My little French quilting store

I recognize that I don't live somewhere exotic like China or India, and that life for me in France is much easier than for those who do live in those type places. I don't have to make my own cheese or chase monkeys away from my laundry. But some days, it still isn't easy here. Well, it's not as easy as in America. In America, if I realize that my sewing machine is missing it's foot, I can go to Joanne's and buy a new foot. (Don't ask me how my machine lost a foot because I JUST DON'T KNOW.) In America, if I didn't have a Joanne's in my town...my town would be small enough to have its own homegrown quilting store and everyone would know everyone and I'd be able to find it. I recognize that in China or India, it wouldn't be that easy. Well, it's not that easy in France either.

I needed to find a foot for my machine. "Foot" is one of those words that you can't just put into the google translator and hope it gives you the correct word for the mechanical part that attaches to the machine. It's sort of like trying to look up the verb "to snake," (as in a drain). Not so easy.

Pantene suggested that we go to Eurodif, a nifty little store that has a sewing section. They did sells needles and thread and bobbins and zippers and buttons and pins. But nothing hanging on the wall looked like a sewing machine foot. Oh boy. Here goes my daily dose of humbling myself to look like the village idiot.

"Excuse me, ma'am? Hello. I'm looking for something that I don't know how to say in French. It is part of the sewing machine, is shaped like this, the needle goes through it like this, and in English we call it a 'foot.'" She stared at me for a minute like I was the village idiot until everything I'd said sunk in.

"Oh! You mean 'a deer's foot?' We don't sell those."

"Well, do you know where I could buy one?"

She (and the woman hanging out nearby us who decided to just join in the conversation) explained how to find this sewing store. "Head to the big square just off the port, climb the stairs, and turn right down the first street. You'll see it off one of the streets up there." (Reminded me of my UAE days when people would tell me to head to the "big round-a-bout" and turn at the mosque, and it's the building by the two palm trees.)

Pantene and I headed in that direction, figuring maybe we'll find it. Once we got on the first street at the top of the stairs, we walked for a block or two until we saw a seamstress' shop. It wasn't what we were looking for, but maybe she would know. We went in there, and I explained, "Hello ma'am. I'm new in town and I'm looking for a store where I can buy a deer's foot for my sewing machine. Do you know where there is one near here?" She grinned at us with a "bless their hearts" grin and gave us directions. "Head back down this street a bit, and after the Lidl, don't turn down the first little street, but the second one. You'll find it there." I noticed her antique Singer machine and my heart warmed from the connection I shared with her over it.

We followed her directions, and sure enough, there was a sewing store. They sold all sorts of stuff for sewing machines, and looked like they did their own sewing in house as well.

They sold beautiful fabrics that made my heart soar (not sore, but soar). And they repaired regular sewing machines AND antique sewing machines. But I'm getting ahead of myself. They also sold...quilting materials!!! Boards, rotary cutters, measuring sticks, hand-quilting thread, patterns and more! I was in my own little quilter's heaven.
I went to the back to ask the repairman about my sewing machine. I explained that I really didn't know most of the terms that go with a sewing machine, and he told me to sit down, we'd figure it out! So I explained, as best I could, the ways my machine was being persnickety...missing a foot and not having been used for 2.5 years can do that to a machine. He told me how to detach the whole needle arm, and to bring that in, and he'd find the right foot for my machine. (Which, by the way is a Toyota! Who knew that Toyota made anything besides cars?!) As he was talking, I noticed all the antique machines behind him in his repairman's work area. Maybe I could bring Jasmine to him?

As I went to pay for the fabric I bought, I found yet another reason to love my little French quilting store. They use an antique cash register from America!
Look at those fun buttons! And the change drawers inside are beautiful wood.

It even has the awesome little tabs that pop up with the price like something from long before the Price is Right ever came up with pricing games to showcase something cool like this.

I walked away from my little French quilting store with a happy heart. Happy that while it wasn't as easy as Joanne's, and it took asking in two other stores first, I found what I was looking for without that much difficulty. I found something in France that can help me keep being American me...in France. Another step towards adaptation. Another step towards settling down. Another step towards being content to just live life here.