Hello all and welcome to my first blog entry for November! I was away on vacation for my birthday, we usually try to get away since I get so depressed now on my birthdays and this year was Europe! Paris, France and Madrid, Granada, and Barcelona Spain to be exact! It’ll be hard to top that next year, but as long as I’m with my husband and family that is all that matters! I plan to make a themed bracelet for this very special birthday but more on that later on.
For today, I actually want to do some real blogging, no reviews, no photos, (well maybe some photos LOL) just me typing away on my computer, expressing my thoughts. This trip was extremely exhausting but it was an experience of a lifetime, I think we walked an average of six to eight miles everyday! That’s not the type of vacation I usually take LOL. My husband and I are more into beach getaways and relaxing by the pool or beach with some margaritas on the side LOL but the fact that we were in Europe for the first time, seeing the old world, seeing works of art that I’ve only seen and read about in books was amazing. I can’t get over it and I still can’t believe we were able to experience this. Walking down the streets in Paris was surreal and it was like I was in a dream!
We jammed packed our days! We were only there for five days in Paris and now we get to the gist of this blog post as I made it a point to try to visit the one and only Trollbeads store in Paris. Before arriving I kept checking the Trollbeads website for Trollbeads store locations and I saw a ton in France which made me very happy, unfortunately I did not read the legend carefully enough and was sorely disappointed when I realized that the only store in Paris was an art glass boutique that happened to carry Trollbeads, and we are talking a paltry three or four trays, most of which needed a good polishing.
Then I read this more carefully!
Standard retailer…usually means it’s a shop in shop…which means in my case like I already mentioned before, the boutique carried like four trays. I was very disappointed. I thought Trollbeads was supposed to be more popular in Europe and can I say something? I saw not one person wearing them. Not one! I guess the French prefer their Pandora LOL and even then I didn’t see anyone wearing Pandora until maybe our third day there. Our waitress was wearing one, and I also saw a customer wearing a bracelet and that was it. I guess Germany and Italy are the places to go for Trollbeads! It was too bad too, I was really looking forward to getting my unicorn bead, the Trollbeads Celestial Bead:
I wanted this bead to mark my very special birthday trip and unfortunately it was not meant to be. Instead I got something else that may not last as long, more on that later on as well. There was another little Trollbeads boutique near Versailles but due to time constraints and getting outvoted by my family I was unable to visit it to see if perhaps they had more of a variety.
Onto Spain! Now while in Spain I got a little smarter, I noticed that there were no stores in Madrid or Granada but there was one in Barcelona so I decided to call ahead instead of just showing up and was told that they don’t even carry any gold, and when they did, it was the heart dangle charm. At this point I didn’t even try anymore and simply gave up on Trollbeads while in Europe.
Now Pandora was a whole other story! I visited the Pandora store in the Louvre which I didn’t even know they had one, (thanks to my good friend Elizabeth who let me know there was one there because I had an excellent experience while shopping there!) I bought several exclusives, and they even gave me a free travel jewelry roll for free! They totally made my day and I left extremely happy. I still didn’t see a lot of women wearing Pandora, but I chalked it up to them preferring other brands instead of Pandora.
Once again in Spain Pandora was a whole other story!! I saw tons of women wearing Pandora! I saw earrings, rings, bracelets galore!! Even the flamenco dancer we watched in Granada was wearing Pandora during her performance! That made me feel a whole lot better, and I was able to visit a store in Madrid and Barcelona, got plenty of exclusives there as well! And believe it or not Granada did not have any exclusives but I has happy to have found them in the other cities, stay tuned for a major haul video!
In conclusion, it was very interesting to me to see which country favored what brand. Like I said before, Trollbeads was nowhere to be seen, Pandora made a small appearance in Paris, then bam! Plenty of Pandora in Spain! Has anyone who has visited Europe noticed this? Was it just a rarity for me not to have seen anyone wearing Trollbeads? I suspect based on the legend on the Trollbeads site that Italy is the place to be for Trollbeads. Please let me know about your experience if you have ever visited Europe, I am extremely curious to know your take on this!
I was in Germany a month ago. Before I left I checked online for stores in the various cities we would be in. Due to time constraints I was only able to go to one of the stores. It was a tiny jewelry store in a small city on the Polish border that also carried just a few trays of Trollbeads. However, I found 2 beads that I had been looking for and that made my day. I didn’t see very many people wearing bracelets of any brand. There is a larger retailer in Berlin, Star Biju (forgive my spelling) but I did not make it there because of time.
I was a little disappointed that there weren’t more and larger stores as there are so few where I live in the US. I am new to the beading world and really love the Trollbeads glass and Pandora charms. Glad you had a great trip. We did too!
Love your videos and blogs!
So interesting!! Based on the map you would think that there were more stores in Germany (not the black ones) but more purple or premium retailers. I still can’t believe I didn’t find more in the countries I visited. My local store which is about 2.5 hours away had more variety than the store in Paris! And perhaps it’s not necessarily more popular in Europe as you didn’t see many wearing Trollbeads as well. I really wonder why.
Thank you so much for your comment and your support! It’s nice to know someone reads my blog as well as watches my videos!
Thank you for response. I wouldn’t have known about Trollbeads if I had not come across your blog. I am so glad as the glass is truly amazing like works of art. I don’t know if you have heard of Kathy Perras. She was the artist that made the Siberian Tiger bead for Trollbeads in the early 2000’s. Kathy has since be making reproductions of that bead and sells them on Etsy shop. She makes many other beads and will do custom beads. I had her make a bead in memory if my cat Sasha who passed away last year. She has a talent for replecating animal fur in glass. You might want to check it out as I know you have some puppies that are special to you. Have a great day!
oh wow I’m glad I was able to introduce you to Trollbeads but I think your knowledge about glass beads has far surpassed mine! I had no idea about Kathy Perras, I will definitely check her out! I’m sorry to hear about your kitty, will for sure look her up on etsy because you are correct, I’d love to see what she can do with my puppy!
I enjoyed reading this post, and am glad to know I am not the only person who spies on other people’s bracelets. I almost grabbed a woman’s wrist once when I saw she had a country exclusive I had not seen before. I look forward to the haul video.
OH MY Jackie LOL you literally made me LOL for real!! I think I would’ve done that too!! Trust me you are not the only one who does that LOL, I think my husband was getting annoyed with me because I kept telling him I would see Pandora earrings on that girl, or Pandora ring on that other girl LOL. I have a small video backlog but should be working on it real soon! Thanks for your comment!
Happy Birthday Jahndra! Can’t wait to see your youtube video on all your exclusives from your trip!
Thank you so much!! I’ll be getting through it little by little!! It’ll be thanksgiving and I’ll still be talking about my birthday LOL
Hi Jahndra I love your blog! I was in Barcelona and Paris last year and Noticed exactly what you did! Not so many ladies in France with Pandora bracelets but tons in Spain! I also noticed in the US when I went to Georgia and South Carolina SO MANY Pandora girls but not so in California and Colorado. I think thats interesting! Anyway, always love your blog. Hope to read more from you soon !
THank you very much for your lovely comment! How interesting that you noticed the exact same thing right? Also I’ve heard that Pandora is much more popular on the East coast than it is in the West coast, like why is that? Oh well I guess we’ll never know the answer, thank you so much for reading and commenting!
Hi Jandra! I found this review on Charmbead blog about Perras Beads and animal fur. Check it out. It is how I found out about Kathy’s work.
Review: Perras Beads – “Simba” and “Sasha”
Enjoy!
I did find her stuff on Etsy, will definitely check out the blog as well, thank you so much for the reference!