ateliers

An atelier, a painter's studio. His paintings were so good, we started taking pictures of every one from the window, there's me in the foreground and Sophie in the back, reflected in the window. This was Lyon, France.

Lyonais food, so rich and delicious.

I think this is an illustration of a product label. It was a cute shop.

A water color

This shop sells one of a kind creations, this is one of a kind of scarf.

Lots of pastry shops, selling one of a kind creations, pretty French macarons looking tempting and tantalizing, calling to shoppers to come and buy some.

We first ate at a Le Pain Quotidien restaurant in Nice a few years ago. It was such a novel experience, communal tables, all of pine, the fixtures were all pine, so much like a Provencal country home. There were pots of jams and sugar on the table, we sat at a corner, a few other parties sat all around this long pine table. It was here I ate my muesli, not with milk but with delicious French yogurt. It waa a lot of fun, it was right next to the market in old Nice and I had just bought some raspberries which I added to my muesli. We ate breakfast there the next day and at 13 euros for the both of us, it wasn't cheap. The next time I ate at Le Pain Quotidien was when I was with my niece, Ashley and this was lunch in Brussels. There are a few of this chain in the US and one in Santa Monica which I frequent.

Of course, all my lotions are from L'occitane, I like the shea butter in the lotion, it lasts.



Shop at any mall in the US, it is not hard to notice the sameness of everything, a Starbucks, a Gap, a J Crew, an Old Navy, a Barnes and Noble etc. all selling the same thing. Then is there any reason to visit another mall other than the one you're dealing with? Probably not. One thing about Europe and especially France, there are lots of Ateliers, shops that sell one of a kind stuff. It is always fun to walk into one, any one, each one reflects the owner's taste and style and is so different.

But even France is becoming to be more like the US with the increasing numbers of chain stores like Zara, H&M, Promod, Monoprix etc. Still it has a larger number of Ateliers.

Our visit to Lyon last October exposed us to a lot of Ateliers. The usual chain stores were almost absent, we didn't see any Starbucks, Monoprix, H&M, Zara or Promod. So everywhere was an interesting Atelier including this cute curio store in the basement run by a very young lady.

No matter, there's a few reminders of Europe in town, a few stores selling English groceries, Le Pain Quotidien and L'Occitane. These will have to do till I'm actually on the ground again in Europe.

C'est la vie!