Thursday, January 13, 2011

Le Rouvray Quilt Shop

For the greater part of last year I designated all the money I earned on Thursdays to go towards my trip to Paris. It really inspired me to be diligent, and was also fun as I would spend time researching various aspects of our trip in my free time. Since my trip is over now, I have been missing the anticipation of planning and researching, so I think this year I will make Thursdays my day to remember my trip, share some of my pictures and write some notes about the things we did and saw so I won't forget some of the smaller details!

One of the fun things I wanted to do besides seeing all the usual tourist places like Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, and the Louvre was to visit a real Paris Quilt Shop. I did some research and found just the thing, right across the Seine from Notre Dame. We had planned to visit there on Tuesday during our exploration of Notre Dame, but ran out of time. So after a full morning at the Louvre on Wednesday we sat on a bench and decided to go have lunch near Notre Dame and visit the Cluny Museum, the Conciergerie and Le Rouvray - the one quilt shop in Paris!
We stopped by the shop first thing after lunch, but it was closed, so we popped over to the Cluny museum, admired the gorgeous Tapestries there, and the historic ruins and exhibits, then headed back to the (now open) quilt shop! Le Rouvray is a delightful place - not at all large, but full of lovely fabrics and patterns. I had set myself a fabric budget, but it did not go very far here - we are lucky to pay the prices we do here in the United States, fabric is much more dear in other places. I chose to buy some pre-cut pieces in a variety of rich colors, then set my budget aside when I found a wonderful french quilt book!


tout ce qui est Petit est Joli or Itsy Bitsy Pretty Quilts was just too perfect for me to pass up! I love miniature quilts, and it was just way too great that the book is written in french and english. It was more than I ordinarily like to spend on a book, but I figured it did double duty as a souvenir as well as a quilting book! I haven't made any quilts from the book yet, but I'm sure I will be pulling it out as soon as I have some free time. I love the colors and the patterns in this book which are different from my usual choices, and definitely have a french flair to them. They will be a lot of fun to make and a great way to remember my trip. I very much enjoyed my short visit to Le Rouvrey - I would love to visit again sometime, hopefully with a larger money stash (and suitcase!)

Bon Nuit!

Pamela

3 comments:

FabricFascination said...

Thanks for sharing about your trip Pam. I remember all the excitement of planning, but hadn't heard about your time in France.

The book definitely qualifies as a souvenir as well as a quilting expense!

Unknown said...

Dear Pam, I was so glad to see your post about the "Le Rouvray Quilt Shop" in Paris. My friend and I are going to France on 5/22 and will spend 4 nights in Paris. In searching the internet, I found this quilt shop in Paris, and it is so neat to see that you have been there. We hope to make it there too. My friend and I are quilters and can't think of anything more wonderful than going to a French quilt shop! Thank you for the info, we'd appreciate any more info you could provide. Is it a very far walk from Nortre Dame or St. Michel? Thank you so much.

Teresa Purvis
Delaware

Pamela said...

Teresa,

So exciting that you will be visiting Paris, I am sure you will love your time there as much as I did! Le Rouvray is quite close to Notre Dame, just across the river and a few blocks walk. Cross the Pont au Double, which is the bridge closest to the entrance of Notre Dame, then turn left at the Rue Bucherie (the first street after the main avenue). It's a narrow street, just a couple blocks long and the quilt shop is at the end of the street on the right. The main thing is to check on the hours it is open. We first arrived when they were closed (probably for lunch) but just walked down to the Cluny Museum, then back to the shop. There is plenty to see in the area, so it's easy to kill an hour or so if you need to! It's not a huge shop, but fun to visit - fabric prices are quite high, but what can you do when you have to have a little quilting souvenir?