Our Great Parisian Adventure

Barb and Bob are like family to us. We have known them since Halliday was 9 months old, when Barb (just barely one toe into retirement,) answered an ad I had placed in the local "Register Star" for a full-time babysitter. Those were the days of I & Company, my busy graphic design studio and I was whizzing in and out of Manhattan trying to be supermom and have my cake and eat it to. Basic French was just a glimmer in my eye and Barb signed on for the long-haul when she picked up that phone. I thought it was Mary Poppins on the line, she was so nice and lovely and professional that I nearly cried.

So, here we are 15 years later: Barb, (now retired from years of manning the Basic French store in Red Hook, always smiling and making our customers feel special and important—something she is so good at, in all facets of her life) is finally free to travel!!!!

I had always wanted her to see Maison et Objet and so we all made a plan to meet in Paris and spend 2 incredibly busy days doing our version of Paris, before heading back to Lyon. I take some things for granted in France I think—the way things are different from the US, the simplicity of shapes, the smells, the architecture. You know when you live somewhere you half stop seeing things, so having her at the show with me was great and fun and incredibly helpful.

We sped around the 7 immense halls (like at the Jacob Javits Center in New York) taking in all the trends, new colors and products, placing orders with some tried-and-true suppliers and discovering some fantastic new ones too. Great pajamas and boxers, X-mas decorations, lots of dog stuff, children's tees and aprons, organic (bio) toiletries and home cleaning products that smell divine. Can't wait for our holiday shipment to arrive, but let's not think about Christmas just yet. I am savoring the Indian summer that has set in here. Vive le soleil!