paree xo

i don’t think i can put in to words how happy this made me to sit and have a cup of tea, while the eiffel started glittering at night. i thought of how my mum has only seen how beautiful it is through photos or attempting to hold the screen up through skype, about how lucky i really am to experience all of this. it was surreal going to grab a coffee, get some milk or a baugette, and coming home to this view. i think a lot of the neighbours were wondering what i was doing standing out in the street for so long, in awe of what they walk past so casually every day. this was the first i felt like i could actually live here, fit in as a parisien. it gave me a little hint of excitement and plenty of time away with the fairies, daydreaming that this already another home away from home…

 

having quite a few days in paris, it was so nice to take some out time with relaxing wandering, having too many coffee’s with great conversation, and a bit of shopping around galeries lafayette. i never usually splurge on ‘things’, especially jewellery as i loose nearly everything i own, i swear things grow legs and run away from me! i can just never put a wad of money towards some’thing’ that i’m not going to resell in the future, or if it is for myself. i usually think i want it so much- and then i think of everything else that money could go towards- i guess my splurging weakness is travel! for once i had a little splurge on myself, yves saint laurent gold plated heart ring… so i can wear this as a constant reminder of my travels this year, of all of the things i’ve seen and felt… but especially learnt along the way… its the little things that are the big things :)

i didn’t have much knowledge, or therefore expectations when heading to the flea market at porte de clignancourt, or officially called les puces de saint-ouen, but known to everyone as les puces (the fleas). all i had really heard was about its antique furniture and bric a brac, but i ended up spending quite a few hours roaming the levels of this odd little building, that was absolutely overflowing with all the vintage paris is really about… chanel, louis vuitton, valentino, yves saint laurent and so, so much more… all just sitting there, and piled on top of each other like it is normal to have so many amazing labels! i loved walking through some of the shop spaces that simply hung all of the dresses from the roof, so looking up from underneath all i could see was layers upon layers of tulle and colours, i wish my lens was wide enough to capture how wonderful it looked.

i was so happy that my last weekend in europe happened to overlap with rock en seine festival! i could only spend two of the three days there, mainly because i was so exhausted on the morning of the third i simply didn’t get out of bed. i spent the first evening with marta and pierre, who made it such a fun night of singing along and dancing, (which basically means me making a fool of myself) to the kooks, kele, foals, underworld, and primary school favourite… blink 182.

second day of rock en seine i spent with my future flatmates, mitch & clayton. its like instantly being adopted as a little sister, with two awesome big brothers. they also introduced me to some of their female friends, (beautiful emily below) in which we all got a little tipsy and creative… finding paint brushes and paper quickly turned to finger painting, then face paints for the rest of the night while basking in lcd (love), paolo, massive attack, jonsi & two door. the “art” we made that night will be the first addition to the walls of our london flat.