CURATED IN RESIDENCE 2025: Looking Back (Part Three): France the First

After more than a month in the UK, I continued my trip by crossing the English Channel with my friend and Chapeaux co-founder Jenn to Calais, France. The ferry ride was about 1.75 hours, and the upgrade to the onboard lounge was 100% worth it! Quieter, private decks, and food and drinks included ... yes, that's definitely the way to travel.

Why Calais?

One, I was interested in exploring more of France, not just the famous areas like Paris or Normandy or the French Riviera. Two, Calais is an easy transfer point from England, with a quick ferry crossing across the English Channel. And three, it's a good base for seeing things in the area. And honestly, I think it was mentioned in some movie when I was a kid, and it always sounded so elusive!

Chapeaux Designers Jenn and Karla at the Calais Lace Museum

Calais is home to a super-interesting Museum of Lace and Fashion. What's more appropriate for the Chapeaux designers than a museum about lace and fashion? We saw delicate, handcrafted lace dating back centuries -- truly incredible! We witnessed lace being made, and we even tried our hands at it. Let's just say we will continue buying our lace!

Karla is not very good at making lace!

Lace from the 1640s.

Large-scale lace manufacturing machine.

Near Calais is the charming town of Boulogne-Sur-Mer. Street art, a crypt below a historic cathedral, delicious restaurants, and a gorgeous waterfront? That's where I'm staying next time I visit the area!

On the "train" through Boulogne-sur-Mer.

Boulogne-sur-Mer street art.

The Tour de France arrived the day after we visited!

We happened to arrive during a flower festival, where artists create amazing art and scenes primarily from flora. It reminded me a little of Baton Rouge's Flower Fest or the Chelsea Garden Show.

An installation at the Boulogne-sur-Mer Flower Festival

Next, we hopped on the train to Paris. My hotel was near Notre Dame Cathedral, and we stopped there first to get ready for our Chapeaux photo shoot that evening. Jenn and I are not natural models: we are not tall and glamorous, but we love our little company and we love our hats.

Chapeaux designers Jenn and Karla enjoy a photo shoot in Paris!

For the photo shoot, I wore a piece I partially designed before leaving the U.S. over a month before. While home, I'd stenciled flowers on the base in black and white, and I had attached a headband sleeve. In Paris, I added a stunning bow in red silk abaca. As with the base, I prepared the fabric for the bow at home, pressing it and sewing in seams, and I carried all the fascinator parts in my carry-on bag across the ocean and throughout my prior month of travels in the UK. To me, this outstanding Chapeaux was the very definition of Paris.

The very definition of Paris.

After the photo shoot, Jenn and I enjoyed crepes with a view of Notre Dame Cathedral, and we admired the progress that had been made since our prior trip together just two months after the April 2019 fire. Then Jenn headed to the airport for her journey home, and I wandered the evening streets of Paris.

The next morning, I attended Mass at Notre Dame Cathedral. While of course I was delighted to see the inside of the cathedral, I was most entertained by the docents shushing and escorting out all the people sneaking into Mass to take pictures! "No pictures during Mass!"

By this time in my travels, I also desperately needed a haircut, so before my train departed for Geneva, I found a salon that accepted walk-ins. I hardly have the vocabulary to describe what I'm looking for in a haircut when speaking English, and I certainly could not describe it in French!