Once upon a time, I as a student at Cal, living in Berkeley, I was as broke as a student could be, but I lived in the Elmood District, a beautiful little district on the edge of the Oakland Hills in an apartment with a view of the Bay. Three hundered and sixty days of the year, I would open the windows and smell the salt of the Bay, the eucalyptus and yerba buena in the Hills and the coffee roasting the Italian coffee shop.
Elmwood had a collection of wonderful boutiques, but the Queen of them all was The Tail of the Yak. It's a magical shop filled with French curiosities, ribbons, flowers (fresh, velvet and paper), garlands of bay leaf, preserved birds and insects, perfumes and a couple of cooing doves in an antique cage.
Since I am exiled in Texas now, I had forgotten about the shop until a conversation today with my beloved friend Estelle. It occurred to me that I had not shared this French fantasy with her, so this blog is for her. Now she will know what inspired the Lady's bath vanity.
If we ever have the chance, I'll take her there. And then, she can take me to Paris and show me the real thing. Enjoy.
