Cathedrals of Paris Tour

Bon jour!

One of our favorite things to do when we go to Paris is visit some of the many amazing cathedrals.  So today I thought I'd share with you the ones that hubby and I visited there last week.

Perched atop the highest point in all of Paris is Sacre Coeur (or, "Church of the Sacred Heart").

It is an amazing cathedral, and looks totally different that the churches typically found in Paris.

 Inside, there was a "No Photographs" sign, but I just couldn't resist sneaking a few quick shots!  

Shhhhh!  Don't tell!

 Isn't the dome amazing?

 This is one of the most popular attractions in all of Paris, and the area is usually quite crowded, especially on the weekends.  Slipping inside a cathedral for a few minutes is not only good for the soul, but a nice and quiet retreat from busyness of the city.

 This is the view you are treated to from the front steps of Sacre Coeur.  What an amazing sight!

 Notre Dame is our very favorite cathedral in all of Paris. It is only a few blocks away from our hotel, and in fact, we can see the towers from our room.  Hearing the bells toll in our room is always exciting!!

 We didn't go inside this time, as the line to get in was always so long!

 Ooh, la, la!

 This next cathedral is just as amazing!  St. Sulpice was started in 1646 (!) and took over a century to build.  I've never seen a church with twin towers before, and this one is quite impressive!

 The interior was stunning, to say the least.

 I really love this view of Madonna and the Christ Child.  I love the play of shadows and light.

 And just look at this massive organ!  It is huge!!

 Last but not least on our tour is St. Etienne du Mont.  We didn't venture inside of this cathedral, our feet were getting tired of all that walking, and dejeuner (lunch) was calling our name!

 Ok, since I'm linking up with Kathleen over at Faded Charm for White Wednesday, I thought I'd share with you some of my latest "whites" that I've just added to my Etsy shop!

 I really love this pair of vintage milk glass compotes.  They are even prettier in person than my photos can capture!  I also have a larger one, too, below.

I had fun collecting this set of vintage milk glass vases. I thought my end of summer blooms looked so pretty in them!

 I also added this compote with matching bowls, in a lovely quilted pattern.  You can check them out here if you wish!

Thanks so much for visiting me today, and for joining me on my little tour!  Stay tuned, as I'll be posted lots more photos of our trip to France in the upcoming weeks!

Au Revoir!

A Visit to the French Countryside

Bon Jour Mon Amis!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Today I thought I'd share with you more photos of our trip to the Alsace region of France.
The city of Colmar was full of amazing half timber buildings, and like much of the region, was heavily influenced by nearby Germany.  As a matter of fact, a large portion of the area had once belonged to Germany, and Austria at one time, too.

I was ooohing and aaahing over all of the flowers, and pretty shutters, too!  Especially the blue and turquoise ones!

Aren't the flowers amazing?

A river ran right thru Colmar, making it even more picturesque!  I called all of these towns and villages "fairy tale villages", as it felt like we were walking right thru a story book!

The next shots were taken in the quaint little medieval walled village of Bergheim.  Isn't this painted shutter just adorable?!!  It even has their initials on it!

I was having so much fun just soaking up the details, such as this sweet little shuttered window filled with pots of succulents.

I thought of all of you when I saw this neat old mannequin in a winery.  Sure wish that I could have taken her home!  Speaking of wineries, the Alsace region is known for their many vineyards.  We followed the "Route des Vins" (wine route), and visited a bunch of wineries and had fun doing lots of wine tasting!

We didn't have any hotel reservations til we got to Paris, so we just played it by ear each day as to where we would spend the night.  Like many of the other pretty little villages that we visited, most of them we just happened to stumble upon, including Bergheim, which was one of our favorites!  We managed to get the very last room available in the hotel below for one night.  It was amazing!  The building was once a farm, and they've kept much of the original features, such as the old stone walls and interior beams.  We loved it so much, I could have spent an entire week here!

Our room was on the 2nd level, and this interior open air courtyard was right outside our door.

We had the best dinner that night at their restaurant, below!  Notice the old fashioned pumpkin?

Love!

I was interested to learn that family who owns the hotel (and also a winery), has been making wine in this same little village since 1737!

The lower level had the most amazing pool (piscine) that we took a dip in.  Notice the old stone walls and beams?  It's hard to tell from the picture, but the sides of the pool are old wine barrels.  How neat is that?

Here's hubby at the entrance to the village.

And yours truly (having a bad hair day, I might add!  What on earth happened to my usual bangs?!), enjoying the sunshine and flowers.
That's it for now.  I'll be sharing lots of photos of our trip to Paris in upcoming posts.
Hope you all have a tres magnifique week!

Our Trip To France

Bon jour, Mon Amis!

How are you all doing?  I've missed you all!  Hubby and I returned yesterday afternoon from France, after spending 10 wonderful days there!  We had such a great time, and saw so many beautiful sights, that my head is still spinning!  I took a ton of photos, and will share some here with you today.

 After landing at the Charles de Gaule airport in Paris, we picked up our rental car and headed to the Alsace region, which is in the north east corner of France, right near the German border.  It was our first time visiting Alsace, and it was even more beautiful than we imagined!  We spent the last 4 days of our trip in Paris (I'll be sure to share photos of that in the next week), and as much as we love it there, the Alsace region was actually the highlight of our entire trip!

Since we were so near the German border, all of the little villages not only had German sounding names, German inspired food, but had beautiful half timber German style architecture that we love so well.  Each and every village that we visited was just as beautiful as the last!  The shuttered windows, lace curtains, quaint architecture, and gorgeous flowers made it feel as if we had stepped right into little fairy tale villages! The one above, Dambach-la-Ville, where we stopped for lunch, was an adorable little medieval walled village. 

 Another one of our favorite towns was called Obernai, where I snapped the rest of these photos.

 Aren't the buildings amazing?  Just look at all of the details, such as the neat corbels below.

 You would have loved the pretty flowers, too! One little shop sold these pretty gingerbread cookies.

 I couldn't resist taking a picture of hubby as a stork!  The white stork is considered good luck in this region, so we saw the stork motif just about every where.  They spend their winters in Africa, then migrate north to breed.  I thought it was interesting to learn that the stork population has really dwindled, largely in part to pesticides, but thankfully they have been working hard to save them, and have been creating breeding centers to increase their population.

 Check out their giant nests!  We saw several of these thru out the region, always on the roofs of buildings.  How neat is that?

 You know how much I love blue, so I was really excited to see these pretty bright shutters!

 The last day we were in Obernai, they had a street market, where you could buy everything from fresh fruits and vegetables, to hot pretzels (more German influence!) to furniture and clothes. 

 I thought this little van, that was outfitted with a built in rotisserie, was so much fun!  The French are really into their roasted chickens, and the smell walking by the van was amazing!

 The Alsace region is known for their fine wines, and we just so happened to luck out and be there during their harvest.  I wish that I'd gotten some pictures of the tractors that drove right thru the little villages.  They would pull wagons with big bins filled with grapes.  The sight of John Deere tractors, so common there, always makes me think of my Dad, who was a farmer all of his life.  He loved his John Deere's!

Driving along the country side, there were vineyards as far as you could see.  Such a pretty sight!  Notice the ruined castles, both at the top of the hill, and to the left in the distance?

We had such a wonderful trip, but it feels oh so good to be home!  We really missed our sweet little Emily, who was so excited to see us when we picked her up at the "pet resort" yesterday!  And of course we missed our own bed.  And I missed little things like Diet Coke, and a good cup of coffee!  Their Coke and Diet Coke taste totally different then ours (they use different sweeteners), and I don't like it at all.  Can you believe it, a glass of wine is cheaper than Coke in a restaurant?  Hubby ordered a coke in a little cafe in Paris, and it was 5 Euros for a very small glass bottle!  So that's about $6.25 with the exchange rate, yikes!  As for coffee, they don't use cream at all in theirs, just low fat milk (I gotta have my cream!).  Maybe that's part of the reason you don't see many overweight French people!  Speaking of which, after all of that eating and drinking, today is the day I am starting my _iet (I never use the word "diet", haha!).

I'm linking up with Common Ground for Vintage Inspiration Friday

Hope you have a great weekend!  I'll share more of our trip soon!

Chalkboards!

Bon Jour Mon Amis!

If you visit me on a regular basis, you know how much I love chalkboards!  So today I thought I'd share with you some of my latest creations that I've placed in my Etsy shop.

 I was thrilled to discover this vintage Syroco frame last week.  Of course it was "gaudy gold" when I found her!  It's amazing what some Heirloom White and a little tlc can do, don't you think?

Actually, this chalkboard has a little secret!

 She's also a mirror!  I added chalkboard vinyl to the reverse side of the mirror.  So, just flip it over for a totally new look!

 Next, I painted a large wooden frame a pretty baby blue (my favorite color!). 

 I think this would be great in a baby boy's room!

 For this oblong chalkboard, I made a bit of departure in my usual color palette.

I painted the frame a metallic gold, followed by some distressing.

 Then, I added some red and burnt umber paint, to give it Old World appeal, and highlight all of the wonderful details.

 Ok, this large cream chalkboard is one of my favorites.  It's huge!

 The pictures just don't do it justice!

 I found this pretty vintage Homco frame a few weeks ago.  It was missing it's mirror, so of course I just had to turn it into a chalkboard!  The frame was originally a boring brown.  I think it's oh so much better in pink!

 After making dozens and dozens of chalkboards for my shop over the past few years, I finally got around to making this one for myself!  I've placed it in my craft room, with scripture that really helps give me a lift.

Powerful words for difficult times.

 I found the frame at a garage sale earlier this summer.  It actually had a mirror in it, that ended up breaking as I was trying to remove it from the frame (phooey!).  So, I knew that was a good excuse to turn it into a chalkboard for moi!  It was gold when I found it, so I could hardly wait to give it my Heirloom White treatment!  Believe it or not, the frame is molded plastic, but you'd never guess!  It really has the look of carved wood!

Only a few short days before hubby and I leave for France!  I am so excited, I don't know if I'll be able to sleep the night before we go!  

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Au Revoir!

Framed Silverware Print

Bon Jour Mon Amis!

Hope you all had a great long holiday weekend!  It's hard to believe that September is here already.  While it always seems a little bittersweet that summer is almost over, after a super steamy hot summer, I am oh so ready for autumnal weather to arrive!

Today I'd like to share with you one of my latest creations, a framed and matted silverware print!

 I found this pretty frame a few weeks ago.  It already came double matted, and originally held black and white photos of flowers. While it was pretty, you know me, I just have to change things up!  So, I began by painting the frame a nice taupe color, which matches the inner mat.

 But what to add to the three openings?  I immediately thought of silverware!  The Graphics Fairy is where I found the amazing fork, spoon, and knife prints!  Aren't they pretty?  I also found the lovely background print there too!  So, I first printed out the background, then the silverware on top of it.

 I'm really happy with how it all came together!

 I'm also super excited, as a week from now hubby and I will be leaving for France!  We will spend 10 days there, driving along the French country side for the first half of the trip, then spending the second half in our very favorite city in the world, Paris!  I can hardly wait!  We've talked about this trip for months, and it really snuck up on us!  We've always gone to Paris in the spring, so visiting in the fall will be a real treat!  Thanks to hubby's many years working for the airlines, we are able to fly very cheaply (we fly standby, keeping our fingers crossed that we make it on the plane!), and we love taking advantage of such a wonderful benefit.

I plan on purchasing lots of treasures while there, that I will offer for sale here on my blog when we return (thank goodness for expandable suitcases!).  So stay tuned!

Later this week I'll be sharing with you more photos of my craft room.  I'd love to have you pop back in for another visit!

                   Hope you all have a great week!
I'm linking up with Faded Charm for White Wednesday.
And Common Ground for Vintage Inspiration Friday.
Be sure to visit for lots of amazing ideas!