Botanic Bleu: Paris Peach Desk Supplies

Have you been shopping for school supplies for YOURSELF yet this year? You have to see this beautiful coordinating set of what I'm calling Paris Peach Desk Supplies at Office Depot/Office Max stores.

Peach with gold dots, or as the British say, "gold spotty," school supplies serve as desk supplies for grown-ups as well as school supplies for students.

The best part is all of the coordinated pieces are inexpensive office supply store items, not designer boutique stationery even though they look like they could be.

Small notepads come in luscious colors, coral, peach, lavender, with a special touch... a metallic gold top border.

The light coral and silver plaid laptop sleeve is padded.

There are so many items in this collection... three-ring binder, spiral notebook with a gold metal spiral, small peach notepad, small plastic snap-close envelope, file folder with pockets, and a large plastic snap-close envelope. The notebook with the Eiffel Tower cover is not part of this collection, but sold in another section of the store and goes just peachy with the Paris Peach desk supplies.

The spiral notebook fits inside the three-ring binder and is perfect for making notes about all the places to visit on our upcoming trip to PARIS. Ooh-la-la... Paris Peach.

The small plastic envelope has an open pocket on the back. Tickets for the Eiffel Tower at 2:30 p.m. on September 5, Ste. Chapelle classical concert on September 1 at 7:00 p.m., and Maison & Objet International Trade Show on September 2-6 will be safely stored in one of these envelopes making them easy to find.

What will go in the other Paris Peach small envelope? Hmmm... Perhaps receipts for all trip purchases to help completing the paperwork for customs on our trip home?

The large envelope is just the right size for keeping copies of the vacation package (airfare plus hotel) paperwork, the rental car agreement, and the trip insurance information. Our hotel is in the 1st arrondissement just one block from the famed rue de Rivoli.

Do you keep a trip journal when you travel? After traveling with students who were given travel journals from the student tour company, I began keeping travel journals beginning in 1985. They are so fun to re-read and are a great source for specific information about restaurants, hotels, trains, shops, and the weather.

Not to mention anecdotes about the quirky things that happened to students, to us adult chaperones, and to travel plans. All the details about arriving at the airport to depart for England with 35 traveling companions... students, teachers, parents... to learn that British Caledonian airlines no longer existed, our flight was cancelled, and we were rescheduled onto British Airways, from Dallas via the newly opened LAX airport in Los Angeles with a six-hour layover, then to London. That was my first visit to California.

Then there was the trip in the French Alps by bus that was detoured due to a rock slide that closed the mountain road. We unloaded almost 40 passengers and all our luggage to take an unexpected local train trip through the mountains to our destination, Chamonix. While we unloaded the bus, the tour guide bought our train tickets, and then got all of us with luggage on board within 15 minutes.... the last train of the day to our destination. I still remember the excitement of the train trip through the Alps, standing in the train aisle looking out an open window, with a breeze, taking in all the beauty of the scenery and the mountain air with the Long Tall Texan who was able to go that year. We were giddy with excitement, laughing and talking, just like the students.

What exciting things will we do and write about in the Paris Peach travel journal this year? I hope it includes finding a bleu glass seltzer bottle like the peach one I bought in a flea market for my sister the last time we were in France.

See Carsac Brocante that tells about the flea market where I bought this bottle for my sister. I had to choose between this bottle for her and a bleu Belle Epoque jar since I could fit only one in my carry-on bag.

The metal mechanism has the word Paris on the opposite side. A Paris peach seltzer bottle found in a rural French brocante is the epitome find in flea market shopping in France.

Paris Peach desk supplies probably will be available only this year since the office supply stores usually offer the special designs for one year.

Each year something new and different appears. Recently, I posted July, The Blue Hour about a bleu fleur de lis collection that I found a few years ago at Office Max.

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