What I Bought in Paris

Hello, everyone. I know we are all knee-deep into getting Christmas ready, but I thought you might like to see what I brought home from Paris.  If you have been with us here on the blog for a while, you know that we both travel a lot, and we really don’t do much souvenir shopping.  If I bring something home, it will be something that I can use.  That is the case for every single item I purchased in Paris.  I don’t want something that will sit unused in a drawer for years.  My purchases have to fit in and be serviceable.  Let’s take a look at what I bought.

 

First up, I always load up on wooden spoons at the market in the Marais.  It takes place on Thursday and Sunday mornings, and I love going there to browse and interact with the vendors.  I also bought some French butter and some mustard and tucked them into my suitcase.  Oh my……the butter is so good.  I always buy French butter for my morning bagel at our grocery, but that butter isn’t half as good as the real thing.  The French chef who gave us our cooking class recommended this mustard brand.

Next up is my salt cellar.  A salt cellar was on my list for this trip.  I saw two in an antique shop, but they were more than I wanted to spend.  Thank goodness I didn’t buy one because I found this cutie the next day at the Vanves Flea Market for one-third the price.  It had the very same design on it that one in the antique shop.  Lucky me!  It looks so cute with greenery tucked into it for Christmas.

I saw these cute matches at the Merci store.  That store is located near our apartment and is a very popular Parisian store that was just packed with people, as always.  They evidently have a good marketing department because I think that most of their items are totally over priced.  These matches were cute, reasonably priced, something I can use, easy to pack, and different.

My big household purchase was this copper saucepan.  You saw it already in this post. This was the other item on my shopping list.  Now I know that I could have bought the very same brand here on Amazon, but it was just special to buy it at Dehilleran and tote it home in my carry-on!!!

Also at the Vanves market, I somehow purchased five vintage copper saucepans and a small skillet.  (I took this quick picture after I washed them in our Paris apartment.)  And get this……there were three more in the bunch that were larger and heavier.  However, there was no way they would have made it into my luggage or onto the plane.  They were just too bulky and heavy.  Sadly, I gave them away to other vendors.  I told the one vendor (the man who sold me the salt cellar) to sell them to Americans because he would be able to get a lot of money for them.  How did I buy something I didn’t need?  The vendor saw that I was interested in a few of the small saucepans, and then he kept bringing out more of them and putting them into a big bag.  They all cost what I had planned on spending on the three small ones.  Let me tell you that they were the deal of the century.  I am so happy with them, and they are now proudly hanging in our pantry.

My biggest splurge came in these two boxes.  I always like to pick up a little something at one of my favorite Charles de Gaul airport shops, Hermes.  I bought another “H” bracelet and a nice silk scarf.  Travel tip – if you shop in the airport duty free shops, you avoid paying sales tax.

So, that sums up what I bought in Paris.  Everything is being used, and I am happy with all of the purchases.  I hope you enjoyed seeing them.

 

Take care.

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