lina in europe part 14: tombees du camion

 nicola & i did a lot of wandering in paris. we did have a few things we "had" to do, but otherwise we kinda went with the flow. when we were in one of the arcades, which are kind of like eclectic mini malls, we stumbled upon the most amazing store! it is called tombees du camion. we had a nice little chat with the lady who worked at the store & she told us that what they sold there was all kinds of antique plastic toys & knickknacks that were discovered in old abandoned parisian factories. it was seriously the coolest thing ever.

 we bought a few odds & ends, but what was really amazing is that nicola found little plastic dolls that were reminiscent to the traveling doll in a blog we both followed called ada the globetrotting doll. nicola bought a doll. we left the store. she showed me what she got & then i had to go back & get a plastic doll too : ) i named mine colette & started to take photos of her around paris. today, she rides in my purse where ever i go, kept safe in a sock. i've been taking photos of her around towns i visit too : )

after doing some research on the dolls, we found out that they are called clonette dolls (or baby deidei) from west africa. we discovered that there was a factory in paris where we could get them & tried setting up a meet-up with the factory. the meet-up fell through & we were a bit bummed. but in the next couple of days, when we were wandering the streets of paris, we unbelievably stumbled upon a store called antoine et lili that was actually selling the real dolls!! we each picked one out for 9euros. mine is pale yellow & nicola's is purple : ) we have yet to name them, but we love them & the amazing experience it was finding them!
if you would like to buy one online, i found a store (located in la) that sells two different sizes : )