France

Park Play!

Well, here we are, at our last post from Paris… While our stay was a short one, we did manage to take pictures every day and we did end up re-visiting a lot of the places we love. One of those places is the Tuileries Garden. Even though this is not by far the best park we’ve seen, for some reason, every time either of us is in Paris, we end up here. I have to say that in order to fully understand the French art of gardening, you have to see this place and admire the way the trees are trimmed to perfection.

I don’t really want to make this post a long one, and I did say at the beginning of this Paris saga that I will not talk about any of the landmarks, so let’s move on to the outfits we wore. Both of our outfits were bought on location, except for D‘s t-shirt, so this was not planned, but we managed to look decent at least. I love floral prints, and it seems that lately I have developed a soft spot for maxi dresses as well, and luckily for me, D seems to enjoy shades of grey combined with blue accents just as much as I do, so we both loved our last day’s outfits, improvised or not.

On me:

Dress – New Look; Shoes – H&M; Bag – DKNY; Bling – Pandora (bracelets and ring)and Tomorrowland; Sunglasses – Dior; Watch – Longines

As I said, most of the stuff we are wearing is newly bought because hey, everyone loves a good sale and we found ourselves right in the prime of the sales season in Paris, so we couldn’t help ourselves. The lovely and very comfortable maxi I am wearing is from New Look and I just love the peak-a-boo high slit it has. It was a sort of love at first sight between me and this dress as I loved both the print and the colour scheme and on my way to the changing rooms I was just praying for a good fit with it. The shoes are from H&M and despite the fact that these are probably the cheapest pair of shoes I own, they are very comfortable and gave me a much needed hight. I always wanted to find a pair just like this one, but I always thought that they are very uncomfortable. Well, this pair that cost next to nothing is very very comfortable and the pinkish nude colour makes your legs seem longer than ever.

On D:

T-shirt – Tomorrowland; Shorts – Pull and Bear; Shoes – H&M; Bling – Fossil and Constantin Nautics; Sunglasses – Ray-Ban; Watch – Longines

Aside from this newly bought items, I wore my DKNY bucket bag that goes perfectly with the base shade of the dress, and my Dior sunglasses. Bling-wise, as you already know by now, I wore my Pandora bracelets and ring and my Tomorrowland ring. D was also neat in his bling choices and went for the Fossil and Constantin Nautics bracelets, alongside our Longines watches.

He also found a pair of very nice and very special low-crotch shorts from Pull and Bear that just couldn’t be missed, especially since they cost the amazing amount of 9E. I honestly think those are the cheapest shorts in his closet, and he figured that if I won’t approve of his choices, because they are low-crotched, he’ll just wear them around the house, as the price was just too good to miss. He also wore his newly acquired espadrilles from H&M that, like mine, were very cheap, but very comfortable and they matched his shorts perfectly. To make my day, he chose to wear his Tomorrowland grey t-shirt because, as he put it, he needed to wear something to match my dress. He finished everything with his Ray-Ban sunglasses.

Well, my plan was to keep this post to a minimum test-wise, but it ended up being just as long as all the other Paris fashion posts, if not longer. I don’t want to finish off leaving you with the impression that we do not like Paris, because we do, it’s just that there are a whole other bunch of European cities that we like more. True, Paris has its charm, but lately the mayor has been forgetting that the city needs actual cleaning to look nice. Aside from that, Paris is just lovely and we will miss it!

July 23, 2016

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Au Chien qui Fume

Au Chien Qui Fume…Here we are again…Me with a glass of something in front of me – the beer is not mine – and D taking pictures of me. The thing with French terraces is that most of the time the tables are so small that you have to order taking that into consideration. Apparently the French do take care of your silhouette. Another low point about French terraces is that usually, you feel like you are sharing your plate with the stranger next to you. All this happened to us the last time we were in Paris and ever since we have promised ourselves to never stop and eat at those types of terraces.

But, what do you know? When hunger strikes, there is no reason behind any choice you make. Luckily for us, hunger struck near this lovely French restaurant that actually had a terrace. It is called Au Chien Qui Fume and it’s the only terrace I’ve seen throughout Paris that actually has space between tables. This immediately made both of us want to give it a nice review so that other tourists visiting Paris will experience amazing French food in a very nice environment. So, moving along to the food. The menu consists mainly of French cuisine, but it doesn’t exclude anyone, so you can find vegetable based dishes, poultry, fish and basically anything your heart desires, all with a French twist, which is exactly what we wanted for our last lunch in Paris.

Obviously, both of us had to order some specifically French dishes, therefore I ended up with my favourite – The Onion Soup, and D chose the chicken casserole. What can I say? My soup was absolutely delicious and I knew at first mouthful that this place deserved a review on the blog. If you ever find yourself in Paris, make sure you give this place a try and especially the Onion Soup that was absolutely amazing. D loved his chicken casserole that not only looked amazing, but you could feel the taste of real free range chicken and fresh potatoes. Really, his dish reminded me of a chicken stew that my grandmother used to make me when I was little. Those were the days where you cooked whatever you grew in your yard, all natural, hormone free food.

For dessert I chose the Creme Brulee because, hey, we are in Paris, right? and D chose Ile Flottante which is a dessert I know from when I was little and again, my grandmother used to make it. It does seem like my grandmother was a specialist in French Cuisine, doesn’t it? Well she used to call this dessert ‘Bird’s Milk’ but it’s basically the same thing. The Creme Brulee was magnificent and I love the fact that great quality vanilla was used as that seems to be a rarity lately. I have to say that we were very satisfied with our lunch and we were actually sorry we only discovered this place on our last day in Paris as we really wanted to give a few other dishes a try.

The cheque came at about 70E which is more than decent considering the area as well as the fact that it’s full tourist season in paris right now. I also loved the decor and the fact that the whole restaurant was open and you couldn’t really feel where the inside area was ending and the terrace begins. It was very nice to feel like we were the only ones at our table especially taking into consideration our other experiences in Paris. This place is defiantly a must-try!

July 22, 2016July 22, 2016

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French Brownie…

Turning a bit brown and energetic for today’s post! Both of us wanted to see the Defense area again, because we both remembered it as being this sci-fi new area that was immaculate and new. Now, I don’t really know why, but as I’ve mentioned in our first Paris post, this city seems to get dirtier every year. This area makes no exception. It was a far cry from what we remembered it to be. The entire area was quite dirty, but I have to admit that it still is beautiful and imposing so we really wanted to have a photoshoot there. And we actually couldn’t find a better spot that this rusty-coloured urban sculpture. It matched our clothes perfectly.

I actually have no idea why I went for a beige-brown combo for Paris. I mean, when choosing colours, I knew exactly why I was channeling my inner hippie in Milan, but for some reason, I have no idea why I opted for this brown dress. I do love it, make no mistake, just like I love any wrap-dress – I think they are the best! This one I got from Debenhams ages ago, so naturally, there is no way it’s still available online, but I will do my best to find an alternative. The great thing about a well tailored wrap dress is the fact that it tends to be quite forgiving if, by some error you put on a few kgs, as a matter of fact, They tend to look better on curvier figures. For more on that just search Taylor Swift in a wrap dress and compare her with Eva Mendes in one and you’ll immediately get what I mean.

On me:

Dress – Debenhams; Shoes – Bata; Bag – DKNY; Bling – Pandora (bracelets and ring) and Tomorrowland; Shades – Dior; Watch – Longines

Back to the outfit and away from the catty comments. I paired the brown dress with the newly acquired brown platform sandals from Bata that are no where to be found online – I don’t know what’s going on with these store exclusives… I paired everything with my greige – I love that colour – DKNY bucket bag and my Dior shades and I was ready to take on dirty Paris in a rusty manner. As for the bling, you’ve probably noticed that while I am away, I tend to wear the same stuff everyday, but that’s only because I love all my jewellery and I tend to wear them everyday for days without changing anything. Hence, I wore my Pandora bracelets and ring and my Tomorrowland ring.

On D:

Shorts – H&M; T-shirt – Mango; Shoes – Tommy Hilfiger; Bag – Barcelona; Bling – Fossil and Constantin Nautics; Shades – Ray-Ban; Watch – Logines

D also played nice and went for a beige/greige colour theme. He chose his beige H&M shorts and decided to combine them with his grey palm printed t-shirt from Mango. I just loved the way he mixed beige with grey, but he did take his brown bag from Barcelona that matched my dress perfectly. I can say that my bag matched his outfit, while his bag matched mine. He finished his outfit with his Tommy Hilfiger boat shoes that he seems to take with him everywhere, but I suppose that’s what happens when you have a pair of very comfortable shoes that also look nice. As usual for this short trip, we both wore our Longines watches and D wore his Fossil and Constantin Nautics bracelets.

I know that it seems like these Paris posts are going way slower than usual, but the truth is it’s summer, and during summer everyone seems to have a lot of stuff going on and we make no exception. I promise there will be no more breaks in this set of posts.

July 21, 2016

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Disneyland

This is most definitely one of those posts that requires absolutely no text whatsoever. I mean, if you need convincing to go to this lovely fantastical place, then my text will not do much convincing anyway, so I’m not even going to bother! Everyone, adult or kid, needs to visit Disneyland Paris at least once in a lifetime! Both D and I were lucky enough to have visited it twice so far and we made a pact to not stop now! Despite not wanting to write any text, I do have a few pointers (two actually) that might actually prove useful and money-saving:

You should avoid eating at the A la Carte restaurants simply because the food you’ll find at the normally-priced restaurants throughout the park is very, very good – remember, we are picky when it comes to food – and it’s simply not worth it paying triple the price.
Do not miss the daily parade!!!!!! Seriously, do not miss it!

That’s about all I am going to say about Disneyland Paris and now, I am going to let you enjoy the 100 or so photos I managed to select from our day of fantasy!

July 19, 2016

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Channeling our inner royalties!

Finally in Disneyland!!! While both of us have been to Paris several times, once together, but we haven’t reached Disneyland together until this time around. I can’t tell you how happy I am to be with D in Disneyland. I loved Disneyland ever since I first came here 10 years ago, this is the place that makes every trip to Paris totally worth it! This and the shopping! I just couldn’t believe it, we were finally here, together! While I will give you more details about the wonderful park and how we felt there, tomorrow, today is all about what we both decided to wear to meet our childhood (and adulthood) idols! I don’t know about you, but for me, Minnie is #goals so my age makes no difference nowadays.

Obviously, we tried to take most of our photos in one place, and we chose the Haunted Mansion for it because, even though I would’ve loved to take pics in front of the (my) castle, that would’ve been way to cliche! The Haunted Mansion seemed like a right fit, especially since we didn’t have our royalty robes on. We did however manage to match and I really do not know why we chose teal for Disneyland, especially since there is online proof that we can both sport various shades of pink. Looking at the photos, teal does tend to look nice and it contrasts my blonde hair quite powerfully.

On me:

Dress – ZARA; Shoes – Vidoretta; Bag – Obag; Sunglasses – Dior; Bling – Pandora (bracelets and ring) and Tomorrowland; Watch – Longines

As unexpected as this is, all the dresses I wore in Paris are old ones and it’s quite possible that, for all of the fashion posts, I am going to have to search for alternatives. And I’m telling you, finding an alternative for this one was very hard and the dress I found doesn’t come close to this one, but it will have to do. I chose to wear my Vidoretta espadrilles, and good thing I did that, as there was a lot of walking involved that day and these espadrilles are made for these types of days. Naturally, my outfit was finished off by my Obag basket bag that seems to go everywhere with me these days. There are two reasons for that: I am too lazy to actually change bags and this bag is very versatile, and you know how I love all things versatile!

On D:

T-shirt – Lacoste; Shorts – H&M; Shoes – Converse; Bag – Barcelona; Bling – Fossil and Constantin Nautics; Watch – Longines

As promised, I am nowhere close to taking off my Dior sunglasses, and make no mistake, Disneyland was not the place to take your glasses off! Just ask Minnie!!! I did keep it simple in the jewellery department and only wore my two Pandora bracelets and a ring, and naturally my Tomorrowland ring as well. As stated in the other fashion post, we both decided to wear our Longines watches for this trip.

D being the nice and loving husband that he is, just like Mickey (told you I forgot to grow up!), also went for the teal colour scheme. Or at least he tried to because apparently he doesn’t own a piece of teal anything in his closet, so we had to make do with what we could find! Obviously, this time around, he couldn’t leave home without a pair of H&M blue shorts, and to be honest, I was very happy that he has this habit of buying various colours of the same thing. He paired the shorts with a khaki polo from Lacoste and his always present bag from Barcelona! Jewellery wise, he kept it just as simple as me and went for his Fossil and Constantin Nautics bracelets.

Obviously, tomorrow is going to be all about the 1000 photos we took while at the park and it’s probably going to contain very little text, because if the photos can’t convince you to visit this amazing place than it means that you are way too adult-y for me!

July 18, 2016

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L’Atelier Renault / Desperate times need desperate measures

Right… After a short break in posting, here we are back to our first day in Paris… I must underline yet again, the fact that we came to Paris for the third time and these posts will not include any landmarks or other tourist orientated places. The first day we arrived in Paris was the day of the semi-final between France and Germany, but I desperately needed two things: the Loubilaque lipgloss and some eye make-up remover from Guerlain. Now, because we spent some time in front of the Louvre, there was absolutely no time to get to the FanZone area to watch the game, we were both hungry so we had to improvise. To our surprise, we ended up being very happy with our improvisation.

Since we were on the Champs Elysees, we decided to have dinner and pray for a tv at the L’Atelier Renault. Not only did they have a TV, they have several TVs and we ended up having our very own TV to watch the football match. The most amazing thing about that evening though was not the match, but the food. For a restaurant on the shopping boulevard of Paris, this one was really surprising. We had eaten on the Champs Elysees the other times we visited Paris and, to be honest, the food was mediocre at best, so we went in without having great expectations, we really just needed anything to eat and a TV to watch the game. This posh little restaurant surprised us and made me want to write a review because I feel that other people should give this one a try.

First of all, because the lightning is pink, most of the photos we took turned out shitty, but the atmosphere inside, because of that shitty lightning, was very nice. Moving along, this is the only minus I could find about the place, this and the fact that you have to take a mini excursion to reach the toilet, but that’s ok as you get to visit most of the showroom until you get to your destination. Because we are tourists, we are always on the search of decent wi-fi (well me mostly, as D has a great deal with his network provider), and this place really has decent Instagram-uploading wi-fi, so that’s another big plus.

I really feel that we should be moving along to the food now, as this is supposed to be a restaurant review, and as it turns out, I’ve said nothing about the food so far. So, as stated earlier, we were hungry. I mean, really, really hungry as the last thing we had eaten that day was the food on the airplane at noon. The menu really doesn’t offer a lot of dishes, but it contains everything for to satisfy even the most picky foodie. The downside of the menu is that it gives you very little detail on what a salad contains so I ended up with a lovely green beans based salad. Not that I am complaining or anything, but it would’ve been nice to know in advance. Besides those lovely beans, it also contained the most amazing goat cheese I have ever tried, so the food lover in me was very satisfied. D‘s lamb chops were cooked to perfection and there were no surprises on his plate.

Despite the very satisfying main courses, because we really wanted to make a review on the pace, we both decided to get dessert as well. We got the Atelier Renault Cafe ice-cream, which besides the fact that it was delicious, it was also huge. Don’t get me wrong, when I say delicious, I tend to compare it with the Italian gelato and this one came very close. We also got the Elysee Angelina’s Special Pastry for L’Atelier Renault Cafe which didn’t WOW us but I’d say it was still in our top 10 desserts of all time. The entire meal was accompanied by still water, a few beers for D and a couple of fresh pressed juices for me, and the cheque came at about 100 Euros, which, if you factor in location and the quality of the food, I’d say it’s not out of the ordinary. We had a great time and we got to see full-hand how the French celebrate getting into the final, as everyone came to Champs Elysees after the match.

July 17, 2016

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Social Media in Paris!

Naturally, it is time for the Paris posts to start. As per usual, we are going to start by putting together all our online activity (Instagram and Facebook) throughout our weekend getaway. Of course a whole set of fashion/food/leisure posts are coming your way, so make sure you check our blog daily! in the meantime, here’s a sneak peak!