French Needle Paris 2016 - Day 4 part 2

After our visit at Chateau de Malmaison, we went back to Versailles to have lunch in the gardens at La Petite Venise. It was called that because it used to house the workshop where Louis XIV had his gondolas built for his Grand Canal. He had even brought in workers from Venice to do the work.

After lunch, we got the chance to do a little bit of shopping at the souvenir shop and then we took a little walk to the lake.

From the lake we could see the true facade of the chateau.

Our next stop was the Musée de la Toile de Jouy.

The museum was established in 1977 to celebrate the memory of the famous Manufacture des Toiles de Jouy which was founded in 1760 by the entrepreneur and printer Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf.

At one point, Oberkampf, was the biggest manufacturer in Europe, employing 1237 persons in 1821. He benefited being close to the Versailles court, survived the revolution and was very successful under Napoleon's reign. So much that he was awarded the Legion of Honour by Napoleon himself. This of course all went away at the fall of the Empire.

The owner of Sajou, Frédérique, was kind enough to invite us to her house for tea. Her house is at Versailles and was originally part of the royal stables until her husband's family bought it in 1880. Up until her shop in Paris was opened, Frédérique ran the entire business on the first level. Now it is used to store products and for mail orders that come in through her website.

Her house was filled with little curiosities as well as little touches of embroidered items. Cross stitched lamp shades, curtains hemed with cross stitch Sajou patterns and needle point footstools. Unfortunately I didn't feel comfortable photographing someone's house (especially since we were invited), so I only took pictures of the group.

Karine, Frédérique, Lisa, Lydia and Debi

Dinner that night was at the restaurant Bouillon Racine which is decorated in the Art Nouveau style.

I loved the green, all the mirrors and the floral elements.

I don't remember the main dish, but the soup was to die for. It was a Crème of Jerusalem Artichoke. I don't normally post pictures of food, but it was really good and I want to remember the name of it ;)

Dessert was memorable as well if only from it's name: Ile flottante.