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Shopping on Rue du Cherche-Midi

Now here’s an inviting little shop on rue du Cherche Midi, I thought as I walked by one afternoon.

Not that I had any particular interest in bags, purses, vanity cases, table linens, cushion covers, or bolts of fabric that day, but one look at the deceptive simplicity and natural coloring of the offerings in the window and I wanted to walk in to touch things. I’m like that.

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Patricia’s Casual Cooking Class in the Town of Versailles

The Town of Versailles is often ignored by those visiting the Palace of Versailles. That’s understandable in that the palace, the gardens, and the Trianons in the park can keep a visitor well occupied for most of a day. Yet the town, as a planned adjunct to the palace, merits a visit as both an uncrowded extension of the royal domain and, for all its 17th-18th-centuriness, a welcome bit of contemporary, local French life during a visit otherwise devoted to historical and monumental France.

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Looking for Lorraine in Paris and Finding Alsace along the Way

Sandwiched in eastern France between Champagne and Alsace, the Lorraine region doesn’t have the international or even national distinction of its neighbors. Champagne naturally calls to mind vineyards and bubbly wine, while Alsace has forged an identity out of historical French and Germanic borderland politics. But Lorraine?

Even when historians speak of Alsace-Lorraine they’re mainly speaking of the former, since all of Alsace was included in that once-disputed region but only a part of Lorraine.

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Tumbleweed: Playthings for the Whimsical Shopper
To watch Lynn Rovida demonstrate the whimsical selection of handcrafted toys, finely cut puzzles, inlaid puzzle boxes, and animated sculptures available in her little shop in the Marais, you’d think that she was more intent on playing with her wares than on selling them.
 
You might also think that she was off her rocker. She’ll laugh wildly as she turns the handle of a wooden automaton whose mechanism causes the blue elephant to jump when the mouse appears.
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Fancy Tiles and the King's Virginity
I was headed to the Hôtel de Beauvais, one of the grand mansions in the Marais, former home of Catherine de Beauvais, thinking that I'd complement my series of articles about Versailles with mention of the woman who is said to have been Louis XIV’s first lover. It's a good story.
 
Catherine de Beauvais was a premier lady in waiting and confidante to Anne of Austria, Louis XIV’s mother and regent during his minority. Some historians claim the queen mother put Catherine up to a seductive encounter in the stairwell of the Louvre.
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At the Flea Market: Leyla’s Antique Textiles

I first met Leyla Ahi at a white picnic beside the Eiffel Tower one summer night, where she flitted about like an ivory moth, stopping long enough to pour me a glass of Champagne and, as the lights on the tower twinkled 11pm, to invite me to visit her stand at the Puces (Flea Market) at Saint-Ouen.

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Plaques et Pots

Plaques et Pots is so minuscule and unassuming that you can easily miss it. But miss this old shop in the Les Halles quarter and you’ll miss a chance to take home a piece of France both present and past. To some travelers the enamel plaques and signs sold here will seem too utilitarian or too touristy to be special. Others will find that they make the perfect Francophile gift or decoration for your own home. In either case, pushing open the door to Plaques and Pots is like opening an old trunk: you never know what treasures and memories you’ll find.

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