In my free time, I love to create – this includes painting, photography, crocheting, quilting, and making jewelry. This passion for the arts began when I was a child and encouraged by my mother. I begged to take any craft class I could find, and my bedroom was surrounded by my painted murals.
With my background in the arts, I am more than happy to have Laurie Pike joins us from The Paris Blog to share a cool place she has stumbled across for kids in Paris.
Les Petits at La Petite Manufacture
Not all Parisian parents have the “luxury” of caring for their little ones on Wednesdays, when many school children have the day off. Sure, they can hire a nanny, but there’s one solution that offers creative guidance in a space devoid of television. It’s called La Petite Manufacture. Through a gift shop in front of the 11th arrondissement boutique, kids stream into an equipped atelier on Wednesdays and Saturdays for classes or open studio time guided by Marie, the owner.
Wearing a tiny aprons, a child might be stringing beads here, molding clay there, or painting on a plate in the corner. With patience and encouragement, Marie, who has two kids of her own, teaches les petits skills in crafting and art. La Petite Manufacture is a sort of candy store of art materials for the choosing, from colored pencils on the large wooden communal table, to stamps in a wall of metal drawers, to bins of beads and rows of ribbon straight from the boutique.
Marie teaches grown-ups, too; I took classes in silver art clay, glass jewelry, and beading. To my surprise, I still wear the creations I made on those days, though I had imagined my freshman efforts would be embarrassments. Class costs range, from low to high, from about 10 euros per hour for kids in the open studio to 65 euros for a 3-hour course in silver art clay (which includes a portion of real silver to work with). More info at lapetitemanufacture.com.
Tallulah says
Gosh, these are so beautiful! Wish we had one of these here in the UK where my kids attend a French school and also have Wednesday afternoons free 🙂
French Mamma says
What do your kids do on Wednesdays now? My daughter is too young for school so I forgot about the Wednesday afternoons being free. This post makes me think twice about where we want to move to next. Right now we are in a tiny village of about 1,000 people, so we do not have things like this for kids here. I love small village life, but I also would love to live around places like La Petite Manufacturer for my daughter. I think it is so important to start kids in crafts when young because it teaches them many skills and lessons that they can use later, plus it encourages them to use their imagination. And holding the classes on a Wednesday is perfect 😉