If you are ever in Paris, you should try and pop into one of Astier de Villatte’s stores which is a truly lovely experience:  http://www.astierdevillatte.com

I actually first stumbled on Astier de Villatte’s ceramics in the Queensland Art Gallery’s shop in Brisbane about seven years ago.  I think I had ummed and aaahed over some teacups they had, but at A$180 or something each, had naturally passed.  It was only as we were strolling down Rue Saint Honore in Paris about four years ago that we wandered into a gorgeous little shop and I instantly remembered the teacups and realised I was in an entire store with their signature items.  Heaven.

It became a little tradition where we purchased a single piece every time we visited Paris as a souvenir (although we failed on at least two occasions due to time constraints).  We could only afford a single piece at a time – it is eye wateringly expensive – but the shops are charming and the ceramics and glassware are beautiful.  On one memorable trip, while the girl was wrapping our choice, she exclaimed that she was so charmed with my girl’s polite French, that she took her over to a selection of gilt edged elegant notebooks and told her to pick one as a gift, from her.  My girl has never written in it, to this day, preferring to keep it “for good”, whenever that will be.  A sweet memory from a lovely summer day in beautiful Paris.