Thursday: Wishful Thinking

Today begins a new installment... Wishful Thinking. As much as I can scour Rockford to find out all about it happenings and places to go and things to eat, etc., there will probably always be ways that it could be improved and things that it is lacking. And why not share them? I can dream, can't I?

Today I want to share with you an amazing store I stumbled across while I was visiting Savannah, GA this past March.

The Paris Market & Brocante is... precisely that, an endless market of goodies. The shop's two floors are filled with goods ranging from home decorating, dining/kitchen supplies, books, handbags, jewelry, stationary, journals, design elements, children's clothing and plenty of vintage knick knacks. To say that I fell in love with this store is something of an understatement. Sheesh, I wanted to live there.

Unfortunately though, we did, eventually, have to leave the store. But, I was able to take quite a few photos which I am pleased to share with you here:

I wasn't sure what I would expect in the store's basement floor. Needless to say, I just about peed my pants with what I discovered upon walking down these stairs. In contrast to the brightness of upstairs, the downstairs area was so cozy you just about wanted to move right in. This floor was chock full of seriously beautiful design elements which speak for themselves.





The store carried the most darling (though a bit on the pricey side) children's clothing and doo dads.


I love these somewhat nautical/whimsical huge glass light orbs. LOVE.



How wonderful is this french chalkboard menu?



Sigh... the truth is, my not-so-secret dream is to open such a store... shhh, don't tell! Besides from the fact that I could never afford to do it any time soon, along with the small detail that I have no official business training, added to the reality that I have no idea where in this world I will end up, there would still be some pretty major issues with opening such a store in Rockford.

Probably the most major issue is location. A store like this (a specialty store) is really only successful if it is located in an area with a lot of walking traffic. This isn't an Old Navy or a Best Buy where people are going to specifically drive to the store, park in the parking lot and walk in the store to browse. This is the kind of store people stop in because they were walking past it on their way to their favorite local cafe.

Are there areas like this is Rockford? Well, one could argue yes or no. Being an eternal optimist, I would like to think that yes, there are areas where this happens to a degree (Edgebrook, downtown/State Street, the new City Market) and I would like to think that this is a developing idea in Rockford. I believe people living in Rockford would like to see more creative/artistic/mixed use walkable areas.... we just maybe aren't totally there yet.

But... who knows?