Beautiful

Do I even need to write anything to go with this. Just look at the photos, that is beauty right there. Especially the third one. All about the sunglasses and smiles on a sunday day at the beautiful Versailles.  

DISCLAIMER: I don't actually like these silly blue sunglasses but since I left my nice Armani ones somewhere in Paris the day before this and my other black ones broke I didn't really have a choice. 

Les Jardins

Being a sunday in the summer holidays the whole place was pretty busy with tourists and since it was nice weather we decided to give the inside of the palace a miss and wander round the gardens instead. We had to buy a ticket for this but this meant we got to hear beautiful classical music whilst walking between the lovely fountains and pristinely cut grass. The scale of the gardens matches that of the palace, and you could even rent golf buggies to get around and save your feet the long walks. I couldn't remember the last time I had been to a castle or something stately like this and it was actually so refreshing and nice to do something outside. 

Whilst taking in the views, the music, the sunshine, we had time to ponder about things. We decided that modern day is missing traditional dancing, that our dancing has evolved into something really quite horrible in comparison to the elegant dances of the 16/17th century and that this needs to be changed. So I have decided that I want to have a proper ball, at some point in the near future, and everyone has to learn proper dances, and dress properly, and I will hire out Versailles to host it, and we will eat macaroons and drink champagne to classical music.  

P.S. Dad, you had better start saving for my party. 

Versailles

Versailles is somewhere that I have always wanted to go and after watching Marie Antoinette the film I decided that I was going to go an explore. It's very difficult to get a sense of the sheer immensity of this palace and it's grandeur from these photos. As you're walking up to the chateau there is a kind of glow coming off it which as your get closer you notice is actually the gold gates. I think if heaven is real then gates to it probably look something like this. 

Maybe this photo taken through the gates with all the tiny like ant-like tourists can give you some kind of idea of the size of it. We were trying to work out how much Versailles is worth, if it were ever to go up on sale, and whether it is worth more or less than Buckingham Palace. Something for you to ponder over, if you know the answer let me know. 

La Tour Eiffel

When in Paris sometimes you just have to do the totally touristy thing and go and take photos at the Eiffel Tower, which really is a thing of beauty. I have to say I'm not mad on the colour, but it always glitters at night so I think that makes up for it.

When I was at the Marche aux Puces last weekend one of the guys who owned a vintage poster stall complimented me on my Tiffany Eiffel Tower necklace which I wear everyday. I always joke that the Eiffel Tower stabs me in my back while I'm sleeping (it really does, it has sharp edges) but when it's that pretty, real life or in a small necklace, who cares? 

Wikibar

So I had read about this place on the internet, opened in June and pioneered by a Harvard professor who is doing cool and exciting with food e.g. making food with edible packaging and working on coffee you don't have to drink. Sounds intriguing right? So I decided to check it out and it didn't disappoint.

The "edible packaging" food is basically just balls of icecream or sorbet, enclosed in a frozen casing that is edible (and tasty) and doesn't melt to the touch, very clever. The first was coconut with mango sorbet and the second was strawberry with vanilla icecream. Both so cute and so refreshing in the heat, and literally bite sized. 

They had an exhibition below the Wikibar which was exploring coffee and different ways of consuming it, not necessarily as a liquid. This cool piece of tableware is called the Waf. You can basically put any liquid into it and it turns it into a vapour/smoke, which you drink up through a special straw, giving you all the fabulous flavour of coffee but you're not actually drinking and there is no caffeine in it. I think this would be an absolutely divine centre piece for the end of a dinner party and I will definitely be trying to persuade my parents to buy one. Definitely the most unique way i've ever drunk coffee.

Tour de France

The last leg of the race saw the cyclists do a circuit down the champs Élysées, around the arc de triomphe, down to the louvre and back up again. The first time they did it was exciting, so fast that they literally flashed past amid cheers from the crowds, but they did this 10 times, and by the end I just wanted to know who was going to win the sprint. I think my blurred photos give you some idea as to just how fast they were going.

Bleu, blanc, rouge

On recommendation from my grandad I positioned myself right by the arc de triomphe to watch the end of the 100th Tour de France and to watch Brit Chris Froome take home the win. The sunset finish timing was very cleverly planned by the French and the setting was just parfait, especially when the planes flew over head trailing the French flag behind them.

Vintage Chanel

I found this gem of a shop in the market. Never have I seen so much designer vintage clothing and accessories, and we're talking really designers- Chanel, Dior, Yves Saint Laurent etc obviously I couldn't afford any of it but it was really beautiful to see and on seeing the luxury and quality of these times that are years old you can kind of understand how they can charge so much for their stuff now.

Marché aux puces

The Marché aux puces claims to be the biggest market in France, possibly even Europe I think, with over 10 different markets making up the one. You can buy everything from knock off clothing to antique furniture to vintage Chanel. I was searching out vintage adverts and fashion illustrations by Renée Gruau which I found in the Marché aux dauphines, a chic covered area with pop up type shops both on raised walkway areas and on the ground. The posters (below) both from the late 1940s are original prints, one an Elizabeth Arden advert and the other an illustration for Legroux.

Don Quichotte

The ballet was Don Quichotte, a spanish story first produced as a ballet in Russia. As stories go it wasn't as magical as something like Swan Lake, and a lot of the time I wasn't really sure what exactly was happening with the story but there was still a magical section with tutus and tiaras so I was happy. And the dancing was incredible none the less. I seriously have so much admiration for the dancers. The males are so strong yet graceful and the females so elegant and beautiful and the strength in their feet..! I know from having done pointe work how much it hurts so how the ballerinas do what they do so poised and perfectly amazes me. Mesmerising. 

The photos are terrible but my phone doesn't cope in poor light and I was too interested in watching the dancers to worry about lots of photos. 

Théâtre du Châtelet

Last night I went to the Théâtre du Châtelet to see a ballet. Having danced for years I had always wanted to see a ballet and I figured since I am on my own in Paris it is the kind of thing that you can do on your own as you just sit and watch. The theatre was really impressive, and just as any grande theatre in Paris should be. It was the Ballet national de l’Opéra de Vienne and it did not fail to impress.