The Show

Here are some views of my booth. Once I got the tent and tables up...I realized I needed something on the walls so I ran out and bought some sheer curtains to place in the corners with sunflowers accents and a large mirror. I then realized that my walls were extremely wrinkled, but I didn't have the time to do anything about them. I wonder how many customers noticed...or were the just looking at the jewelry. After sitting in the booth for a day I decided that I will make floor length light beige sheers for the walls and accent them with a darker green in the corners with some type of wrought iron accents to hold the corner curtains in the center. But overall, I thought it looked good...if I don't say so myself :)

I found some $5 elephant trays at Pier 1 to display some of the bronze necklaces. A few people commented on how nice they showed off the bronze....and if I got hungry I could cook the beans.

All in all the show was OK. This is my second show since the economy tanked and most people are being very careful about what they spend their money on. All the artists I talked to were down in sales. I am fortunate that I have a day job. The artists that do this as a sole source of income are hurting. A number of them are talking about getting jobs.

What I love about doing these shows is the people that you get to meet. Because this was a 3-day show, there was lots of time to get to know the artists around me. They were all great. The last 2 hours of the day the show seemed to die...so we all stood out in the aisle talking to one another.

The bronze sold well...in fact almost exclusively. I sold all my earrings and a number of necklaces. I now have to make earrings for this Sunday's show. Since I have to open a 100 g pack I will also make more pendants. I had a number of men come in and look at the bronze and one little boy was so enamored by them his mother bought him one for Christmas. He put it on....and it looked good. I think as long as it isn't a girly type of design the necklaces could be worn by both men and women. I had a discussion with one man about the designs on the necklaces and he suggested that I look into Mayan glyphs....which I already planned on. He recommended a good website to find authentic glyphs.

I am looking forward to the shows being over so I can do some research on new designs and work up some new pieces. But first I think I will sleep for a couple of days. I am so tired.

For Lou......

moar funny pictures

When I saw this pictures I had to recaption it and post if for Lou. Now if he would just read my blog he might see it. Isn't that funny....all the things I write in this blog and he has never read it.

The show was slow today...for everyone. All the vendors are hoping that the weekend will be better. Although people seemed to be spending money at the Fabulous Food Show. Two women came in from Nebraska to see Guy Fieri (the Friday's guy). Besides the airfare and hotel, they paid $30 dollars to get into the show and then another $150 each to see him. We kept hearing people screaming and applauding...I kept thinking... "they are only chefs....what's the big deal?" But I guess it is all about your passion. They are hot for famous chefs.

Speaking of hot...I have a new respect for onions. Thanks to Anne for her poem about the onion. I never knew they could be so......erotic!

More later

Where in the world did these colors come from??

These were all in the same batch. I refired these pieces because I didn't like the original color. Some I had tumbled and there were all shiny bronze and others had come from an early batch that didn't have any color. The last time that I fired using this carbon I got browns and tans so I thought maybe the carbon was getting exhausted. I was expecting browns with this batch. What a surprise. This batch has it all...golds, greens, blues, purples, reds. The blues are irridescent. Did the carbon absorb something while it was sitting around? Is it because there was an acrylic coating on the pieces? I had sprayed them about a month ago as an experiment to see if it would keep them from oxidzing. I have no idea but they are really colorful.

I set up tomorrow for the weekend show. I convinced Lou to take off early to help me. The biggest thing for me is popping the tent. Once that is up then I can do the rest....although there is alot hauling of boxes and containers. Then it is 10-8 Friday/Saturday and 10-6 on Sunday. I am excited to be in this show but I will be glad when it is over. This is my biggest show of the year. I have only one other after this and it is a one-day event.

Wish me luck :))

Fall Colors

I took these pics early this week when it was sunny and warm....

Japanese Maples in the back yard.

The view out our front door

Japanese Maples in the front yard.

I'm in love all over again.....

I decided to make some silver earring pieces for the show coming up this weekend and I have fallen in love with silver all over again. Although I went through 2 packs of silver PMC when I would half only used have a pack of bronze....when I pulled it out of the tumbler I got all excited about silver. Working through 10 packs of bronze also helped me refine my techniques.

When I aged the PMC pieces I also aged a bunch of silver chain. It was much, much too bright and pretty. I needed to blacken it up a bit. So I'll be putting together earrings and making some necklaces for pendants over the next few days. If you are in Cleveland this coming weekend stop by the IX center for the By Hand show. It is combined with the Fabulous Food Show and the expected attendance is ~ 30,000. If only we can get half those people to wander through the art show and half of those to buy things it might be a good weekend for the artists.

A toast to Obama

After work today we gathered together and drank a toast to Obama. Working in a place where many countries and races are represented, it is interesting to hear the views of people from other countries. One of the attendees was a woman who grew up in Denmark. Her parents still live there. She said that all over Europe people have changed their feelings towards the US. We only won by a small percentage, but we have shown that enough of us care about the state of this nation and the world to vote in change.

Here is an excerpt from Gary Kamiya's article in Salon:

"...Only rarely does one know that one is experiencing history while it happens. Barack Obama's victory is one of those occasions. This amazing day marks a decisive change, not just in America's politics but in its soul. It announces the arrival of a new America, of a multitudinous, multihued people whose time has come and who have demanded a politics worthy of them. Their voice echoes across the land from Stone Mountain to Seattle, and its message rings out loud and clear: We have taken our country back."

"We have taken it back from the mean-spirited demagogues who were willing to tear the American people apart to stay in power."

We have taken it back from the apostles of selfishness who pretend naked greed is noble individualism."

"We have taken it back from the deluded hawks who cavalierly sent our youth off to die in a war that should never have been fought."

"We have taken it back from the incompetent officials who lived up to their anti-government credo by bungling everything they touched."

"We have taken it back from the reactionaries whose intolerance, xenophobia and religious zealotry have been encouraged by a distorted Republican Party for far too long."

"Some will say that this election didn't prove that much. They will argue that considering Bush's unpopularity, the war and the financial crisis, this race should never have been even competitive. They will say the race was tied in September and only an inept McCain campaign and the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression tilted it toward Obama. They will say that America is still a center-right country."

"But those arguments are like dead trees standing in the path of a spring-snow torrent. A great change has come upon America."

"Watching Obama speak after his victory, I was reminded again of the subtle and profound depths of this man. It was a subdued speech, on the surface almost disappointing, but its eloquent restraint spoke volumes about not just Obama's character but what we could call, harking back to another age, his taste. He chose not to mount the messianic pulpit, knowing that if he did he would alienate many Americans. Because of his complex and hard-earned comfort with his own racial identity, he is a self-reflective man, a man of many parts."

"We have seen his facets. Obama can parry and thrust with Hillary Clinton. He can be hip with Jon Stewart. He can speak eloquently of race, as he did in his victory speech, without foregrounding his own race. He can reach out to those who didn't vote for him, and his native sensitivity makes his words believable. His rhetoric is soaring but never self-aggrandizing: He is too confident in his own identity to need the fix of adulation. A leader with these qualities, a black man whose racial consciousness is so evolved as to be unreadable, has the ability to take America places it has never been before."

"The election of Obama marks a change in what it means to be an American. It is a change that is as true to the essence of conservatism as it is to liberalism, for it has its roots in a generous vision of civic life that both share. And all Americans will benefit from it."

There is more...follow the link to the article if you want to read the rest.

V graffiti in Paris

Best Post-Election Comment....

comes from my friend Meesh....

"I can see the end of Sarah Palin's career from my house."

And she inspired me to make this.....


moar funny pictures

A quick post....

.....just because Donna will be checking Thursday morning and I don't want to disappoint her. I haven't posted in a couple days because I was doing a show....but I didn't lose touch with what has been going on in the world. Tuesday night we were pulling up election results on the Blackberry until 9PM...then we all ran home to watch the election results come in. I am ecstatic with the results. The world outside of the US is ecstatic with the results. There is alot of hard work that will have to be done in an attempt to correct our many problems. It will take all of us to do this. But in doing so, I think we can bring the US back to the great country that we all want it to be.

The show....less than desirable for me and many of the vendors I talked to...although a few people seemed to be doing well. People stopped to look and tell me how beautiful my pieces were....but it was not a buying crowd for me. Sales were down by 50%....that hurts. I think it is the economy. People are being very careful with their money right now. The only good news is that I won't have to bust my butt getting ready for the By Hand show. I have plenty of pieces. People were interested in the bronze...wanted to know what it was...and I did sell a few necklaces and earrings. It's a nice add to the silver as it gives me goldtone pieces to sell.

Well...I am exhausted and I have to be up early tomorrow morning for an 8AM meeting at my day job. Sweet dreams......

Calm before the storm

I have a show on Tuesday/Wednesday of this week, then one on Friday/Saturday/Sunday of the week after, and then a show on the Sunday after that. I am rather calm right now. All my show things are sitting in the living room waiting for Tuesday. I'm printing new business cards which is a really tedious process since I can only put one sheet of business cards into the printer at a time. I checked my wrapping supplies and found I need more small bags so I put an order in to Bags and Bows for a chocolate colored mini-cub.

My cash box is complete so I don't have to run to the bank. I've gone through all the tables displays and checked my table covers to make sure they are still in good condition. All I'm worried about now is the amount of jewelry that I have.

Last year most of what I displayed was the lampwork bead pieces with a few silver pieces thrown in. This year will be a mix of lampwork, silver and bronze. I haven't made any lampwork pieces since before June, but I have about 20 necklaces and 25 bracelets. I have about 20 silver PMC necklaces, 25 bronze necklaces, and 20 pairs of earrings. And about 40 pair of Swarovski crystal earrings. But all I can think about is what I don't have....no silver PMC earrings, no bracelets in either silver or bronze. Of course it is ridiculous to think that I will sell everything that I have in stock right now but I am trying to plan out days to work in silver and bronze between my show this week and the one next week to try to fill in some of the gaps. I get a tad obsessive-compulsive at show time.

I think the economy is going to have a big impact on shows this year. Over the last 5 years I have listened to the veterans in this industry talk about how it isn't like it used to be....that people just don't have disposable income anymore....but I still managed to do well...at least what I thought was "well". I am really skeptical about this year. Everyone I know has lost money in the crisis that we are facing and trying to figure out how to conserve. Jewelry is not a necessity. By Wednesday evening I will know what I'm facing in the next two shows.

Enough depressing talk. Below is a pic of the bronze mixed with lampwork. I have to make chains for them yet.

Another shot of the plethora of necklaces that I have been working on.

Time for dinner. Au Revoir, Bye-Bye

Cats in Egypt

The earliest feline cat goddess recorded was called Mafdet and is described in the Pyramid Texts as killing a serpent with her claws. But the most famous cat goddesses in the world, first revered by the ancient Egyptians were Bastet (also known as Bast, Pasch, Ubasti) and the lion-headed Sekhmet.

Bastet was often depicted as having the body of a woman and the head of a domestic cat. She was associated with the Eye of Ra, acting within the sun god's power. The Egyptians loved Bastet so much that she became a household goddess and protector of women, children and domestic cats. She was also the goddess of sunrise, music, dance, pleasure, as well as family, fertility and birth.

Her supposed evil counterpart was the goddess Sekhmet who represented the cat goddess' destructive force. She is known as the goddess of war and pestilence. But even she was tamed by Ra (who supposedly got her drunk) and she eventually became the powerful protector of humans. Together, Bastet and Sekhmet represented the balance of the forces of nature.

Cats were not only protected by almost every occupant of Egypt, but also by the law. So extreme infact was the devoutness of the Egyptian culture to the cat, that if a human killed a feline, either intentionally or unintentionally, that human was sentenced to death. When a cat died their former owners and occupants of the house would go into deep mourning and shave their eyebrows as a sign of grief. People are not the only mummies in Egypt, as the cat was also mummified significantly.

Below are some mummified cats on exhibit in the Louvre. I can't help it....I think they are cute.

Congratulations Anne!!!!

Well deserved!!!! If you have never taken a class from Anne....you must. She is an excellent teacher and artist!!!

Some Bronze

I'm loving this piece. I had spare parts and started to throw some things together and viola!! I am working on a couple of bracelets.

I made some small bronze balls (hee hee...balls) and threw them on the pendants as accents. When I was wire wrapping them I decide to leave the coiled up wire on the ball instead of cutting it off.

Sue had asked where I got the chain. It is brass chain from Vintaj. It will lighten up as you wear it...which is fine because the color still goes with the bronze. I do wish it would maintain the dark color though.

That's all for tonight. For once this week I have to try to get to bed before 2AM.

Au Revoir, Bye-Bye

A few more Paris pics

Busy at work and busy with jewelry in the evening. I don't know why but I have been dragging my feet getting things ready for the show.....and I know I'm going to freak out as I get closer to the show date. Tonight I did pricing on the bronze pieces. My table this year is going to be a mix of silver, bronze, and lampwork pieces. I love making pieces with lampwork beads, but I have always felt odd about the fact that I don't make the beads. And it drives me nuts everytime someone asks me that. With the bronze....I made it and that is more satisfying. Of course I showed a piece to one of my customers at work yesterday and what does she say.....did you make the chain......GEEZ. I can't win.

I don't have any pics of the bronze so here are a few more Paris pics. I have been very slowing going through them and editing when necessary.





Lou and I love museums and we can stand and stare in amazement looking at particular pieces. Botticelli's frescos make me stop in my tracks. They have 2 in the Louvre and they are on the way to the Mona Lisa.....so many people just walk on by and don't stop to really look at them. I want to shake people and say....."look at these... they are amazing"..... Of course my pictures don't do them justice. Up close the colors are wonderful and the faces of the women are soft and beautiful. I brought home a plaque with a replica of part of the bottom fresco with the 2 graces on the far left.

But.....we both have the sense of humor of a 12 year old and we have a tendency to look at pieces and give them our own names. The minute we saw this piece we started laughing. This one became..."Simon Says...Look at your Pee Pee's". It can be a experience to go through a museum with us. I think we should offer tours :)) What d'ya think...want to go on a museum tour with us?

And I am always trying to make Lou do stupid things next to statues. It usually works.....Honey...stick you head in the mouth of the lion.....

I was really excited to see the Winged Assyrian Bulls. The display wasn't open last year. These are huge and so magnificent. They date back to 700 BC. They were considered benevolent spirits and the guardians of the foundation of the world. I think we could use their help today. Check out the legs.....5. This is to show them walking when viewed from the side.

Guess Who...standing on a bridge over the Seine. That's the Eiffel tower in the background

Au Revoir, Bye-Bye.

Something is Wrong.....

I have been reading Tara Bradford at Paris Parfait ever since I started my love affair with Paris more than a year ago. It's like she can read my mind and heart. This is an excerpt from her most recent post. She says it so much better than I could.

"This is a subject about which I am passionate; it would be wrong to remain silent. Because this election is critical, CRITICAL, to what happens next for our country: the paths we walk, the alliances we forge, the different roads on which our ideologies converge. Never in my lifetime has it been more important to speak out for change.

I've worked hard all my life. For nearly 15 years, I was a single mom, sometimes struggling to make ends meet. I had little hope of owning a home or having enough money left after paying my bills to seriously save for the future. Thankfully, my daughter received the very best education. But private high schools and university would have been out of reach, if not for scholarships and later, my husband's employer paying a third of her tuition. My daughter would have had to take out student loans and spend the first third of her career weighed down by heavy debt, struggling to repay the funds.

The land of the free and home of the brave is hemorrhaging compassion, if many of us not only can't afford college tuition, but are just two paychecks away from being out on the street. God forbid if a catastrophic illness interrupts our salary-earning ability.

Something is wrong with our country when paying the mortgage or the rent might mean juggling Peter to pay Paul; going without a doctor's checkup or replacing balding tires because the budget's depleted.

So many people are trying to survive on minimum wage, while too many others are losing their jobs, as factories and plants are mothballed or closed. We are all dancing too close to the precipice these days. Losing everything we've worked for our whole lives is a real threat.

And that's not right. My grandparents grew up during the Depression and had to overcome many obstacles to eventually be successful. They never forgot what it was to worry about money. Even when they had plenty, the hard lessons learned from the Depression colored how they handled money the rest of their lives.

Our system of checks and balances is broken. Our infrastructure is crumbling, with bridges, roads, tunnels and airport runways falling into dangerous disrepair. Something is wrong with our country when the rich are favored and the rest of us struggle endlessly. Something is wrong when those who can't afford health insurance are turned away from emergency rooms and sent to another hospital, perhaps worsening or even dying for lack of urgent treatment, within that span of a few miles and a few minutes.

Something is wrong with our country when a great city like New Orleans is swamped with a hurricane, while George Bush and John McCain laugh it up over birthday cake. Something is wrong with America when it takes FEMA several days to provide the most basic services, then is unable to coordinate federal and state efforts to get the city up and running again. Something is wrong when New Orleans citizens are forced to find shelter in other states, because government efforts to assist them failed.

Something is wrong when our children lack basic educational skills to compete with the rest of the world. Speaking only English is not something to brag about; even the poorest kids in refugee camps often speak two or three languages. Superior science and math skills are helping the Chinese and the Indians surpass us in the global marketplace. Too many children are being left behind in the United States of America, our country rich in natural resources, but impoverished in management.

Something is wrong when our production jobs are shipped overseas, resulting not only in higher unemployment levels at home, but inferior quality products shipped back and sold in the US.

Something is criminal about our soldiers being sent to war under false pretenses. And sent and sent and sent, long after the president's lies were exposed. Meanwhile, the real war on terror blazes out of control in Afghanistan. Something is deeply wrong when we're not allowed to witness and photograph our soldiers' coffins returning, their bodies buried and publicly mourn their loss.

Something is cataclysmic as our civil liberties are eroded, undermining our Constitution. It is outrageous that our personal phone calls and private emails are monitored by the National Security Agency, with the collusion of corporate behemoths including AT&T and Verizon.
Something is desperately wrong when our personal cameras, MP3 players, laptops, cellphones and other electronic equipment can be seized at our nation's borders, without due cause - violating the Fourth Amendment.

Something is wrong when right-wing religious zealots try to blur the Constitutional distinction between Church and State and dictate our immigration and marriage policies.
Something is wrong when a self-righteous television channel and talk-radio shows spew divisive talking points masquerading as "news." These pundits recklessly incite and inflame hate, all in the quest for Nielsen ratings.

Something is wrong when the average American knows the latest twists and turns of celebrity entertainment, but doesn't care enough to get involved in government, even as stock markets tumble and everything around us seems on shaky ground.

Something is wrong when billions of dollars are spent on political campaign advertisements, while 24 million Americans still go to bed hungry and millions more sleep on the streets or in their cars.

Something is wrong when a Republican presidential candidate in questionable health chooses an unqualified, uninformed person as his running mate. Such reckless behaviour puts the whole country at risk.

Something is wrong when presidential candidates deliberately mislead the public with outright lies and/or misleading information. Something is wrong when the public has to search for the truth, because politicians and sometimes even the mainstream media fail to deliver the facts.

Something is wrong when our country runs a rogue prison at Guantanamo Bay. Suspects have been locked up for years without trial, in which none of the usual laws, international treaties and human rights seem to apply.

So many things are wrong with our great democracy. We have to solve these problems. We can't afford four more years of failed policies and finger-on-the-trigger foreign intervention.
After Sept. 11, 2001, America enjoyed the great goodwill of the entire world. After eight years of the Bush-Cheney administration, our friends' attitudes have shifted, first from solidarity and sympathy, then to dismay and anger at the stupidity of putting Bush-Cheney in office for a second term. Most recently our foreign friends and allies have viewed us with a mixture of disgust and pity. Our leadership and international authority have been severely diminished.

We have lost our powerful influence on the world stage.

We have lost our way."

Assembly Time

I'm busy putting things together for the November shows. I have three shows and then I am done for the season. Here are a few bronze pieces that I worked on today. I've been making chain and hanging earrings.

Cigar boxes come in handy to hang the earrings from. We stopped at the local shop today so Lou could pick up a few cigars for his golf game tomorrow. The shop always has empty boxes for sale. When Lou goes in alone he gets charged for the boxes....but when I go in to pick one out I get them for free :))

More Stories from Paris

There is a Swarovski store on rue Bonaparte in Paris. They always have these amazing show pieces in the main window. Below is what they had in the window last year. You have to get past the window glare in the pictures...

We stayed about 2 blocks from the store this year and I was anxious to see what they would have out this year. They had 2 different displays in the time that we were there.

We went to the Marche aux Puces de Saint-Ouen while we where there. This is a large flea/antique market on the outskirts of the city. Wikipedia mentions that this might have been the first flea market ever. It has been there since the 17th century. There was one store that had old tools....hammers, files, anvils and just about everthing else you could imagine. Below is a pic of the store front. They had a couple of really sweet anvils that I wish I could have brought back with me.

Previously I had mentioned that you go through what I think is a dicey area to get to the various markets. We had been there before so I knew this. It was very crowded and on the way back the subway was jammed....really jammed. We made out way down to the turnstiles and there stood 4 hulking subway police. I saw them turning some people away and this freaked me out. They let us go through and we got in a car with a bunch of teenage boys. Great. They tried to hog all the seats and being the "Oh no you didn't" type of woman that I am....I just made them move over and sat down. But....I was still a little freaked so I looked at Lou and mouthed..."Look Mean". He started laughing. He takes pride in the fact that he looks mean naturally (even though he is a teddy bear). I kept looking at him and growling under my breath. "Le Grrrr", Pepe Le Pew style. He sized them up and winked at a few of them.....they were probably more worried than I was.....they had gotten on the subway with a perv and a crazy growling lady. Here is my naturally scary teddy bear on the streets of Saint-Ouen.......

Au Revoir, Bye-Bye......

A word on French waiters

I love them.... OK that was three words. I don't know where the sterotype...that French waiters are rude.... came from. We had some great ones. They are very busy and seem to run non-stop, but I think Lou got it right when he said that rude waiters start with rude customers.

After we went to Saint Chapelle, we stopped at a cafe across the street and I ordered my typical Coca Light. When the waiter brought it he teased me about it...calling it American Beaujolais and he teased Lou that his beer was spicy lemonade. He was very nice. Another waiter at the same place stepped in when he saw a father trying to take a picture of his family. He took the camera and made the father sit down so he could be in the picture too.

At another place, the waiter couldn't figure out if he should talk to us in French or English so he used both on just about everything he said. When we left he said..."OK...Au Revoir, Bye-Bye". That stuck with us and we kept repeating it during the whole trip.

At another cafe we stopped in for drinks and when we were done the waiter kept forgetting to bring out the credit card machine to run Lou's card. He would bring food out for someone, look at us and slap himself in the head. After about the third time he remembered. But the whole time we were laughing about it. Then Lou asked him for some matches and the whole scene repeated itself. But we finally got out of there with lots of smiles. We stopped back a few days later for lunch and even though he wasn't our waiter he came out to say hello and shook our hands. I picked up the tab that day and the waiter we did have was giving Lou the thumbs up and patting him on the back that I was paying. I guess French women don't pay....ever.

Then at another restaurant we had a Chinese waiter who spoke French. He took very good care of us. When he ran Lou's credit card something went wrong and he starting talking to Lou in French and saying "Abandon". Lou looked at me and asked me for help. I started laughing because I only know the very basics. The waiter finally said "No Good". I smiled at the waiter and said "Comprends pa..No Good" which hopefully meant..."I understand No Good". He understood because he starting laughing and then we started laughing. I had Lou give him the card again so he could re-run it.

We thought they were great.....OK...Au Revoir, Bye-Bye

I got a peaceful easy feeling.....

Damn...driving to work today I was so relaxed and peaceful. I was looking at the clouds in the sky and remembering strolling around Paris. I hope this feeling stays with me for a while. It is so much nicer then how I normally feel going to work.

Editing these pictures is going to take forever. Below are some from the batch I looked at tonight.

Close ups of a fountain below.

These are made of chocolate in the window at Patrick Roger . The one in the middle is 150 Euros and was about the size of a volleyball....a little bit smaller.


An old well on the grounds of the Cluny Museum. I think the mouth of the woman goes through to the well. Some kids were playing with it and sticking their hands in her mouth as far as it would go. Their teacher stopped them before I could get a picture.

Inside the museum Lou found a new friend.

The tapestries were beautiful.

City streets....some big, some small but almost all with their own charm.

Going through pictures

Well...between Lou and I we have over 600 pictures. So I am going through them a little at a time...editing and arranging them to make a slide show. The big thing this year at Christmas will be slide shows. My sister spent 2 months in Montana this summer and my brother is leaving soon for 2 weeks in China. Between the three of us we will probably have hours worth of picutres to look at. So as I'm editing I'll include some select pictures here....

Below is the view as you step out of the front door of our apartment. We stayed in the Saint Germain des Pres area which is filled with boutiques and restaurants....great for strolling and window shopping and just sitting at a cafe to people watch.

Two blocks up on Saint Germain Boulevard was the Abbey of Saint Germain des Pres. It was founded in the 6th century. The high vaulted ceilings always amaze me. There was a mass going on when we walked in. We stay for a bit and then ventured on.

Some window shopping below. The first was a funky little store that had some great items. We both liked the knife holder in the middle of the picture. It's not only functional but can be used to take out your agressions.

Jewelry of course...a really great beaded piece in the center.

And pastries....look at the cakes on the bottom shelf...OMG. There were expensive so we just looked but didn't buy entire cakes like this.

And grafitti.....really cute cat grafitti on the second floor of a building. I have other pics of grafitti but this one I loved and I saw it quite a bit since it was on the route that we walked up to the Seine.

The first of many walks across the Seine on the various bridges. These pictures look a little gloomy. It was cloudy and raining the day we got to Paris but we had good weather overall. It only really poured one evening and of course we were out in it without an umbrella...but when you're walking the streets of Paris....who cares!!

We did end up taking 2 boats trips...a day trip and a night trip. There were both well worth it...especially the night trip to see the lights of the city in the evening.

Below is the tip of the island Ile de la Cite which is one of two islands in the middle of the Seine. This island is the center of Paris and is the location of Notre Dame cathedral. The bridge is called Pont Neuf which means new bridge. It is actually the oldest bridge in Paris, completed in 160o's.

A couple of nice little restaurants. You didn't have to pay a fortune to eat in Paris. Many of these small bistros had pre fixe menus that gave you a choice of appetizer, entree, and dessert for a reasonable price.

I am usually a Diet Dr. Pepper person but that is no where to be found in Paris so I had to live on Diet Coke....or Coca Light as they call it. You can zero in on the Americans by looking for those peole that drink Diet Coke. I like how they served it.....with a lemon and a spoon. Before I left I had to go buy one of the spoons to bring home with me. But for the price of a Coke you are better off buying a glass of wine....you will probably pay the same price.

And these are just select pictures from the first day :)))