Tacky souvenirs from Paris

“Tacky” was my mother’s word for anything rayon, overdone make up, cheap accessories, exaggerations uttered to aggrandize, and questions regarding the cost of anything from a house to a toothpick. I Paris, I saw many things that would have delighted my mother: Monet’s “waterlilies” at the L’Orangerie, ancient stained glass at the Cluny Museum, soft, leather gloves on the Champs-Elysées, and sweetly dressed children sailing boats in the Jardin…