Paris :: Berthillon Glace {best ice cream in the world}

more bits from my time in paris. 

this is the place to get your ice cream. it is world renowned and right behind notre dame. i have been eating ice cream there for nearly 20 years and love the fact that i was able to share it with my children. 

you can sit by the river or on the bridge and watch jazz bands and dogs. just writing about it makes me want to cry and immediately hop back on a plane. 

i can not even muster the energy to capitalize, i am so sad. 

it is magic.

Paris :: marché aux timbres {stamp market}

A big part of the fun of traveling with your kids is that they bring their interests to the voyage and take you to places you might have otherwise overlooked. My daughter collects stamps and one of the first places she wanted to check out was the stamp market right off the Champs Élysées on rue Gabriel (metro :: Franklin Roosevelt or Champs Élysées-Clemenceau). 

What a wonderful little market! There were, of course, stamps that were very expensive and out of reach, but the relaxed atmosphere and displays allowed much browsing. And there were bins of "junk" stamps that could be had 10 or 20 for a euro. A perfect souvenir. 

There were also many old postcards and letters with faded inky script that would be fun to pick up and use to create stories of forgotten lives with. 

From the market we spend some time in a nearby park and then headed up the Champs Élysées, window shopping and macaron eating here. We ended up at the Arc de Triomphe and gave it a climb which was strengthening and worth the 284 steps for the view (which was nothing compared to the 710 steps we hoofed it up on the Eiffel Tower). A perfect little little weekend itinerary!

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Markets of Paris is a wonderful book that I used many times last month. A complete listing of food markets as well as marches aux puces and other interesting markets make this an essential book to bring if you like to wander through stalls. 

{announcing} dispatches from Paris - real mail, from far away

My word this year is FLY and this May we are literally flying to Paris for the month. 

All five of us. 

I worked in Paris several summers and have visited on my own as much as I could, so it is a place I love deeply and yearn for achingly. I can not wait to share some of its quiet secrets with our children. 

I am also "flying" with my ideas, no matter how crazy or off the wall they seem. So, I have decided to offer a letter subscription while I am there. Why? Because I love getting mail and thought you might too! 

What am I offering? A handwritten, photocopied letter from me each week, tucked into a French envelope with a stamp and mailed all the way across the ocean to your mailbox.

I am drawn to low tech forms of communication the more time I spend on the computer. I want to experiment more with mail trades, zine publishing and public art.

I will fill you in on the adventures of my creative family, share some ideas, recipes, resources and probably a few funny stories. You can be sure there will be at least a few bits of ephemera tucked in the letters too. A leaf or feather, maybe a metro ticket or found grocery list - what ever presents itself on my wanderings.

This project is like a DIY Kickstarter project. It will help fund everything (food, museums, metro tickets) times FIVE! And it will help keep me accountable to you and my own heart about the trip. I will notice more details because I will feel like I am bringing you along with me. I will share about the grocery stores and the old women, about how much things cost, what is in bloom, and what the honey shop is like. 

Are you game? 


$20 for a weekly letter from Paris, all May 2013.

Subscribe here.