Musical Menus

Today I dug out my stack of vintage menus, nearly all from steamships of the 1940's through the 1960's. They are not something I collect, but rather are paper ephemera I have inherited, so to speak. 

I decided to list this one, Gentil Coquelicot, in my Etsy shop:

Nice Poppy

 is the translation of the song name.

I have 24 of these menus, from the Compagnie Generale Transatlantique, a shipping company in France, known in the U. S. as The French Line. They are all from the S. S. Ile de France, which was decorated entirely in Art Deco style. Can you imagine how amazing that must have looked?

Each has a different watercolor illustration of a French song on the front cover, and the words and song notes on the back. Inside, of course, is the menu of the day. Some are for Le Dejeuner (luncheon), but most are for Le Diner (dinner).

This song will be familiar to many readers, Frere Jacques, sometimes known as "Are You Sleeping?"

The watercolor illustrations, by Jean Mercier (1899 - 1995), are so lovely with subtle, yet vivid colors. This is one of my favorites.

Fais dodo is baby talk for "go to sleep."

If you would like to hear any of these songs, here is a website to visit:

Mama Lisa's World International Music and Culture

Just type in the name of the song in the search box. Scroll down the page until you find the box titled "Listen." Then click on your preferred audio format.

Wordless Wednesday... Perfume

Molinard Perfume Factory, Grasse, France

Wordless Wednesday...Save Me a Chair

                                                           Villa Ephrussi-Rothschild, Cap Ferrat, France

The small chairs were used by the dogs that lived in the villa 
and are represented by the statues.

Wordless Wednesday... A Glimpse

...of the Mediterranean Sea
Villefranche-Sur-Mer, France

Winter Antiques in the South of France

Some of you may have noticed that I have been missing in action of late (gee, I hope so, but perhaps not...). Well, I was lucky enough to be able to take a jaunt to the French Riviera for a week-- hubby and I gave ourselves a gift in honor of Christmas, my birthday, and our anniversary. 

We visited the Nice flower market just three blocks from our hotel. 

 

On Mondays, it becomes an antique market. Hooray! We had other plans for that day, so we got up early and popped over to check it out. 

 At 8 AM, it is still dark there and also chilly on an early January morning.

But I took pictures anyway and with the help of some editing to bring some light to them, I want to share them with you.

The dealers appeared to be hard core, old-timers (even the younger ones). My French is spotty at best and I also did not know the proper haggling etiquette, so I was too intimated to even try to buy anything. Not to mention that it all seemed to be rather expensive.

Not only that, but several of the price signs were in francs. France has had euros for 10 years. It's tricky enough to calculate euros into dollars, but francs? Forget it! Even though I did see some small things I really liked, it was too mentally confusing for me.

 Can you see the Mediterranean sea through the arch?

It was fun to be there as daybreak came and the sky lightened.

I wanted to share my favorite piece. I asked the dealer if I could take a picture ( in a kind of sign language with my camera!) and, in the usual French way, he shrugged and turned away from me (I'm part French, so no disrepect intended). I took that as a yes and snapped away, with a flash.

This most amazing necklace was full of beads, coins, and who knows what. Isn't it wonderful? I can't imagine how much it weighs, but it is truly a statement necklace!

We thought the market was only in the morning, as is the flower one. But it went all day and later on, after we finished with our other plans, we returned for another quick look around.

This was taken from the top of some stairs we found. The weather was rather dreary that day.

It was a lot of fun just to look, but I wish I'd been a more intrepid soul. Well, maybe on the next adventure...

Wordless Wednesday...Conversation in Nice

 

Place Massena, Nice France

Click  

That's How the Light Gets In

 to view at night

Gypsy Craft

I've always had a fascination with gypsies, as I imagine a lot of others have. 

For Halloween one year, when I was a little girl, I dressed as a gypsy (with the help of my mom, of course) --that is, when I wasn't a pirate or a beatnik.  And I always wanted to live in one of those cool caravans, which are apparently now becoming popular for vacations.

 

So you can kind of tell, perhaps, that I am attracted to exotic sorts of things.

Yesterday, my mother (yep, same one) gave me some odds and ends of jewelry to either sell or incorporate into my own jewelry creations. The most interesting one was this necklace.

Then she told me a story about it that I had no memory of. She and my father traveled to the Provence region of France, probably in the 1980s (I forgot to ask). They rented a car and were leisurely going from town to town in that beautiful area.

Now there are many gypsies (or Tsiganes, as they are also known) that live in and around that part of southern France. They are travelers and make their living in various rather ways, that I will not go into here (but if you've ever gone to western Europe, you've probably read warnings about them).

My parents encountered some gypsies having an informal market, of sorts, so they stopped to see what was being sold. To make a not-too-long story even less long, my mom bought the necklace shown above.

The most interesting thing about it (besides the story, of course) is how it was crafted. It is quite primitive, which gives it a raw sort of  beauty.

The links were handmade, as were the jump rings. The chain and barrel appeared to be commercially made.  Lots of solder, most likely lead, was used, which would make it impossible to be sold in California.

The large piece of faceted purple glass

 is reminiscent of the color of wine.

This is such a dramatic piece, which I will eventually sell in my Etsy shop (with a warning about the solder). But for now, I will keep it and admire the exoticism of it and how it came to be in my family.

 

Wordless Wednesday... Musee de Louvre

Wordless Wednesday... Radishes

Street Market in Blois, France

Wordless Wednesday... Dragon

Can you spot it?

A Hidden Gem

I had the good fortunate of traveling to France this summer and thought I'd share a cute spot I found, quite by accident. In a town named Blois, hidden away on a shortcut path en route to a larger road, I came across this little outdoor tearoom. I was quite taken by the mismatched tablecloths, chairs, and tables. 

I was only able to snap a few pictures, as I was with a group and could not linger, for fear of getting lost!  Blois is a medieval town, with wonderful stone buildings. The entrance to this restaurant was in such a building, directly behind the chairs in the first photo.

The name of the restaurant is Cak't,  a word of which I have been unable to find a translation. 

 

Upon returning home, I searched the name on the Internet (what else?) and found that it is a franchise, of all things.

Here is the link to the website (translated courtesy of Google translate):

 CAK'T