France: Regine Rideaux Thann-Alsace

What drew me into this shop was a wonderful window display featuring a lovely table cover embroidered all over with blue and silver flowers and candles. It was Christmasy but in my color palette.

It is a small shop, and no one spoke much English. By this time, I felt I was getting quite good at communicating in French, and I asked the price of the piece I liked. It was way too expensive. The disappointment must have shown on my face, and I did manage to say "il est trop cher pour moi". Well, that got me a 20 percent discount, and I am now the proud owner of a beautiful table cover from Germany.

I was so excited, I couldn't wait to show Joe and Bob, and soon they too were milling around the small shop looking for one-of-a-kind gifts. Joe finally settled on a tray made of cloth that is a toast holder, and it came with a jelly jar cover and a jar of jelly. It had a strawberry design and was very pretty. It was a gift for his friend Jackie, who traveled with us to England last fall.

Bob had them cut some lace doilies for him from bolts of lace they had. He has never been able to find ones for his end tables, and these were cut to exactly the size he wanted.

We had a great time here, and actually, considering how small the shop is, we spent quite a while looking through all the pretty and unusual things they had. They also do alterations and custom sewing here. We had a good laugh about that. Just the night before I had hemmed a new pair of pants for Joe (who still hadn't received his lost suitcase) by hand with a little traveling sewing kit I had picked up on one of my trips. 

We never thought we would be able to find someone to sew them, so being a trooper and the only woman on the trip, I volunteered to do the job. If only I'd known, I could have saved my fingers. Actually, I got quite a bit of mileage out of that little sewing job; when it's three-to-one, I need all the advantages I can get.

#thannfrance

I didn't take any pictures in the shop but this one of the streets in Thann and it may or may not be the one on which the shop is located but it is filled with charm.