French la Vie

I could barely focus due to how cold it was at the brocante in Paris this morning. It did not help that I wasn't dressed for the 20-degree drop in temperature. Before I left to go to the brocante this morning I put on nearly everything from my suitcase: Three sweaters, a down vest, a hat, two scarves plus a coat did not help me to keep warm. It caught me by surprise that the coldness was ruining my happy place, usually, nothing can get in the way of me enjoying the brocante. 

Then in the middle of the brocante, right before I called it quits and headed for a warm cafe I saw a brocante dealer unloading vintage woolen sweaters. Boxes upon boxes of sweaters from one person's collection. Those sweaters looked like life savors, they looked like a million bucks, they looked like the  warm cafe in which I was heading. Even as cold as I was I tried to find one or two that were "cute" and serve the purpose of saving me from leaving the brocante.

As I did not want to take off anything to try them on I started to layer sweaters over my clothes. Call me  Snowman, call me a Ding-Dong, call me Bag Lady… I was warming up and the brocante looked like a sunny beach front again.

Laurie was freezing too, so she started looking for sweaters and soon thereafter a bunch of women were layering sweaters on just like us trying to stay warm. 

Then the funniest thing happened I got stuck in a yellow sweater, I could not get it off or on. Laurie and Lizzie started laughing and the more they laughed the harder it became to try to get the sweater to budge. 

Warm and stuck was not helping my getting on with the brocante.

Oh, the joy of brocanting in the cold and finding something to laugh about.

I bought three sweaters and wore all of them, and did not care one bit how I looked. Laurie bought a few as well. 

Lesson learned: Never go to the brocante at the end of the year without a warm coat and GLOVES on hand.

P.S. Yes Denise I forgot to pack the gloves you knitted for me! And yes Mari it was as cold as last year when we did the March! And  YES Gina I missed the heat warmers that you have, God did I miss them! And yes Yann I missed you the most because you are always prepared and I lean on that fact way too much.