Pretty in Pink in Paris’ Marché aux Puces de Vanves.

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top: 2px; padding-right: 5px; font-family: times;”>While every client at The Antiques Diva™ European Shopping Tours is special, this summer I had the opportunity to travel with an extraordinary client – my 16 year old niece, Tessa! On her first European adventure I initiated her into The Antiques Diva™ Lifestyle by taking her to my favorite French flea market in Paris – Marché aux Puces de Vanves.

One of the things I love most about my job leading travelers around the flea markets of Europe is what my clients teach me as they introduce me to their passions and collections! Each client inevitably is unique – with a different interest, different hobby and different collections they’re looking to add to while out and about, shopping in the European flea markets. My 16 year old niece was no exception! With her pink head pulsing thru the market, vendors simply adored her, pointing out perfect Parisian pink treasures for her to take home. Ever the fashion plate, she picked up this gorgeous 1960’s French silk gown (above) shortly after we arrived at the flea market for a mere 36Euro. It fit as if it were made for her and a few days later she wore it to lunch at Café Marly nearby the Louvre!

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She also fell head over heels for these vintage French frames at 12 Euro and sported them around Europe for the next month!

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Of course, she was crazy for this Daisy Necklace picking it up for a friend as a souvenir de Paris for 6Euro!

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I’m not certain whether it was she or me who noticed the stuffed camel first – but we knew that it said exotic travel décor with a 20 E price tag!

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She decided against buying this Charlie Chaplin hat for 30E but was sorely tempted by it!

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In general, the French hats were of great interest and we spent a good 30 minutes digging thru this box where all the hats were marked 10E or less!

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But perhaps the catch that got away was the magnifying glass paperweight. We decided against purchasing it at 45E, but in retrospect perhaps we should have! Where else could she have been framed so perfectly in Paris?

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After all that hard work shopping, we were ready for a break. So we hit a local café to have a Diablo Fraise! A Diablo Fraise is a typical drink you’d order on a sunny day in Paris – it’s carbonated lemonade with strawberry syrup that just so happened to match Tessa’s perfectly pink hair!

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When the waiter noticed this, he decided that Tessa would make an ideal art installation on the Parisian streets! And he artfully arranged colored straws in her hair!

Tell me – where else but Paris would a waiter make you into street art?

From time to time I’ve had clients on Diva Tours tell me that their teenage sons and daughters wouldn’t be interested in antique shopping, preferring instead to antique/vintage shop solo. But I have to tell you, my 16 year old niece loved the Paris Flea Market! Tessa found nearly ever souvenir she purchased in Paris at the Porte de Vanves Flea Market – so for your next trip abroad, forget the typical souvenir t-shirts when shopping for a teenager in Paris, consider instead vintage fashion and fun French antique accessories!

Until next time, Bonne Shopping!

The Antiques Diva™
(seen right with The Little Diva – Tessa at the top of the Tour Eiffel)

Paris Travel Files!

Located in the 14eme arrondisment at the avenue Marc Sangnier and avenue Georges Lafenestre, “The Other Paris Flea Market” is located near the Porte de Vanves metro stop. to 10px; width: 297px; height: 299px; text-align: center;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kcTb8DnPVW4/TMmeF3wx9TI/AAAAAAAAFMk/fi9G1RyBV9o/s400/Picture1.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” />The market is open year round e
very Saturday and Sunday from 8am to 1pm – though experience tells me vendors aren’t really ready for customers until 9am, so take advantage of a “late start” and sleep an extra hour before shopping the fleas!

Bonne Shopping, Diva Style!

The One Minute Diva: The von Trapp Family Villa – A New Salzburg Hotel

Breaking news! The Villa Trapp website is now up and running!! Click here for all the details!

to9xmAQ/s1600-h/villatrapp.jpg”>to9xmAQ/s200/villatrapp.jpg” border=”0″ />top:2px;padding-right:5px;font-family:times;”>I am a huge fan of Cal Simmon’s blog, The Informed Traveler, which is hosted by The Five Star Alliance, the world’s leading luxury hotel reservation service. I frequently use their blogs to plan my vacations with great tips on where to stay & what to do while visiting exotic locations around the globe. Today’s Informed Traveler blog has me looking at my calendar trying desperately to arrange a trip to Salzburg this summer simply so I can stay in a new hotel that has just opened! Perhaps I can squeeze in an Austrian getaway in between a trip to the Loire this June & a Med cruise this August! According to The Informed Traveler, the hills are alive again with The Sound of Music – of course, this time the music might be merely the trickle of laughter and cries of joy from delighted guests who are now staying in the von Trapp Family Villa!

The Trapp Villa, as the hotel is called, opens this July and is quite surprisingly reasonably priced at 100E per night including breakfast(approx $ 155 USD). The Informed Traveler writes “Visitors will have a chance to relive scenes from the movie. Sip coffee at the gazebo where Liesl, eldest daughter of the von Trapp family, and her boyfriend, Rolf, had a secret rendezvous or dine at the von Trapp family table.”

tory/2008/5/13/195317/112/hotels/Movie_Set_Hotel_The_Von_Trapp_Villa_in_Salzburg” target=”_blank”>Hotel Chatter provided even more information on the hotel, providing history buffs with those details that make the stay even more intriguing. “The von Trapps lived (at Trapp Villa) from 1923-1938. When the Nazis stormed Austria, the Baron and his family left for Italy and the villa became the home of notorious SS chief Heinrich Himmler and his butler. Leave it to the Herr to build a huge white wall around the property, which remains today, and to turn the beautiful chapel into, what else, a beer hall. When the war ended, the property was returned to the family who then sold it to a peaceful Catholic missionary order”.

While the internet seems to be all a chatter about this new hotel, I can’t find their hotel website and am at a loss for how to book it! I’ve sent Informed Traveler an email hoping they’ll help solve this mystery! Dear Readers, if you solve the mystery before IT does, please let me know!

This seems like an utterly diva-worthy hotel experience! And I can’t wait to go to Salzburg at my first opportunity! I will however have to use the utmost of self-control to keep from ripping down the Villa Trapp’s draperies and making them into a pair of lederhosen fit for a diva!

Yodel-le-ee-o!

The Antiques Diva™