Monday, September 26, 2011

Saturday: Day 2 at the Knife Show

Saturday started much the same way as Friday—a good breakfast and then off to the Knife Show. I was able to set up the table by myself and promptly sold a knife before Ed had returned from his morning walk-around. Since I had spent a lot of time just sitting the day before, I brought my hand sewing to keep me occupied. I brought an extra row of the quilt for Grace to work on, so we both chatted and stitched off-and-on for a few of the hours. In the afternoon, Grace and I took a stroll around all the tables in search for apresent for one of her daughters. It was fascinating to seethe other knife makers’ work. Some were more commercial, but others had amazing hand-carved handles, fancy designs in the blade, beautiful boxes or sheaths, or something else that made them stand out from the others. I had never really thought about how many different styles of knives there are. My favorite was a knife with a wooden handle that had been carved to look like a piece of branch with a bee crawling on it—it was so detailed and real-looking! I would have taken a picture, but the maker was not at his table and I wasn’t sure if it was allowed.

One of the best parts about working at Ed’s table was that he had a stack of tiny knives that were given to him by the company he designs for (Spyderco) and could be given out for free. The knives are folding knives and (when folded) are roughly 1” long! Perfect for little kids. So, if a child came up to the table with their parent, we would hand them the little box and wait to see their surprised expression when they opened it to find a little knife. They were always so enamored with it and were stoked to find out that it was being given to them! As we were leaving the show, a woman came up to Ed and told us (in French) that her son was “in heaven” and that it was his first knife. It feels so good to make someone’s day.

After spending two days at the show with Ed, I’ve learned a lot about his beliefs regarding the knife community. He is always friendly and willing to talk about his knives, or someone else’s. He gives advice and encouragement to beginning knife makers and respect to older ones. Quite often he’ll press an extra gift into the hands of buyers—or old friends. His belief is that by always being friendly and generous, he can build strong ties with the other knife makers, thereby creating a close community. And, so far, it seems to have worked. Many people stopped by over the course of the two days to say hello and sometimes drop off small gifts in return, for Ed. It was great to experience so many genuinely good and fair people who were more concerned about creating friendships than making money. I was honored to be there.

At 6:00pm, Ed, Matt, Grace, and I had packed up and were headed back to the hotel, via metro.

Since the show was on the edge of Paris, it took us a good hour to get back. Although I had been told that we would be eating at really fancy restaurants, we hadn’t dressed up so far.

The restaurants were amazing, but it wasn’t necessary to wear anything special. Saturday night, however, we were headed to a fancier place. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite fancy enough to wear a dress (now I feel really dumb for freaking out over having to dress up), so I just wore a nice shirt and skirt.

We headed to Le Petit Poucet , which is a lovely restaurant on an island in the Seine.We dined with Patrick and Mark, who is a top chef who moved to France from the US 40 years ago. They helped me find enough vegetarian food to eat (starter: goat cheese with fancily-cooked beets and carrots, main course: a huge plate of mixed cooked vegetables). Of course there was more wine (I’ve been actually enjoying it and have had two glasses with most dinners!) and delicious bread. The dinner conversation mostly revolved around the idea of starting a different (smaller) knife exhibition in Paris—but one that would be much better than the current show. There really is nothing as entertaining as an enraged French man speaking in profanity-filled English. I talked to Grace most of the time. ;)

When it came time for dessert, I decided I should go for it (I hadn’t eaten any at the other restaurants)—so, on Mark’s recommendation, I ordered something similar to French toast (no, it’s not called that in France) with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and salted caramel sauce. YUM.

While I was enjoying it, the waitress arrived with two complimentary places covered with little desserts. What?! No one had told me about that! So, after checking out all the new desserts, I felt obliged to try a few… I mean, how could one pass up free macarons? I ate three.

I wished I had known that they would serve free desserts, because I felt so bad that they were going to waste! At that point, I was definitely regretting that doggie bags don’t exist in France…





As we were finishing up our desserts, the chef came out to sit down with us and check out the knives that Matt and Ed had brought. Some of

the managers and head waiters came over to have a look as well. I just sat back and watched them all exclaiming and arguing over the knives in both French and English. In the end, a few knives were purchased and we said adieu.

Mark offered us a ride back to the hotel (since it was after midnight), but we happened to be driving near his newly bought restaurant…so, we stopped in for a tour. It is located

just down the street from l’Arc de Triomphe (in a very nice area) and is very big, for a Paris restaurant. At the moment, it looks like a construction site. There is a lot to be done before they open in 3 weeks (flooring, plastering, electrical, painting, lots of cleaning, etc.). The best part was getting to go down a narrow, winding staircase into the wine cave. It was pretty much exactly as I would have pictured it—cool, dusty and cobwebby, dark, but with only a small amount of wine at the moment (the oldest bottle I saw was from the ancient time of 1983…). Perhaps when I come back to Paris later this year I can stop by and at least see it when it’s finished! There’s probably no way I could actually afford to eat there, though…

By the time we got back to the hotel, it was 1:30am! I said goodbye to Grace, who was heading home early in the morning, but I hope to visit her at the end of October.

Then I retired to my lovely little room for the last night in my comfy bed. …Definitely getting nervous about heading to St. Vincent!

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