Il était une fois la Tea Party Petit Chaperon Rouge à Paris

I’m writing this post in English, despite my wanting to use a French title as it was a French event and I love the saying Il était une fois! Haha.

Soooo, a while back, on saturday January 22nd, there was a tea party organised by the French Lolita organisation Rouge Dentelle et Rose Ruban. It was a lovely afternoon in dedication of the fabulous illustrator and kind man, Francois Amoretti and honoured his new book, Le Petit Chaperon Rouge [Little Red Riding Hood]. Pardon me, I’m saying this wrong. It’s actually “Le Petit Chaperon Rouge et Ce qu’il advint dans le ventre du loup” which I’ll translate as “Little Red Riding Hood and What goes on in the belly of the wolf”.

I brought my copy of Gothic Lolita with me, since I hadn’t had a chance to purchase Le Petit Chaperon Rouge yet, it’s not out in Flemish bookstores and I hadn’t had time to shop in France. That means I hadn’t read the book that was being honoured, either. It made me a little sad because it meant I wasn’t “in” on everything that would be said, but it wouldn’t stop me from having a lovely time at the tea party!

We were greeted at a lovely little tea house on the Avenue Ledru Rollin. That’s right, that’s near the Baby, the Stars Shine Bright shop. The girls of the assocation let everyone enter one by one, giving us a little gift after crossing our names off the list.

yummy macarons

When we sat down, we were greeted with a lovely plate full of yummy macarons. A good start! There’s no denying that French macarons are the best kind of macarons. ^___^/ Mmmmmmm, I love macarons!

Francois at work

I had the pleasure to sit very close to Francois and was able to watch him create little masterpieces while he was very busy dedicating people’s books. When everyone was settled, he had to stop drawing for a little while, though! It was time for “ask Francois”. Us girls were allowed to ask all kinds of questions, and it was very interesting to hear the answers to questions pertaining Francois’ work, life, past and future.

Francois Amoretti

After having asked some questions, it was then time for us to answer them ourselves! The hostesses had prepared a little quiz on Francois’ books, work and even his life! It was a little tough for me to keep up, it’s been a while since I’ve had to take any kind of quiz [they were very strict! haha] and obviously it was all in French. I did fairly well though, surprisingly!
The questions on his books and work were very fun, but the ones that stood out the most were the ones on his life. One of the questions was how many pages of hits there are on Google if you search for Francois. I don’t think anybody got that exactly right, haha.

My table :3 (excuse the korilakkuma but my face was very derpy in the photo)

Another table of lovely Lolitas

The organisation working hard

Here the hostesses were working very hard to correct all the quizzes!
Meanwhile, we kept drinking tea, eating macarons and walking around for photos.

More lovely lolis

Fooooooooood, glorious foooooood

Pretty mirror ^_^

Artwork for sale

Announcing the answers and winners

The time had come for the answers and winners to be announced! Turns out I had quite a few correct answers, but not nearly enough to win any of the prizes. Which were quite awesome, I must say! The girl who won is a very lucky owner of an original drawing of Red Riding Hood, one that wasn’t used in the final rendition of the book! Luuuuuucky!

Time for tombola!

They weren’t done giving away stuff, after the lucky girl collected her fabulous Francois-original, it was time for tombola. I think this is pretty standard Tea Party stuff: every attendee gets a number and the guest of honour draws the numbers from a bag. Again, I didn’t win anything, but I don’t mind too much because I don’t go to Tea Parties to win things, obviously.

Sweet sweet lolitas

After the giveaways, everyone mingled again. It was the perfect opportunity to make new friends, take photos, get in line to get a dedication or buy some merchandising. These lovely ladies were sat at my table and were very friendly and welcoming as well as outright charming! Thanks for the lovely time, girls! :3

Nella et moi

A photo of the head of the association, Nella, and myself! I first met Nella at my very first Lolita meeting back in 2008. It’s sad that we live so far apart, but whenever we meet it’s always a pleasure! I think Nella is such an inspiring person, she is very passionate about Lolita as well as being very friendly and sweet! She also wears amazing coordinates and is truly photogenic. You can find her blog, written in French, right here.

The book in question, after dedication

Lovely Princesse Pudding

Even if we were seated at the same table, Pudding and I were quite far apart for most of the time, so I was very glad to still have a little bit of time left to chat with her! She’s so sweet and knowledgable about things… I hope I didn’t bore her with my questions about things such as growing out hair and keeping it vividly coloured [although she's lucky! It's much easier to have pink hair, at least I never got it to get out of mine, hahaha] and girly things like that. Pudding also writes on a blog, written in English.

The lucky winner and the artist

Francois has this whole “innocent yet sneaky” look down! Hahaha. Again, I can’t stress how lucky the winner is, that’s a fabulous drawing and she got it especially signed, too. I must give her credit because obviously she wasn’t only lucky, she just did great on the quiz! Congrats!

Postcard and pin

This is a photo taken slightly later than the event, but it’s what the hostesses gave us when we entered! A beautiful pin featuring artwork by Francois [I got a strawberry with tentacles! YAY! I love it! :3] and two pretty postcards.

Artwork on postcards

And that was all! Thanks a lot girls! I had a fabulous time and once again regretted not living in France, haha. For anyone who wants to see more photos, there are some in this facebook album, taken by Rouge Dentelle et Rose Ruban themselves.