Eating

Strawberry tarts at dusk, runny cheese and crunchy baguettes on picnics, truffles at gourmet food boutiques, Scandinavian chocolate biscuits, curious salads concocted à la maison, beaucoup de bananas.

Drinking

Beer in the shower, red wine on bridges over the Seine, hot chocolate for breakfast, sparkling water with meals, iced tea at midnight.

Cold War Kids

On Wednesday the 27th I headed off to the 18th arrondissement to catch Cold War Kids in concert. First, however, a cold beer was required so we trundled up the road to Café des Deux Moulins... otherwise known as the cafe in Amélie!



While the interior hasn't entirely remained identical to the film, the bar looks very similar.



The toilet and phone booth were pretty much the same!


I'm often told I remind people of Amélie; do you have any lookielikies?



Then it was to La Cigale for Underground Railway and Cold War Kids.

Wonderful, atmospheric lighting

Awesome night!

La météo

It's been uncharacteristically warm in Paris these last few days. Last night I lay on the grass under the Eiffel Tower in a skirt and a singlet.


Tonight the clouds cracked and rain came pouring in through the windows on the train.

Library

I just love the non-fiction children's section in my local library!



A whole section dedicated to cats?? Yes please.

Daily Outfit: Picnic in the park

Yesterday I put on my fair-weather picnicking clothes!

The heels were removed upon finding our grassy knoll

I passed this monster of a cat on the stroll to the local train station

Wonderful atmosphere: park full of people, dancing, playing music, lying in the sunshine. That is, until the park police came round and shooed us all out by blowing their whistles!

So we adjourned to the neighbouring canal, along with everybody else to continue with the wine and cheese consumption

Pretty coloured shops

Night fell (around 10pm!) and more friends arrived

Including Wendy, who arrived by train from Amsterdam

And we kicked on into the wee hours!

Bar staff

After much boozing last night in the streets of Paris I have decided that bar staff would be much more suitably attired in lab coats.

Thoughts?

Travel

After a week or so of relaxing in Paris the wheels have started turning again and I am planning trips here and there!


Here:

And there:

I am super excited! Between now and then I would also like to go back to Picardie to meet up with the Amiens brass band and explore the underground Spring gardens, as well as catching a TGV to the beautiful city of Lyon to explore roman ruins and silk merchants' passageways.

Daily Outfit: Meeting at the bank

To further encourage my Frenchification, I had a meeting with the bank with an intention to open my own account. In Euros!

This is the most business-like attire I could manage given my limited wardrobe

And after: Success! Approved! Look how French I am now with my baguette and bank files!

Daily Outfit: I'm French Now

Look at that, grey skies and a baguette in hand. No doubt about, I'm turning French!

Paris: Views from my friend's apartment window

Abandoned railway lines that I am keen to explore

And if you lean across the balcony, and stretch your arm out, you can take a mediocre shot of the twinkling Eiffel Tower. Good thing I don't get vertigo

Red brooches

What's this? French women scrabbling through wares like commoners? It cannot be.

But yet, this is the site that greeted me a few days back. French ladies trawling through boxes of cheap goods in a pop-up market stall. I joined in the rummage and unearthed the following brooches for 1€ each. I steered clear of the 1€ neon underwear.....









Hopefully this will put a sparkle into my (becoming dull) outfits!

The Nanny

So the other night I was watching The Nanny dubbed into French(!), and was heartbroken to hear no Nanny Fine twang! They made a big mistake in casting their French speakers.

However, I would like to take this opportunity to publicly worship those responsible for costume design. What goddesses! All the characters are perfectly sculpted by their wardrobes. Pure genius.

As an homage, I created my first ever polyvore set last night around 2am. This one's for you, Nanny Fine!

Internet times

I've been playing around a little on Looklet.com but am disappointed by the range of shoes available.

Watch this space!

Daily Outfit: With the man who walks through walls

See what I mean about outfit repetition?

On Tuesday I adventured through Paris, contrasting the metal and glass skyscraper-filled La Défense with the old world charm of Montmartre.

And the sun came out!

J'adore la France!

I'm taking lots of pictures!

Daily Outfit: Monday along the Marne

You may have started to notice a little repetition going on in my outfits. Unfortunately with only two skirts in my possession, and me loathe to wear pants, this is somewhat hard to avoid. But I promise that I'm trying to mix-it-up!

I walked along the beautiful Marne river taking photographs of old houses. This shot was taken in the middle of cooking dinner: and I didn't let it burn!

The cutest book

In the Uffizi Gallery in Florence (listen to me namedrop...), amongst the many bookshops I found this sweet picture book, Around the World with Mouk.




The "story" revolves around Mouk, a cute bear who sets off around the world in search of adventure. Each page is a hypercolour utopia, Richard Scarry style. The conversations between some of the resident animals are genuinely hilarious, and just obscure enough to tickle my fancy.

Mouk ambles through Africa!

Mouk brings joy to Japan!

Not only are the illustrations ridiculously cute, the humour quirky and the pages bursting with colour, but the pages themselves are highly tactile as they are very thick, and very glossy.


The cherry on top? The book comes with 40 re-usable stickers!

IMDB

Apparently, I am "Up 366% in popularity this week"

Daily Outfit: To market, to market

Why hello there! I woke myself relatively early for a Sunday and headed down the road to explore my town's markets. We bought cheese, ham, radish, tomatoes, asparagus, aubergine, strawberries, and of course, fresh baguettes. It's a lovely sunny day and I'm finding it hard to keep myself from smiling.

Except for the fact that I may be developing a blister on my wrist from excessive computer usage; this is what happens when you jobsearch online, upload all your photos, keep in touch with friends, plan the next holiday, write your CV and "lettre de motivation"....

Oh hi! Seems I'm a cheeky little squirrel

Baguettes every day, cheese after your meal, wine at lunch... I could get very used to this.


And I just had the most delicious strawberry.

What the doctor ordered

Go through your pictures on facebook. Hilarious, ridiculous, good times with friends.

Oh!

Today I had a key cut to my Frenchy abode, got a French mobile, looked at the bathtub from hell, made my CV Frenchified so I can apply somewhere very special, smiled in the rain, ate an undercooked curry loaf and treated myself to strawberries bathed in the wine of Tuscan saints.

La vie est belle, chers amis!

Belated Bruges

We had a very nice daytrip tothe medieval town Bruges while staying in Ypres/Ieper

Spring has sprung in Europe and it is GLORIOUS!

And visited the chip museum...

Fascinating stuff

The cave where we sampled some Belgian fries with mayonnaise

There was a visit to the chocolate museum as well....

Live demonstration (with taste tests!)

And a cat, offering cheese, made entirely of chocolate