lisbon stories :: zazou bazar

hello girls & boys! how are you? are you preparing your long weekend? are you getting away this easter? to be honest i really care much about easter, though i was brought up in a catholic way, as i “graduated” i abandoned almost everything religious concerned. i do appreciate some of the values though, but there is something in me that just doesn’t go along with churches and priests. it’s just something really personal, that’s all. but i do like the fact that we get all those holidays, like christmas (my favorite), easter and all the other ones in june (yay for those!). so we’ll be gone as usual to “our” beach house, mr kobe hates the trip, but loves to be there with his labrador friend. and occasionally we take him for a walk on the beach and that my friends, delight him! so moving on to our topic, today i bring you something really precious and was quite an unexpected find. as you may know already i love to wander around the typical neighbourhoods in lisbon. always in search for something peculiar, that brings joy to my heart! and when i was dealing with the loss of my external hard drive (damn you thing!) i found myself again on this area and when i was coming down to take the tram back home, i found this beautiful shop called zazou.

zazou is a very curious and interesting place, and they managed to have two things most people love when they’re traveling, a nice typical shop + typical delicacies and wine! this for me is a winner strategy! if i can buy some typical things, while having a glass of wine and eat some typical food, i’m delighted. and even though i’m not a tourist in lisbon, i fell in love with this place, because they serve those delicacies i adore in portugal, like chourizo, cheese and wine.

on their facebook page you can read the following…

“some call me the madness, others, the flare of irreverence. poets say i am a salon and artists claim me as a new rendez-vous point. gourmands say that i am a treasure trove of the noblest portuguese fare, retrieved from by-gone days. some call me courage in times of crisis, others see in me a gamble on just the right measure of innovation. i have been called a mecca of true portuguese arts and crafts, the counterculture to high prices, i’ve been called a bazar or a wine shop but i admit, i prefer to be called simply zazou.”

when i went inside i stopped at every step, because the details were too amazing to let them go without a proper moment of appreciation and/or a picture. they managed to create an environment filled with objects that live in our memories, our childhood memories, those objects that we knew from our parents or grandparents’ house. they makes close our eyes and touch the many things and believe we are travelling back in time. i touched, i felt the textures, i smelled the perfumes coming from the soaps… and i was 5 again.

it’s incredible how so many things seemed so old-fashioned back then, or even ugly, and now decades after, we can look at those same objects and find either their mystique or beauty. some were refined and brought back from the old trunks and given some modern lines, others were kept the same. and now they look so gorgeous! sometimes we deny some things from our folk culture and they are so amazing! it’s a shame we’re just starting to appreciate these things as they deserve.

i was delighted with these small boxes with apple jam. i loved the patterns and colours! so pretty! zazou may be found when you’re going up to graça, towards the sé of lisbon. when you start going up, you just need to turn to your left, on a small square and you’ll find it easily! you won’t regret the walk! and just like this we end our feature for today! for more ideas on where to go, to shop and eat in lisbon, explore all the links here!

ps. there’s a new post on bla bla blog by ikea wrote by me! i wrote about a fabulous idea to make a very original centerpiece! care to look?

zazou bazar & café
calçada do correio velho, nº 7
lisbon 

* Lisbon’s Travel Guide

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