Ch. 3: Knitting in Paris

The Violets by the River shawl was very happy to visit Paris. She grew on the airplane from Barcelona to Rome, in Rome waiting for the plane to Paris, and on the plane to Paris. she thanked her lucky stars that she was riding in my purse, because the suitcase containing all of our clothing, my medication, my shoes, etc., stayed in Rome for 2.5 additional days!!
Here in a cafe on the rue Cler in Paris the shawl didn't mind being stretched out to catch some fresh air. The air in the hotel room and close to my body was getting a little ripe from the same outfit being worn for three days!!!
Finally, after the errant luggage arrived, the shawl breathed a huge sign of relief. Here in the Jardins de Luxembourg she enjoyed the beautiful flowers and statues.
We loved the gardens and spent nearly one full day sitting in the sunshine with the Parisians and the tourists. We even rented a little sailboat to set out in one of the ponds, with the little kids. I was easily old enough to be the grandmother of ALL the other sailboat captains, however I had a great time pushing the sailboat with my long stick.


I've already told all of you about La Droguerie, the fabulous yarn/button/ribbon/bead shop in Paris that does NOT permit the taking of photographs in the shop. I found another little shop that sold mainly buttons, and managed to take this shot of a small portion of the button display! I let my 14 year old select a button as a souvenir, but it took her so long to make up her mind that she could not re-locate the first button she had wanted.

I am embarrassed to admit that while in Paris I knitted in the Eiffel Tower, in cafes and during the final World Cup match of France v. Italy. We were at a sidewalk cafe and I held the table, drinking wine, while he stood in front of the TV with dozens of cheering Frenchmen and tourists from all over. I had a better time than they did, in the end, since France lost and I worked many pattern repeats on the Violets by the River Shawl.
Back in Barcelona I resumed my quest to photograph the best or the most windows. I got carried away with photographing the decorations between the windows and the ironwork. This spectacular balcony is separated by a center radiating ironwork that looks like a sundial against the plasterwork.
This is the Bottom of a bay window!!

We have been back in Wisconsin for two weeks and I've barely been outside since our return! The temperatures are in the mid 90's with high humidity. Too hot for working even on my Violets by the River shawl. I spend most of my time sweating, even in the air conditioned house. However, our airconditioning unit is more than 50 years old and, the poor thing, it is stressed to the max. Therefore, we keep the temperature high so as not to cause it to collapse. Nevertheless, the a/c in our 13 year old minivan gave up this week and is in the repair shop. Thus far we have spent $390 and they haven't even located the problem!!!!