Is it any wonder then that this entire post will be devoted to the soothing and the somewhat shallow? Don’t worry, I’ll give you a heads up when the somewhat shallow starts so you can move on over to the next post in your Feedly if you need to. No hard feelings.
Saturday seemed to have received the memo about how weary the rest of the week has left me because it’s been perfect. From the weather to the company and to the way the planets seemed to have aligned to create pockets of time for me, here and there, to do the things that calm me most.
I started the day with some early morning baking in the silence and relative order of a kitchen occupied only by a single adult. A cheat’s recipe for buttermilk (lemon juice plus milk stirred together) was quickly put together and allowed to do its thing chemical reaction wise while I gathered the rest of the ingredients for a batch of muffins based on an AWW recipe.
There’s been good food aplenty with breakfasts out (where the highlight of the menu for Toddler SSG was a pat of butter eaten straight from the packet…)
and cheese boards shared with besties at home.
We’re heading into the shallow bit of the post now so if handbags aren’t your jam then you’d best be excusing yourself from this post starting from immediately after this photo of an Exnet Paris box as I found it behind my front gate on Friday afternoon.
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| Props to the DHL man who agreed to pitch this box over my locked front gate because I wasn’t home to meet him. |
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| Bag as it came out of the courier’s carton. The bag itself did not come in a box but its matching name tag did. A large Goyard paper shopping bag was packed flat in the parcel. In a unique touch the drawstring to the dust bag appears to be made of either leather or coated canvas. |
It’s been quite a journey and a few readers have indicated an interest in finding out a little more about purchasing from Goyard if they are unable to visit a store in person themselves. So I thought I’d write a little today about my experience. Apologies in advance for the excessive photo coverage of my purchase but I wasn’t sure what people wanted to know about most so I erred on the side of oversharing.
Goyard has a fairly restricted presence outside of France. I know there are stores in the US and Japan. The store geographically closest to Australia is in Singapore but they do not take international orders. Which is how my email to the Goyard website began my communication with the ‘Goyard Parisian Historical Residence located on 233 rue St Honore’.
When I first emailed, I had only one bag in mind. The St Louis PM. A simple Goyardine canvas tote with a matching purse looped around one of its leather shoulder straps.
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| www.ilovegoyard.blogspot.com |
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| www.2016goyard.com |
But the thing that put me off was the white interior:
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| www.goyard.com |
which you can apparently turn inside out for summer but just was never in a million years going to work with my lifestyle and tendency to put things back in my bags without capping them tightly. I did ask if it were possible to have a different coloured lining / backing for a St Louis bag but the official answer from the craftsmen at the workshop was no, according to Myriam.
All was nearly lost on account of the white lining until Myriam told be about the Anjou which is basically the St Louis but with a leather lining that makes the bag truly reversible for slightly grubby and clumsy people like me. The Anjou currently has a limited release outside of France, I’m not sure exactly which stores currently have it though the article I linked to suggests that you can at least find them in New York as well.
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| www.rivieramagazine.com |
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| via pinterest |
The only personalisation currently permitted for the Anjou is the placement of your initials in red ink on its matching Residence bag tag (230 Euros). The tag cannot be purchased separately from the bag and both must be ordered simultaneously.
Payment for international orders is via bank transfer only and also bear in mind that shipping fees need to be added (485 Euros to Sydney). You will also be required to provide your passport details as your purchase will be detaxed on its departure from Paris.
It took around three months for my bag to be reach me.
Relative to bags of a similar design from different houses, the Anjou is incredibly light in weight despite the fact that most of its body is leather. The handles though are sturdier than the others. The bag is very easy to invert from leather to monogram and vice versa. The pouch is not reversible and is made of Goyardine with leather trim and lined with fabric. I have the PM size which is perfect for carrying around an everyday amount of stuff – wallet, sunglass case, iPad or Kindle and a bottle of water with plenty of room to spare for a cardigan or make up bag.
Purchasing this bag will have to go down in the record books as the most involved and precise transaction I’ve ever undertaken in the pursuit of arm candy. It is so very beautifully made, though, and it was purchased as part of my Festival of Forty celebrations. It’s a bag that already has many special memories and emotions attached to it. Which makes it all worthwhile in my book.
I hope this has been helpful to those who wanted to hear about the Anjou. If you have any other queries, leave a comment and I’ll see if I can help. Otherwise, do not hesitate to contact Goyard directly, they’re very helpful and informative in their replies.