“Yes, but why were you two on a silver kick?” is a question I neglected to answer in my last post. The Parisian market (which sold doormats that read, “le petit palais”) had a stack of silver-plate plates (sounds redundant but is not) that were used by some governor for his lavish dinner parties in Georgia during the 1750’s or thereabouts. Chris thought that was really cool and asked if I wanted some until we realized they were $40…each. But it was too late to shake the silver bug; it sparkled before our eyes as the pinnacle of Southern charm and hospitality. While it is ironic that we had to drive several hours north to get to this cradle of the South, we still consider ourselves Southerners. Right? If Texas isn’t Southern I don’t know what is.
Savannah’s antique stores had many tea pots for $40 to several hundred. Budget Traveler described Paige’s Thieves Market in Charleston as a scavenger’s dream, so we went and scavenged, turning up a smeary black-and-purple old tea pot. We bargained the guy down two dollars and bought the thing for eight. Chris polished it as soon as we got home; I married it to the tea tray and china. Tea, anyone? 
Photos: top–San Sebastian wine in our new chiller, accompanying cheese tortellini on a bed of spinach; middle–North America’s only tea plantation; bottom–new silver tea tray and tea pot with our gorgeous gold bamboo china (and that’s the wine chiller in the background)