Paris, April 2025

If you ever move to Paris for any length of time, a word to the wise: not only will you receive lots of visitors, they will all want to show up at exactly the same time. We were super excited to have people come see us as soon as we got there in mid-October. And we waited. And waited. And waited some more. Then a little trickle - some folks for Fashion Week, some for Maison et Objet/Deco Off - and then…

BOOM. Springtime.

Let me be clear: we very much enjoyed having guests, and dearly love and appreciate everyone that came to see us. We just wish their timing could have been less… concentrated. But honestly - it was still fun, and one of the things that we did to lighten the load was to actually plan some of our own travel for while our guests were there, so at least part of the time they would have our little apartment all to themselves (we’re nice like that).

This was why, in April, we left the place full of our friends on Spring break and took off for the French countryside.

Our destination: Maison Jacaranda in the Vienne.

This was not some random place I found online - this is a delightful French country home and extraordinary collection of antique textiles - namely the Jacaranda Design Archive.

To quote from the archive’s website:

“A family business, Jacaranda has grown to be one of the most influential archives in the world. It is built on three generations of experience in textiles and design and has an unparalleled, worldwide client base in haute couture, home furnishings, ready to wear and paper products.”

The archive has some 50,000+ varied textile pieces, garments and accessories whose designs span centuries. They were collected lovingly from attics and armoires across the continent by the family of Richard and Deby Earls, who continue to augment and maintain the archive from Maison Jacaranda (they live next door).

Richard and Deby are exceptionally lovely people. We met them in Paris during Maison et Objet through a Print and Pattern friend (the best kind!), and had a great time over drinks at a bar in the Oberkampf. They come to Paris and London several times a year to bring curated textile collections to their clients- or they work with them virtually. Many of these clients also come to Maison Jacaranda for “creative retreats” with the entire archive at their disposal, using it as inspiration for original designs.

It was, as you might imagine, a very happy place for me. In so many ways.

The archive kind of overwhelmed me, to be completely honest. There are multiple giant armoires and multi-drawer flat storage chests just crammed with gorgeousness. Not to mention the extensive library of books about textiles. And all of this in a lovely, cozy home in the middle of the countryside, with flowering trees and plants and a stone patio and a meadow with a pool in the middle of it.

Because I was in the middle of a project for my Print and Pattern certificate, I spent most of my time there drawing and painting rather than rifling through the textiles. There was something incredible about sitting there at the old desk creating art with the door wide open, the breeze coming through, the dog wandering in and out (living his best life)…

…then in the cool evening building a fire in the old fireplace and settling in with an inspiring volume about pattern.

How do you come back from that?

We went out with Richard and Deby one particularly fine afternoon for a terrific lunch and a visit to a local church with some very, very old frescoes on the ceiling. One of many many priceless, monumental places in France that are somehow preserved - either by the state or by the local community - that you can still see in relative peace and quiet because they are far from any city that gets a lot of tourism.

*The Abbey Church of Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe. Frescoes on the ceiling date from the 11th century.*

The weekend was a much needed respite for us. Not just an escape from the influx of Paris guests (again… we love you all!), but an escape from the condensed landscape and sped-up rhythms - the “hustle and bustle” - of urban life. Paris is incredible, but when you get to spend some time in the countryside you understand why so many Parisians flee for weekends and vacations.

Richard and Deby were just icing on the cake. It was so nice to have interesting, pleasant people to just sit on the patio with for an aperitif. Their knowledge of textiles and the design community runs pretty deep, and it was fun to pick their collective brain on those things, plus living abroad, travel, geo-politics, languages, and cheese.

I’m sure there were a million other things we could have done in the area. There are probably wineries and monks and ancient cave paintings and wildly picturesque rivers, gorges and what not that no one has ever heard of… because that’s France.

But we were already STAYING AT one of the largest and most renowned textile archives in the industry, so that was enough enrichment for me.

And it’s hard to beat sitting in the sunshine outside an old rambling country home just contemplating the sky.

Maison Jacaranda

Paris, April 2025

Fortuny

My Swedish Towel