Parislog 22
May 24, 2006

There were so many choices of shoes in this town that I couldn’t make up my mind what basic style I wanted to chose. Average price of a pair of shoes that aren’t just like K-mart are about $100 so one has to actually think about it. You can’t just get some of each type that intrigues you. Well, I can’t. So then after I spent weeks looking at the possibilities, I finally narrowed it down but then I became so specific in my little designer’s mind that I couldn’t find what I wanted. There really is an amazing plethora of choice here but sometimes that can make it worse. I found almost exactly what I decided on anyway so I am good for the summer, I hope.

I have been trying to make one of the tops that I designed on the computer.. The trouble has been trying to figure out how to work with knit t-shirt type fabrics on a regular sewing machine. I only tried it once before. I am just such a perfectionist that the littlest bit wrong and I am frustrated with myself. So, I have been experimenting with the different stitches available on the machine. Still not happy. Then I used the internet and researched the advice of others and found a product that I might be able to use. The words for it are in English and they are industry specific so not something that is in the translator. Here we go.

I went up to the biggest fabric store to see if I could just find it out somewhere and point or find the words written on packaging but it was no where to be seen. The clerks were very busy with customers. I went up one floor to get out of the massive crowds and found someone who wasn’t with a customer and begged for his help. He tried his best. He really did. It just isn’t true that the French won’t help. I have never had problems with finding someone who is willing to struggle with me to find the answer. However, the answer he came up with wasn’t it. I didn’t tell him. I just thanked him profusely for his help and went back to the first section that he thought the stuff was in. It still wasn’t there. So then I went to the next biggest fabric store and prowled the different floors until I got the right section and…yeah… I found it. I wouldn’t have guessed the name in years and if it wasn’t written on the edge of the piece of interfacing, I would never remember it. I was so happy.

Then came the next challenge and that was getting the piece cut and paid for. The first lady that I went to for help was a very cheerful woman but she was already with a customer so she asked another lady to help me who she had walked past. This lady came over with the most pained tired look on her face but I managed to get her to bust out a little tiny smile. However she’d forgotten her scissors and oh so tiredly had to go and get them. When she finally got back she cut the piece and off I went to the cashier. It was a line a mile long and the circuitous French Latin way of doing things made it go really slowly. When I got up to the counter I commented on how busy they were and she was so happy to tell me all about what was the problem and how overwhelming it was but I didn’t get a third of what she said. Oh well. She looked really happy to have a sympathetic ear so all was good.

The Musee de l’Orangerie has finally re-opened after many years. It was supposed to have been back in 2004 but they discovered ancient ruins of one of the walls of Paris and had to reevaluate their plans. They had 5 days of free entry and so I popped on by….and stood in line for an hour. The main draw to the museum is a series of the Monet paintings called the Nympheas (Water Lilies). The longest panel is over 55 feet long. It is quite amazing to see and the way they have displayed them is in 2 rooms shaped like ovals that have 4 panels each. Trying to image someone painting something so big and keeping a sense of perspective in it is really tough.


Last Thursday there was another football game of some sort and the city was full of revelers everywhere, on the metro and in the Place de Concorde. I forgot about them until midnight when a group decided to celebrate by playing a game of football in the street right below my window in the traffic. They were hooting and hollering in their jerseys. I guess they thought they had been the ones to accomplish the win. They certainly didn’t mind waking the neighbor for their joy. Where was that huge bucket of water to dump down on their heads?

I went to small fashion designer show. Because I don’t like crowds that much, I went right when it was advertised to be open. Well, in my American mind, the time of opening equals the time when everything is ready to go. That was a laugh. I had quite the shock when I walked in and found that 95% of the booths were starting to set up at that time. It was so weird. It looked like there was great potential in what was set up and what I could see coming out but I didn’t much feel like making another trip back later to see what could come of it. I wonder if that is another of those Latin mind set things?