I was back from Paris last evening. It was a wonderful trip for me even I just spent two and half days there.
I arrived in Paris by noon on Friday. Since I went alone, it was quite efficient to visit in the city.
I left my luggage in the hotel and started my shopping time near Centre Pompidu and Hotel de Ville. Near the Metro “Arts et Métier”(Line 3), there is a lovely market named “Le marché des Enfants-Rouges” which is one of my favorite markets in Paris.
I spent somet ime walking there and enjoyed the atmospheres of local life.
In the evening I took a walk around Eiffel Tower and came back to the hotel at 22h30.
The next day, Saturday, it was raining and very cold in Paris. Fortunately I joined two workshops in “île de la Jatte”. All participates concentrated on the workshops, discussed and shared with each other.
It was stunning and fun to know several French ladies who are soooo talented and fabricate the dollhouses. They are the specialists in different specific domains. To my surprise, these ladies were so kind and open to me even I don’t speak well French. We spent a great time together all day long. We exchanged the emails and contact info before leaving.
Sunday morning I went for SIMP. My hotel is just 3 minutes far from there by walking.
This was the first time I attended miniature fair and I did not have good sense of direction even I held the SIMP booklet in my hand. I crossed Emma (Paris Miniatures) and Rosanna (La Stanza di Giuggiola) and did not notice that till I saw Stéphanie (PetitPlat). I went back to Emma and chatted for a while beside her stand. ^_^
After I chatted and said goodbye to Stéphanie, I noticed “Minicaretti” on the right side banner…I felt familiar with it. Yep, it’s Marcella! We knew each other and shared some techniques in CDHM Forum two or three moinths ago. She was so warm and enthusiastic in greetings. Since my friends Luce “MyFrenchCuisine” and Fleur (a nice friend from the workshop) both were with me, we chatted all together.
The most interesting part was I met Léa, the author of “Grand livre de la maison miniature”. In the beginning I did not notice it was her stand, after her assistant packed my stuffs and I turned to leave, I saw her just beside me. I said “Oh c’est Léa” and asked her if she knew me when I kissed her cheeks. She said no. She did not remembered my name but she remembered I was the girl who made mini food and went to her shop near Montmartre during Christmas in 2008. She was really a star in my mind! She told me she made a new version of web at http://www.atelier-de-lea.com/
I stayed in the salon from 10 to 16h00 and did not have enough time to visit all the stands and took pictures. Before leaving for the train station, I wanted to say hello to Christel (Little Treasure). Unluckily she was not there. There was a mister taking care of the stand but I still looked carefully all the mini creations that Christel made. Super excellent!
I was so pleased to see many excellent artisans and artists in the show. Their works were unexceptionable. Even my purse was seriously bleeding, I was happy with the trip.
Before starting this post, I tried to recall if Rosanna was the elegant lady who smiled at me when I passed the stand in the morning. Dear Rosanna, if it were you, and if you also rememebred an asian girl passing by, I would apology for my BIG mistake!!! :-)
