Top Disain Interior: J'aime Paris

Greetings from Paris!
What a wonderful, exciting, beautiful place this city is. I (Kari) am so happy to have returned to one of my favorite places in the world (thus far)! Here's a little snapshot (using bad iPhone photos) of today's experiences:

Took a brisk morning walk past the Eiffel Tower on our way to cafe au lait and croissants for le petit-dejuner:

Marveled at the good fortune of finding an apartment in such a beautiful, old building! Our fourth floor studio apartment is in the corner of the building, so we have a grand old window that opens up to view a courtyard. I am in the process of trying to figure out how to get the hubby to relocate to Paris for a couple years...

(The apartment building:)

Marveled at the fantastic "living building" that is the Musee du Quai Branly. It's stunning! Coming from the Central Valley of California where July and August are dry, hot, and lacking green, it's refreshing to see such a lush display of healthy plants and foliage:

Saw so many beautiful examples of French buildings. So lovely to not see bad stucco all over the place (as seen in the Central Valley). I love the classics when it comes to architecture and certainly Paris has so much to offer in that arena!

Headed to the Marche aux Puces St-Ouen. Paris flea markets. Ah, need I say more? I think if my friend Shelley had not dragged me away from this place finally, I would have shut the place down. It's a treasure hunter's heaven!

We arrived early, as vendors were still opening up:

Then, the treasure hunt began! I could easily fill a shipping container with goodies from this market, but I decided to start slowly and tried not to consider the option of shipping anything large back to California. :)

My heart stopped when I saw these through a window: vintage Louis Vuitton trunks! They were way out of my price range, but I was dying to buy a couple to use as a makeshift bedside table in my guest room. They were priced at nearly 1,000 U.S. dollars apiece and I didn't think my hubby would understand how worth it they were, so I passed them by (but not without drooling first!)

So many random odds and ends...

Vintage silver = beautiful. Very fun to paw through old estate silver!

Even treasures for the mid-century modern enthusiast!

Sorry this picture is so far away...but I must say my biggest weakness at this market happened to be all the fabulous chairs. Antique bergeres, Louis chairs, etc...

Both Jill & I have weaknesses for great chairs. Our houses are starting to overflow with chairs, in fact. But there is something soooo fabulous about a fantastic chaise with great lines and fun fabric. I really, really, really wanted to buy about twenty chairs today. :)

This 18th century pottery was almost another downfall for me today! I really, really wanted to take home that fantastic blue plate with the dimensional oranges on it. Just a mere 650 in U.S. dollars. It would look great in my kitchen!

So many fun things! Not sure you can see them great, but there's a table of vintage soda/seltzer bottles there. I did pick one of those up in a really great blue-green color. :)