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Saturday, October 31, 2009

Halloween night in Lacoste

So its Halloween in America, so we thought we would bring Halloween to Lacoste. Every year the students put on a trick or treating event up Rue du Four and make a haunted house. The haunted house was awesome with amazing Thriller dancers (Janelle), a "chainsaw" scene, and a strobe light haunted forest. I was scared. I dressed up as a cute little Indian, and Lara fit more into what the French children like, an angel of death. Caitlin and I handed out bon-bons to the greedy children until they stole it all from us. All in all it was a fun and successful event.Lacoste was just bustling with people. Enjoy these videos of some costumes, some Thriller dancing, and our scary haunted house! Happy Halloween.



Friday, October 30, 2009

Monks

This morning we went on a fieldtrip to Abbaye de Senanque, an abbey that is still used by monks and freres. They live there spending big parts of their days praying and also working. The monks grow lavender and tend honey bees for their livelihood and they sell lavender products and honey in their store.All of the fall colors were out once again and we passed this awesome town on the side of a mountain called Gordes.We spent the afternoon fabric shopping at Tissus Gregoire and because today was Lexi's birthday, we had cake and a dance party tonight!

Thursday, October 29, 2009

A fibers surprise...

Pam had a surprise for us. One that was going to make us die when we saw it. Our surprise was that the handsome french man from Brun textiles that we saw a few weeks ago gave us some "remnants" of their wonderful and expensive fabrics, but those remnants were more than remnants. We probably had thousands of dollars of fabrics on our table. We each got to draw five different pieces of amazing fabrics and take them to use how we wished. There were pieces of pure cashmere, 100% alpaca, and other wonderful fabrics. We were and still are in heaven. This is my pile!And to top it off, look whats right outside our studio! Loving fall in southern France.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Pumpkins!

Today we turned our cafe into a pumpkin carving factory for little french children. This is the most Halloween they get since they dont really "celebrate" Halloween in France. They LOVED it. They were so happy and so smiley and it made me so happy and so smiley. They are so cute! I know that French is their first language, but I am always amazed by little children speaking languages that I want to speak. On Halloween there will be trick or treating, a haunted house, and thriller dancers along Rue de Four.
Look at this pumpkin! Its a french jack o lantern! So great. Bonne nuit!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Fall!

Today was just a beautiful day. The winds have stopped, the sun is out, and the colors are changing! Now when you look out to the valley each vineyard and field is a different color than the one next to it! Its gorgeous. I only have three more weeks to enjoy this view. We are preparing for Vernissage and it is going to go quick. Before I know it my mom is going to be here and I am going to be traveling again. And then its back to the US for the holidays. How lucky I am.
A random side note... today while eating the pretzels I have had for a few weeks, I noticed that they are actually called "Bretzels." Who would have thought. Night!

Monday, October 26, 2009

Paris: Day 5

Our last day in Paris was a busy one. I had a list of the things I still wanted to do and I was determined to get them done. I started by going to an antique market, which I loved. I got lots of little treasures and I cant wait to give them to people! I loved walking around, getting pictures, making transactions in French, and seeing the entertainment!

From there I came back to the hotel to drop of my purchases, then went up to the Pantheon to go in this time. Outside was this statue with a bag of trash and a cone on its head! It was quite the site. It was right outside the college so it must have had something to do with that.
Next up was the Cluny museum where I snuck a picture of the Unicorn Tapestries. It was a smaller museum but filled with lots of great textiles.After the Cluny I walked over to Musee d'Orsay. I really enjoyed this museum. They have a lot of Impressionist work and had a fun Art Nouveau exhibit.Walking across the Seine to the Louvre I was just amazed at what a beautiful day it was and how lucky I am to be where I am. How amazing.The Louvre was crazy as usual. I just quickly went through the Egyptian area and wound up by Venus de Milo and Mona. Typical.My last stop of the day was to Sacre Coeur. What an amazing and beautiful place. I loved the church inside and out, but didnt enjoy the millions of people that were there, including the annoying men trying to touch you and sell you things. They just ruin the places. But I enjoyed it anyways, and went in to see a little bit of the mass that was going on. It was just amazing, and the whole trip was amazing. Europe is amazing.Once I made it back to the hotel I grabbed my bag, grabbed a crepe, and took the bus to Gare de Lyon to wait for our train back to Lacoste! Success.

Paris: Day 4

Day 4 in Paris was primarily spent with my wonderful professor Pam. Most of the fibers girls were headed to Versailles, an amazing place that I had been once before, so I wanted to go see new things. We headed over to the Decorative Arts museum which is within the Louvre. We saw an amazing exhibit of fashion designer Madeleine Vionnet, a jewelry exhibit, Toulouse-Lautrec, and then to the great Musique en Jouets! -- a toy exhibit. It was so fun, and there were kids that walked in and were just so excited. Pam had been anticipating the dancing rabbits and we sat down and enjoyed them.

We then took the metro over to the Bastille and St John area and walked into numerous cute shops. We eventually stopped for a great cup of coffee at the same cute cafe I had been to the day before. We even found Frozen Yogurt!
I wanted to go out to Montmartre to visit a wonderful trinkety store. They have a wonderful site that looks just like the store. The store is called Tombees du Camion and we loved it. When we walked out of the metro we immediately saw Moulin Rouge!
It was a very successful and enjoyable day. Once I got back to the hotel the girls met to get Thai food down the road, and then to get another glass of cider. We were definitely beat from our adventures in Paris thus far.

Paris: Day 3

Day 3 was Kara's 22nd bday! It was also our day for group shopping. Really. The fibers girls were split up into groups of 3 or 4 and each chose a store to go to from these books. We then had to navigate around and visit them, and buy things! My favorite store was this cute one called Au Petit Bonheur la Chance. It had amazing antique trinkets and lots of great finds.After shopping Kara and I found the cutest cafe. Kara got a croissant that melted her fork! It was ok because the cafe was so cute. I finished the meal off with a yummy chocolate tart!
The afternoon was all about FIAC, the contemporary exhibition we attended at the Louvre and the Grand Palais. It was interesting, there were some nice pieces and some that were just weird. Each artist had their own gallery space with their work in it, it was at times a little overwhelming, but overall it was a good experience.
After FIAC Janelle, Kara, and I walked down le Champs-Elysees to the Arc de Triumph. After seeing all of that we made our way back to the Latin quarter and went out for amazing sushi for Karas bday! It was so yummy and so much fun. We ended the night at an English pub for a glass of cider, all in all it was another good day in Paris.

Paris: Day 2

Day 2 was packed with lots of great opportunities for the fibers girls. We started off by taking the metro over towards Li Edelkoort's studio. We found this stencil on the ground. I like you.We got to experience something amazing. We paid big bucks to be able to go inside the Trend Union, where Li Edelkoort, a fashion trend expert puts together trend forecasts for fashion, fabrics, and many other areas up to two years in advance. She travels the world and has a team of researchers that put together everything she thinks will be "in" into a presentation. We got to hear about what the company does and then got to watch the presentation for Spring/Summer 2011 and it was so inspiring! What an opportunity, one that we would have never been able to experience on our own.On the way to the metro we had to walk through an automobile industry strike. France is known for their strikes. They have them all the time. They are also very organized about them and plan them in advance and get permits for them. This one was interesting and at one point looked like a war zone. Down the road there was a burnt car, not connected with the protest, but it looked like it!
Once we got through the protest we made it to Prelle. The company weaves silk in their factory in Lyon, which we are going to see next week. We were taken through their showroom in Paris and shown their amazing collection, which we are not allowed to share the pictures of, so China doesnt copy their designs. Really. Anyways, their company made the original silks that hung in Marie Antoinette's bedroom chamber, they worked on the Marie Antoinette movie, and now they work to recreate those designs and others. We were given yet another amazing fibers opportunity.Afterwards we went to La Droguerie, a great fibers store, and walked to another store with great trinkets. Megan, Caitlin, and I walked back to the Latin quarter and had a yummy Italian dinner.
After dinner we went to the Eiffel tower. We didnt go up, but we stayed to watch the light show... which was interesting. Its pretty corny how they make it turn rainbow to the beat of the songs they play. It was kind of lame, but it was the Eiffel tower. I had a creepy man touch me and ask me to call his brother and he would give me money. I told him, "Please dont touch me", and Janelle told him "youre rude, go away" so we left. Janelle and Kara danced underneath, then we went back to the hotel and got a crepe to end the day.