Paris is for lovers and cheesy tourist photos

(AKA. In which we do all quintessential touristy things)

the louvre
I've really fallen in love with Parisian architecture. The detail and the mid of modern and traditional is fantastic.



 Wouldn't this look absolutely smashing on me? I wonder where I can find a prince who can convince the Louvre to give this to me?

cupid and psyche


This is when we thought it'd be fun and scenic to walk from the Louvre to the Effiel Tower!


Somehow the fact we would have to climb all those stairs when we reached the tower escaped us...


(We ended up taking the lift)
(After we took a nap in the sun, and thus made our trek from The Louvre to the tower that much less impressive.)

When we got to Notre Dame, they had just closed and so we couldn't go inside. This happened to us at St. Pauls in London the other day too. I have a sneaking suspicion it has something to do with our hilarious (read: blasphemous) commentary on religious artwork at the Louvre...(and then again at the National Gallery...oops.)

Dan la Louvre
Sur la rue!


Versaille
La orangerie au Versaille!


The chapel at Versaille was off limits to everyone, so I'm like 90% sure this one had nothing to do with God not wanting us to enter his threshold...

Au revoir Peace & Love!

Our first full day in Paris.


view from our train window
Steven and I had an amazing time in Paris, we took way too many pictures, so I am splitting up the post into three, we arrived on the train at Paris Nord right at sunset, so our first view of France was the countryside at dusk, which goes without saying, was absolutely breathtaking. 

We got to the hostel around 10pm, and we met Nathanie, who showed us around the area around the hostel, but it was fairly dark and I believe Steven left his camera back at the hostel so we unfortunately did not get a picture with Nathanie. She had to leave the next morning to head back to London and then fly home to New York, which seemed to be a reoccuring theme throughout our visit, where we would make friends with people who had to leave the next day! hahaha. 

The next morning we headed up to La Bastille de Sacre Coeur, where we sat on the steps and had a breakfast of tarte aux fraise and orange juice while enjoying the lovely view as seen below:
view from sacre coeur
steven in front of sacre coeur
the harpist 
Afterwards we spent several hours exploring Montmartre, the area around Sacre Coeur, it was full of little cafes, brasseries, and cute little shops. We eventually wandered into a creepy little store full of doll parts and erotic keychains, and decided maybe we should call it quits exploring and have some lunch, so we bought baguettes, a big wedge of brie cheese, strawberries, and rose lemonade and sat on a bench on the side of sacre coeur and picnic'd.
our picnic lunch
the creepy doll store

 After we took a nap in the park and slept off our lunch, I wasted my money on a string of coloured lanterns simply because the store was colourful and I was distracted by it. We got lost for a bit and then walked to a champagne tasting bar I had read really good reviews for and had tapas and a bottle of bubbly there! All in all, it was a day of indulgence.
adorable
That night we made new friends at the hostel, Dan, Ron and Marty from Chicago, but again they were leaving the next morning again, hahahaha. We all went out to dinner, and we forgot to get pictures with them, but I believe they got pictures of us, so maybe after we facebook each other we will have the pictures together.



what is love?


I am absolutely loving our trip. Moony's already mentioned the fact that we've become utterly infatuated with London but I just have to emphasize HOW MUCH I love it.
For starters, people with British accents are my favorite. I absolutely ADORE the different dialects around Britain. Especially the ones here in London, though. So walking down the streets feels like something out of a dream for me.

Then there's the architecture! I'm not much of a "history buff" myself but I simply love all of the old streets, buildings and palaces and hearing about who lived where and how this and that were built....

I dream of being able to live here in London one day. Even for just a short time. It's so lovely.

I really did love Paris as well, though. I mean, the warnings we got were legitimate; it is honestly quite a dirty city, but I fell in love with the places we visited! I mean, the Eiffel Tower was stunning and is one of those things you HAVE to do once in your life and Le Leuvre was INCREDIBLE. I was in awe at all the marble statues. I mean, they can get rather boring after you've seen 100+ of them but I still retain my deep appreciation for how talented and skilled people have to be in order to make one so beautifully.
For the first time in my life, I've actually gained a deep appreciation and yearning to learn the French language! Hearing people speak it and being surrounded by it really made me understand why it's called "the language of love".


But that's enough ranting about art and culture for now.

We're hopefully heading off to Covent Garden again today and staying for longer (the last time we went it was dark out and we kind of just quickly went through).
This means we'll be taking "the tube" to get there and perhaps we'll find some cute shops to browse through.

Marija's already taken us to most of the tourist hot spots like Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, etc. so now we can start truly exploring London and all its wonders!

Until next time,

Cheers!

C'est la vie!

Just got home from Paris...to be honest, I prefer London. It's a nice city, but It sort of smells like pee, hahahaha! I really had a good time though, despite a few minor incidents. Exhausted and about to eat dinner though, will definitely update tomorrow after the photos are uploaded to the computer!!

Fancy a cuppa?

westminster abbey:
very impressive exterior,
even more impressive entrance fee
will have to assume the interior is nice as well, haha
train time!
ronald weasley on a double decker bus!

more obligated touristy things!
natalie portman, stop harassing those ducks


a conversation with oscar wilde.
i don't quite understand this monument really
i always assumed oscar wilde was attractive
seeing how much tail he got.

walking into somerset house


somerset house:
makes buckingham looks like a rundown crack house.

Hurray!

We are officially in love with London, the city is amazing and I'm thoroughly enjoying all the fun accents of all the different people. Was dead tired last night, but still managed to get some of the mandatory touristy things in, like visiting parliament, Westminster abbey ("hands down, best abbey I've ever seen!"), buckingham palace, convent gardens, St James park, trafalgar square, and my favorite of the night, somerset house. It's Masha's favorite building in London, and seriously, if I were the queen I'd live there instead, makes buckingham palace look like a dump!
Will post a longer real post once Masha is up and I can use her laptop! :)

swoooooon

ungghhh
How perfect are these wedges from Lanvin? There are not enough synonyms for gorgeous to describe these. I love everything about them. I love the nude colour, the wood detail, the what must be buttery soft leather, the beautifully structured wedge, and my god, is anything in this world sexier than that ankle strap?

Shoe addiction is a definite cliche, but that doesn't make the problem any less serious. If I have to be honest with you, the only reason I go to school is so I can someday buy all the Lanvins, Louboutins, YSLs, and Pradas I want. And you know how little girls (coughallgirlscough) fantasize about their wedding dress, and grooms, and tiaras or whatever? I fantasize about the shoes I'll wear with my wedding dress (Royal blue Louboutins, just in case you're curious). And here's where you should stop reading if you don't want the full effects of my crazy (too late maybe? I think the wedding shoes comment pretty much obliterated that line anyway): sometimes when I really really really want a new pair of shoes, I will seriously not eat in order to squirrel away my food budget for them. I guess what I'm trying to say here is that it's a good thing I already spent all my money on this trip to London, because otherwise I would be trying to sustain myself on water and rice cakes alone for these beauties. Ugh, and I just realized my nude feather clutch would be perfect with them too.