From the Kitchen Counter…

View from the Left Bank – Paris, France:

Mood Reading: 1/2 Z — jet lagged to the eyeballs, dropping off at 3 am and getting up and running all day but who cares, you can sleep when your dead.

So, I’m typing this on my iPad mini from my hotel room on Rive Gauche in Paris — bear with the typos and abbreviations and cut me some slack – operating on little sleep and even less keyboard savvy.  My friend Elaine and I arrived on Friday for our much anticipated girls trip dubbed the “sip, ship and schlep” tour – the theme for the 3 weeks abroad being to hit as many brocantes, flea markets, and open air markets and wineries as is legal for two blondes. And oh yeah, we might even throw in some sightseeing.   I’m hoping to blog as we go (shorter but more frequent) but make no promises…we’ve been here 3 days and this is the first I’ve sat down since we’ve been here!

We have spent the first  days of our trip in Paris – just because… Tomorrow we fly to Venice and begin a 2 1/2 week traipse through Italy that will include churches and clutches as we are renting a car and neither of us have driven a stick shift in donkeys years.  (thus the need for lots of prayer)  Between that and the wild Italian driving – this outta be good for some belly laughs! We weren’t here 24 hours before we hit Port de Vannes and Clingencourt – the first being a smaller street market and the second the Costco of Brocantes.  Brimming with excitement and hunting for bargains, we set out Sat morning with Cafe Creme and Euros in hand.  Having been 3 years ago, we were eager to find frames, silver, scroll work, market baskets and of course if you know me, any pretty or unique dish or crockery because at 1,067, my collection is getting a bit low. We found plenty – but so seemingly have the throngs of visitors who have visited and purchased in the meantime – inspired by the many books, articles,  and blogs about the (ahem) ‘bargains’ sincewe first came.  Prices have skyrocketed 10 fold and a real batgain is real hard to find. Still, we had 2 days of Flea Market Nirvana and are looking forward to some authenticity in the market squares in Italy …leaving for Venice at O’ dark-thirty tomorrow morning so looks like another night of little sleep.   Ciao for now!