When I was a wee lass in school at McGill I dated a french boy who was very sweet and spoke very little English. Our relationship lasted into him becoming a completely fluent anglophone and I became more and more disenchanted with the Quebecoise way of life.
Though our romance ended after a year or so, the beautiful little charms that he bought me at Freitag were less transient. His taste was not superb and while he meant well it wasn't long before I steered him to Freitag on St. Laurent and said very clearly: "If you want to buy me something, buy me something here." I knew it was basically a flawless plan since all the handmade baubles here were so charming that I would've been happy with anything in the store. Run by a cute little french lady and filled with small silver charms, a few delicate gems and a powder blue motorbike it was just as charming as the jewelry it held.
After we broke up and I moved back to California we kept in touch briefly and that Christmas a surprise package arrived with a long letter professing his love with broken English verbs. Accompanying the note was a gaudy silver chain with plastic balls and silver hanging all over it. I was happy I didn't have to send back a necklace from Freitag.