But Paris has healed and continues to be a stunningly beautiful place to be, so I thought why not write it now, a year after we set off for our mini holiday.
The adventure began with a weekend trip to Ireland with Mum to visit my brother and his (now) wife. It was my first trip there and I loved it! Dublin is really beautiful! And of course I've been back since.
The top left picture was taken in Costa Coffe, which I said looked like the UN consulate, hence the diplomatic meeting photo.
We flew back from there to Newcastle and me and Mum drove down to Berkshire for my usual week staying with my parents over the summer. But this time my parents had other plans and surprised me with a little jaunt through the tunnel and three days in Paris!!!
Eurostar fun! Dad was excited too, but there was something interesting happening behind me. I was really excited when I found out they were going to feed us and give us wine!
I did take a mostly handmade set of clothes, which were luckily French weather appropriate (just remove the cardigan). When we arrived late afternoon we dumped our bags in the Campanile we were staying in which was near Place de la Bastille, and headed in the direction of Notre Dame.
Oh I love French cafes, especially right on the river... Which I chose not to include in the photo... Twit!
Oh there it is!
We walked along the river up towards the Louvre, just basking in the sunshine and beautiful architecture.
I wore my squirrel pleated skirt with a blouse on day one... I felt very chic wandering around with all of the Parisians. We were very content just walking for hours until we felt hungry, then Dad managed to scout us out a cute little cafe where I could have Confit du canard... Mmmmmm
Ok just a few more photos...
On day two we decided we would head up to the Eiffel Tower, because, you know, Paris. But Dad spotted Victor Hugo's house was on the way so we made a stopover. We managed to hit a morning market right next to the hotel too, full of flowers, fruit, and clothes (?!). The house itself was hidden through a little door which opened out onto a little park square lined with cafes and art shops.
The house was a lovely little museum of Victor Hugo's life, I really enjoyed it. Particularly when I walked into the room above and said to Mum 'wow he needed to sack his decorator' and the steward sitting behind me, who apparently spoke perfect English, began wetting herself laughing. Oops.
Boom! Eiffel Tower! Ok we also didn't actually walk this far. We hopped onto one of the river tours which turns out is a cheap and scenic way to get from a to tower. I had never been this close to the Eiffel Tower itself. Dad suggested climbing up to the first level, but as it was pretty gusty and I was wearing a dress I said maybe next time.
Speaking of which... On day 2 I wore my completely un-blogged McCalls 6696... The perfect dress for more swanning around the city. I did spend quite a bit of time under the tower trying to find the centre.. That's a lot of wandering around looking up trying not to walk into all of the other people also walking around looking up.
Reckon I found it though.
After that we headed over to the Arc de Triomphe (actually walking it this time) and walked back down Champs Elysees, not daring to venture into any of the shops. I failed to take and photos of this stretch though. After another really good dinner (no canard this time) we headed back stopping off at Place de la Bastille for a late drink in the cool French night... I haven't been quite so relaxed since.
On day three we did more walking, just wherever our noses led us, with a bit of tourism shopping on the way (my poor sister was heartbroken she couldn't come with us so we made her up a little parcel).
It was an amazing surprise trip, really beautiful and the weather held out (well apart from a French rainstorm on the morning of day 2, but it was dry by the time we left breakfast)
Just for the fun of it, my parents trying to work out the Metro.
I loved it, and can't wait to go back again.
No comments:
Post a Comment