be euthanized.

The fundraiser, Barks for Bucks, was held at Lagunitis Brewing in Petaluma and was great fun. There were dogs everywhere!!!

Big dogs...

 

and small dogs.

There was a stage where a professional photographer took photos of your dog for a small donation. Costumes were encouraged. Of course, Miss Olivia needed a formal portrait.

Do you like the headdress I made for her?

 

 

Paris in Paducah

I was thrilled to find this little bit of Paris while visiting the mammoth AQS (American Quilter's Society) Quilt Show in Paducah, Kentucky.

Culture shock had been killing me in Kentucky. Paducah is a small town (pop = 25,000) in western Kentucky that swells each spring when over 40,000 quilters arrive for this show.

 

It is also the site of the National Quilt Museum and has become known as "Quilt City". 

Quilt shops are everywhere and I was even able to buy fabric in a coffeshop! The show is a major driver of the area's economy and the entire town caters to quilters.

Rooms are booked by August for the week of the show and we were lucky to find a B&B about a half hour away. A B&B with large portraits of Jesus everywhere, an explosion of doilies and doughnuts for breakfast. All the food was fried, including fried pickles and fried pie. 

I struck up a conversation with an Australian woman who was shocked that her tour bus stopped every block in town because the women wouldn't walk more than one block. Massive obesity was everywhere and I've never seen so many women in wheelchairs or using rollator walkers.

No wonder the south is called the Stroke Belt!

But once I started searching for Paris and France, I was able to find remarkable examples. Stay tuned.

 

BHV Christmas Windows

The Christmas windows at BHV are all about the bunnies this year.

They've captured the attention of little children who run from one window to the next squealing with delight.

These bunnies are in motion, thanks to little puppet-strings on their paws.

They are stirring and sawing and swinging and hammering and drumming.

Very high cute quotient.

 

Paris Heresy

Contrary to public opinion, I think the Noël Chalets along the Champs-Elysée are tacky. The lights are pretty at night and if you're in the mood for County Fair food, it might be worth stopping at a booth.

The crowds are awful and you risk tramping on someone's little toutou dog that you can't see underfoot.

The chalets sell mostly useless trinkets and County Fair crap.

What type of merchandise do they crowd around in fascination?

...for such wonders as the Magic Scarf. It's a scarf; it's a turtle-neck; it's a skirt; it's a hat; it's a bustier; it's a hood; it's a maternity belly support. It does everything but slice and dice. You'll have to go to a USA County Fair for your Ginsu knife.

Christmas Lights

I'm not a big fan of Christmas, but for those of you who are - here are the first lights I've seen.

FIAC - Modern Art Show

The huge Contemporary Art Fair has opened and there are sculptures throughout the Jardin de Tuileries.

I was more taken with the fountain at Place de la Concorde:

Bastille Day Fête in Seattle

I was fortunate to be visiting Seattle on Sunday during their celebration of Bastille Day. The city is full of Francophiles and the sun shone brightly for the fête.

 

The World Cup soccer finals were projected on a movie theater-sized screen and thousands gathered until the overtime result had everyone jumping to their feet.

 

There were cooking demonstrations and tastings:

 

A fencing demonstration:

A photo contest:

A display of gorgeous, restored old French cars:

 

 

Bouquinistes selling French language books:

a bistro selling French food:

 

and  French wine:

French dogs:

but most importantly, fabulous francophile friends:

Foire Aux Harengs

I attended my first ever Herring Fair in Normandy on Armistice Day in the small town of Lieurey. The foire was an enormous event that took over virtually every street in the town and drew thousands of visitors. There was more herring than I've ever seen in my life, as well as coquilles and shrimp and other fish.

They had Herring Tastings and a Herring Eating Contest (Concours du plus gros mangeur de harengs) and they broadcasted the status of the contestants throughout the town on mounted microphones. The contestants ate herring and more herring, all the while drinking copious amounts of beer and wine.

There were three women contestants. One of the guys got carried off by the pompiers, either because of too many herring or too much alcohol, or both. Some of the remaining contestants didn't look too good. This man kept listing more and more to his left until we thought he'd fall off the stage.

The guy with the beret was a big ham and gave an impromptu concert on his trumpet and then on a French horn in the middle of the event.

Last year's winner was the little guy on the right with the glasses on his head. The contestants won generous parting gifts like a couple of salamis, a couple cheeses, ten euros, etc. The grand champion (who ate almost two kilos of herring) was the big, bald guy who looks like Curly of the Three Stooges and he won his weight in herring.

The town was pretty with little establishments like the boucherie and the streets were lined with stalls.

There were amusement rides and candy stands and they sold cheeses and saucisson and grilled meats.

There was also the kind of crap you see at county fairs, like miracle mops and copper bracelets and guys wearing little microphones hawking merchandise, like the Ginsu Knife in the USA.