Recently in Europe Category

There are only a couple days left of Paris Fashion Week - it ends Sunday.  Somehow Paris Fashion Week seems way more cool than New York, to me, mostly because the shows are scattered about Paris. Many of them are at the Carrousel du Louvre, which serves much like the Tents at Bryant Park do for New York. But many are at other interesting places like the Espace Eiffel on the Quai Branly in the 7th or in the Tuileries gardens in the 1st or the Grand Palais in the 8th. You can see the full schedule at Mode a Paris' official site.  I would just die if I could go to a show, any one!!

I LOVE Paris, having studied there it feels like a place I know (very well) which is rare for a foreign city because most of us only can visit for a week or so.  You can get to know a city in that amount of time, but not "really" know it.  So anyway, for my ode to Paris, here are some of my favorite spots.

Stopping for a cafe creme on the Rue Soufflot in the Latin Quarter, you have the beautiful Pantheon looming on one side and my favorite gardens the Luxembourg Gardens down the street in the other direction. My absolute favorite place to buy a baguette is also right there, Boulangerie Moderne (16, rue des Fossés-Saint-Jacques).

Shopping around the Eglise de la Madelaine. I love the Habitat store (30, Boulevard des Capucines), Fauchon (30, Place Madeleine) and Hediard (21, Place Madeleine). Habitat is a home goods store by Terence Conran - back then I didn't even know who that was, but I loved the store! Fauchon and Hediard are both gourmet food shops that put Citarella and Eli's to shame. They're like food museums.

And very conveniently, Place de la Madeleine is very close to Place Vendome where the Ritz is. If you're not staying there you at least have to stop in for a cocktail! And of course Rue Saint-Honore is right there also, nice for just a walk and window shopping - or some serious ($$$) shopping!

I could just go on and on. I really love Place des Vosges in the Marais, the Parc Monceau in the 8th, a great little restaurant near the Eiffel Tower, La Fontaine de Mars, walking around the Saint-Germain-des-Prés quartier on the left bank, the Musee Guimet (asian art) in the 16th.....etc, etc, etc.  Wow, I really need to go to Paris!

Keeping on the jewelry vein from yesterday... the jewelry piece that I am dying to get right now is pretty much anything from the Alhambra line from Van Cleef & Arpels. It comes in both white and yellow gold in a lot of different styles, some with inlays of mother of pearl, onyx or tiger's eye.  I love the quatrefoil shape, which they call a "clover" presumably because they figure the average moron doesn't know what a quatrefoil is.  (Art history anyone???) The quatrefoil was common in Moorish architecture (thus the name for the collection, Alhambra) and later in Gothic architecture. Years ago I went to the Alhambra Palace in Granada (Spain), wow, seriously beautiful place.  The courtyard of the lions there is amazing. Everyone must go!

Van Cleef doesn't have prices on their website, but according to InStyle magazine, this 18k bracelet goes for $1,500.  That seems quite reasonable to me.

I love tiger's eye, so maybe I'd get the single pendant in tiger's eye and yellow gold. 

Here's Reece who apparently has 2 different styles. I wonder if she actually bought them, or if they gave them to her?  It looks like mabye the Byzantine Alhambra style in the first picture and either the Vintage Alhambra or regular Alhambra in the second.

You can check out all the styles here: http://www.vancleef-arpels.com/en/van-cleef.html#/alhambra/  Happy shopping (or dreaming).  Cheers.