ULTRAMOD
I thought it was our secret place, our discovery. ULTRAMOD was a haberdashery in Paris that we found somehow when we visited Paris for a week in 2013 on our 50th wedding anniversary. It was our actually our long delayed honeymoon. We were married in Ithaca, New York on August 11, 1963, my birthday which meant that I never forgot our anniversary although that is was my birthday was often forgotten. It was a wedding on the cheap with the reception in my parent’s living room. Kathe’s parents and family couldn’t afford to come from Germany. The only people we knew at the wedding were those in my extended family who were able to make it to Ithaca from across the USA. My uncle Bill, a minster, married us. The best man was Ted, my brother, and my sister, Anne, made the wedding dress. No friends of either Kathe or me were present. The honeymoon was a 3 day stay in the Aurora Inn in Aurora, NY, with rides in the rain around Western New York as we looked for medicine for Kathe, who was sick.
So the 50th anniversary trip was our real honeymoon: to Paris for a week, then on for a 10 day Norway cruise with Kathe’s best friend Elke and her husband Heinrich, followed by the traditional post wedding luncheon celebration at a Gasthof in Winsen, Kathe’s home time with all of the friends and relatives still alive who were unable to attend our wedding 50 years earlier. It was a wonderful honeymoon.
A high point of our visit to Paris was an hour’s long visit to Ultramod, a magical old fashioned haberdashery filled with ribbons and buttons and skeins of yarn and fancy hat with a sister store Mercerie across the street. Three years ago when Susie and I were in Paris for a month we visited Ultramod again in memory of Kathe. And I have recommended it to other people.
Then just today Susie sent me link to a story about Ultramod which I am including here.
https://apple.news/AF3pZVnWZScKZ8ViUwm8c0w
Ultramod is turns out is not our secret place. It is the oldest haberdashery in Paris, 200 years old, and was the source of Queen Elizabeth’s hats. It is famous. It is also being forced to move because a mutual savings fund has terminated its lease. This has caused quite a fuss in Paris where there is an effort being made to save the old traditional stores and not let them give way to modernity.
This is a sad story. It’s charm is how old fashioned it is. I’ll link you to the photographs of my last visit there three weeks ago.
BILLYBABA.COM APRIL 22, FRIDAY, 2022
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 