Sharon with Nicol Sayre

All of “les jeunes filles” wore hats or musical antlers on Open House day.  Pictured are

Monique, Sharon, Jan, Laura and Marian.   Ooh La La!!

A Nicol Sayre original Snow Lady Doll

Suan Arnot created this Christmas doll using all vintage materials.

This a great bird cage and stand.  notice the Wendy Addison glittered birds flying by.

Sharon made this incredible wreath with mostly vintage Christmas items and a couple of glittered new items.

Pictured above is a Dee Foust original.  The delightful snowman is carrying a crescent moon.

You cannot have a Christmas in Paris theme without antique Mother of Pearl Opera Glasses and vintage jewelry boxes.

A nice selection of glittered banners greeted our customers as they entered the shop.

Nicol Sayre’s designs have been recreated for us by ESC.  The Angel For All Seasons has six different little trinkets that can hang from her waist.  They come inside the Celebrate box.

A trio of Pastel Snowmen graced our center table.  These whimsical characters brought smiles to the many “children” who attended our Christmas Open House.

It appears that Pere Noel (Santa Claus) brought many vintage toys for the little girls and boys.  There were tonka trucks, snow shoes, a wicker rocking chair, 1930′s tricycle, vintage children’s books, baseball items including a wonderful vintage catchers chest protector, catcher’s masks and gloves ( in honor of the SF Giants, no doubt), ice skates and more.

Pere Noel also brought for Mama these excellent clay French inspired pictures from the 1940′s.

Our Paris theme was carried throughout the store including our office area.  The office became our sidewalk cafe.

Cody Foster designed these magical pastel houses and churches.  You can just imagine them in the French Alps.

I will continue to post pictures of the store displays.  So please check back often.  But for now…Merci and au revoir.

American Harvest is presenting “Christmas in Paris” for our 14th Annual Christmas Open House on Saturday and Sunday, November 6 and 7, 2010.  We have been busy making and gathering fabulous French related Christmas items for you.  There will be wonderful Santas and Pere Noel, snowmen, angels, vintage Christmas decorations and antiques.  Our award winning window displays are always a special treat for our customers.  This year the window will be decorated as a Paris apartment at Christmas time.  Other featured areas of the shop will include a sparkling Winter Wonderland, a traditional Christmas section complete with little elves in a woodland setting and a Snowman’s Folly.   Our family of American Artists have been creating exciting Christmas items just for you.

Open House hours will be:

Saturday, Nov. 6   10am-5pm

Sunday, Nov. 7th  12-4pm

We will be closed from October 31-November 5th to transform the store to Christmas!

Future events:

Magical Holiday Evening with Debbee Thibault on Friday, November 19th 6-9pm and

Saturday, November 20th, 10am-5pm.

Debbee will be bringing many one-of-a-kind Christmas creations.

We hope to see you this Holiday Season at American Harvest!

Our first stop was Sacre-Coeur Basilica.  To get to the top of this steep hill, you take the Funicular!  Oops, it was not running that day.  There was a long line of people waiting for a shuttle bus (Matterns don’t do lines… not in Disneyland…  not in Paris).  "We’ll just use the stairs!"  (Sharon was NOT pleased.)  There are two sets of stairs, I chose the steeper ones under shade trees!  There were only 25 steps in each of the 8 levels.  (That’s right, do the math.)   The walk up was terrific with wonderful views of Paris.  At the top stands the beautiful Sacre-Coeur Basilica (Sacred Heart).  It was worth the climb!

After visiting the church and gasping at the breath-taking views of the city, we proceeded UP the street to Place du Tertre, Bohemian Montmartre.  Lined with cafes and shade trees, Place du Tertre has been the town square of Montmartre since Medieval times.  Artists fill the square hoping to be the next Renoir, van Gogh, or Monet.

In this area, you can leave the tourists behind and wander back streets to find one of Renoir’s homes, Picasso’s Studio, Toulouse-Lautrec’s house, and finally going down hill see van Gogh’s home (actually his brother’s home, but Vincent lived there for two years).  You can imagine these great Impressionist painters while you are in Montmatre.  My favorite painting is by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, it is called "Bal du Moulin de la Galette".  It depicts Montmartre on a sunny afternoon in the shade tree garden, people are laughing, dancing, drinking and eating…basically having a good time.

The last stop on our walking tour of Montmartre was the famous Moulin Rouge (Red Windmill).  According to Rick Steves’ Paris 2007 book, amateur night was the highlight for the nightclub.  The "CanCan" was first danced here.  Toulouse-Lautrec sketched the various acts including Jane Avril.

As an after thought, I convinced Sharon that a short two or three block walk on boulevard de Clichy to the Pigalle Metro station would be fun.  The Pigalle Metro station is known for its Art Nouveau style.   Oops!  I forgot that Pigalle was also nicknamed "Pig Alley" by American GI’s in WWII, because of all of the sex shops, peep shows, etc that line boulevard de Clichy.  She was not amused! 

(OK, so I took some liberties in writing this blog….Sharon never complained about all of the stairs in the metro station, never batted an eye about the steps going uphill to the Sacre-Coeur, and actually thought that all of the sex shops were very, very French!  OOH LA LA!!!)