Chance encounters

This week has been full of ups and downs, high highs and low lows. I had a bad case of the Mondays for the first half of the day, then met up with a new French friend and had a really good night. Tuesday was a kind of normal day - French classes, errands, yoga. Wednesday began with a 3 hour ordeal at a French bank as I attempted to open an account and was followed by a doctor's appointment at a pretty shady clinic. On my way home from the clinic, I was feeling spent... emotionally spent.

As I walking, I eyed a window display of vintage watches and decided to take a peek, tired of always checking my phone for the time. Once I got into this little shop (it was literally the size of a small bathroom), I realized that it was full of all kinds of vintage goodies - charms, brooches, necklaces, rings, you name it. The man who owned the shop, Samson, started chatting with me, asking where I was from, etc. Then he told me that he is a Romani from Romania, and that he WALKED to Paris with his 2-year old son on his back 20 years ago. There was a revolution, his wife was murdered, so he put his son on his shoulders and walked to Paris. Now, he owns this little shop where he makes his own jewelry, repairs luxury watches, and replaces stones in vintage jewelry. He basically told me that he understands how hard living in Paris can be - the language, the culture, etc, and that his home is my home. He made me sit down on a chair and recount my time here and tell him about my problems! Customers were coming in and out of this cramped little shop and I was tearily telling this Romanian guy my issues. It was great.

I ended up picking out a watch and a necklace that is one of Samson's creations. THEN, he gave me FOR FREE another watch, 2 Christian Dior brooches, a giant Kenzo charm, and a random charm. He cleaned all of the jewelry with Hermes perfume, which I thought was badass!
Some pics...

a random charm that he let me pick out. I loved this drooping cat - that was me on Monday.


my new crazy CD brooches! They're giant. I can't wait to play around with them.


The Kenzo charm,


the watches that started it all,


and Samson's creation.

I definitely got heaped with blessings on Wednesday. I came home, did some yoga, met a friend for drinks in Le Marais (all decked out in my new necklace and watch), and came home with a strong urge to revisit Rick Owens' and Ann Demeulemeester's ready-to-wear shows of yore. I'll have to do a post with all the pics that I dug up!