Paris, a city of romance, culture and surprises

So my last post about our recent weekend away in Paris was incredibly wordy. This one is pretty much all pictures, this way I figure they balance each other out. However you really should scroll to the bottom as there is a surprise lurking!!

Day 1: From the Louvre to the Eiffel Tower..... 

Check out my arty modern pyramid meets period arch photo!

Inside the angles are just as amazing as is the light coming through from the pyramid

The Louvre is a place of culture, art, sculpture and amazing ceilings!! Both in the cafe (above) and in the art galleries (below)

I mean how awesome is that ceiling? The detail and the carvings - that one in particular was far more beautiful than the paintings hanging in the room! Some other rooms had amazingly freaky people crafted leaning out of them. The French royalty back in the day had strange ideas on bedroom ceilings!

Of course of the paintings were amazing - like this giant one that makes me look teeny tiny (that in itself is an amazing feat!) 

Onto the Eiffel Tower - I love this shot as you can see all intricate metal work it really is quite beautiful up close!

I also like it when it is all lit up (apologies for the terrible photo best I could do!)

Twinkly eh!

The view wasn't bad either from the very top (gosh the elevator was scary)

Day 2: Croissants and Notre Dame, fountains and Pompidou

YUM!!!!

I like this angle of Notre Dame as all the different shapes and towers combine it makes it look all spiky and sharp and so different from the regal curves of the main entrance.

Mr P and I by a fountain that had sphinxes on our way to the Pompidou centre

I really liked the modern lego feel of the Pompidou centre. Outside escalators are the way forward and at the top yet another amazing view of Paris!

Day 3: waking up to realise I'm engaged!

Yep you read that correctly. The gorgeous Mr P managed to shock me into silence (it's true!! I think he was shocked too by that) by proposing in Paris. On our last night, after being out late watching a band he popped the question in our hotel room and thus made clear why he had been acting like a loon all weekend - I thought he hated Paris - apparently he was waiting for the "perfect" moment. However too many tourists scuppered his original plans hence his moody "grrrr there's too many people" grumbles uttered at every landmark!

Me? I think it was just the most perfect proposal. For one thing I had no idea what was going on and didn't even understand the question to start with. And for another there was no chance of me dropping the ring off of the Eiffel Tower/down the Champs Elysee...

So this post is for you Mr P for asking me so nicely to be your wife and providing possibly the most gorgeous platinum diamond ring I have ever seen in my entire life.  

But most of all for managing to shock me as hand on heart not in a million years did I think he would propose in Paris but I'm so glad he did as now I have the most amazing memento of a fabulous weekend.  

Au revoir

Lx

C'est formidable ou c'est diabolique?

I am just returning from a long weekend in Paris with the gorgeous Mr P and while he snoozes on the Eurostar it seemed a good time to reflect on the past 4 days we have spent in the capital of France...

It should be noted that it is quicker to travel via Eurostar from London to Paris than it is to get from London to Weymouth! I really do live in deepest darkest depths of the UK!!!

So here is my pocket guide to Paris:

1) Stay somewhere nice!
I don't necessarily mean in a uber posh hotel but choose your area carefully. We stayed on the banks of the Seine a stones throw from Notre Dame. Not only did we have one of Paris most famous landmarks on our doorstep it was also a lovely area full of restaurants, cafes, shops etc. We visited many other areas of Paris while we were there and none were as nice as the area we were in. In my opinion avoid staying around the Gare du Nord and the Sacre Coeur horrendous is not too strong a word!

2) It's not as easy to find a patisserie as you might think!
Call me naive but I expected to be tripping over quaint little patisseries serving buttery soft croissants and steaming mugs of coffee and hot chocolate. The first day we tried to find such a venue for breakfast it seemed far more of a challenge than we expected. After walking around for ages spotting lots of cafes and tabacs but all with sullen French men sat smoking outside I started wishing that Anneka Rice would turn up leaping out her helicopter and start running alongside us shouting "follow me". Thankfully day 2 meant we found a local Paul's for the most excellent pain au chocolate and cappuccino sat outside people watching on a busy shopping street. Bliss!!

3) Not all tourist attractions are worth the visit
Now again call me naive but I hadn't expected it to be so busy during October. Most places required queuing which by the way as a British resident and therefore queuing expert is supremely frustrating in France as the NO ONE knows how to queue. Seriously it's not hard, I sense a new career calling as a Queue Guidance Counsellor and Trainer. I could explain the fundamental elements required for a good queue system and how to adopt this in all scenarios....Anyway as ever I digress! We visited many of the "must sees" and some far exceeded my expectations, others less so...

i The Eiffel Tower - we went all the way to the very top (not for the claustrophobic or those scared of heights I can tell you the lifts were terrifying!) However the views were incredible - seeing Paris all sparkly and twinkly from so far up was the outstanding moment of the whole weekend for me. The queuing to get in and highly annoying other tourists with no sense of invading personal space aside of course! Even skipping down the steps from level 2 to 1 was lots of fun (as long as I didn't look down). And controversial it may have been when they started doing it I adored the sparkly lights on the tower after dark. It just seemed so magical to see this most famous monument dancing in the moonlight.

ii The Louvre - I went to the Louvre wanting to see the Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa and sample a little of the rest of the exhibits. I'd read how vast the Louvre is and knew that there was no way we could attempt to see even half of it during our brief stay in Paris but I wasn't prepared for how impressive the building itself is. Beautifully symmetrical, intricate carvings and adornments and the most breathtaking ceiling art far outshone the majority of the exhibits we saw just because of their scale and detail. I adored the Louvre and would happily go back to while away afternoons there meandering around staring up at the ceiling if not at the art!

iii Notre Dame - is as impressive as you would imagine. Super hectic busy with a throng of tourists at all times, but awe inspiring for sure. We didn't go inside (queues were massive) we did do the crypt museum - not worth it in all honesty just lots of stones....

iv The Champs Élysée - I know it's supposed to mega tacky and is the most expensive shop retail space with millions of € spent per foot however on our first night we walked all over this area of Paris. It was far colder than expected so we drank hot chocolate from the Haagan Dazs cafe, we ate fantastic food and sat people watching the mix of Parisians and tourists and I loved it!

v The Pompidou Centre - yes it looks odd but it's a fantastic place. With art, cafes, children's play areas, cinema amongst the attractions it is well worth checking out if just for the amazing views from the top. We went and saw the Munch exhibition that was displaying. Very good if a little disappointing not to see the Scream. But some beautiful pieces and a very interesting insight into the mind of a creative genius.

Now for my big disappointment - the Sacre Coeur. From the moment we left the metro station this whole area felt dirty and seedy. The narrow cobbled street up to the Sacre Coeur was reminiscent of Ibiza as Mr P put it - full of shops selling tat and salesmen trying to hawk their wares. The paths up the side of the hill were lined with young men all hovering around ominously eyeing up the tourists (yes I probably read too much crime fiction but not being funny why else were they lurking there if not to cause trouble??) And the monument itself frankly not that impressive when you compare it to the wealth of architecture in Paris.

4) And the less famous venues that are worth a look?

i HD Diners - fifties Americana with really reasonably priced food that was fantastic! A clear hit with tourists and teenage Parisians alike it was a really fun eatery.

ii The Guinness Tavern - an Irish live music venue where we watched F-Com play awesome guitar rock with strange accents on all the lyrics - apart from one Red Hot Chilli Peppers song that was all in French (I don't remember that version being on the album!!)


5) Expect to go home broke!
Maybe it's the current exchange rate, maybe it's just because it's Paris, maybe I have expensive tastes but the price of things in Paris I found quite shocking. Some in a good way - if wine is cheaper than coca cola then gues what I'm drinking! But on our last night we went to several bars (mostly Irish bizarrely - for some reason they love their Irish pubs in Paris) and each round of 2 drinks cost €19 that is just shy of £20 a round! For 2 of us! Ridiculous I only hope the Parisians earn equivalent salaries to afford a night out every now and again!

So there is my whistle stop guide to Paris. I had the most amazing weekend, with fab food (oh the pastries) fab wine, fab sights but most of all fab company. But back to normality soon :0(

Have any of you been to Paris? What did you love/hate? Anything I missed that I need to include for my next trip?

Lx

P.s. it is now just under 14 weeks until we jet off to Canada for our skiing holiday to Whistler so the countdown is on!

Bonjour Paris

So I'm writing this quick blog post while sat ensconced in my Eurostar seat about to depart from London on a 4 day mini break with Mr P to Paris (I may have mentioned my excitement at this once or twice possibly!)

The itinerary currently includes excursions to the top of the Eiffel Tower, marvelling at the wealth of art on display in the Louvre, taking in the wonders of the Sacre Coer and Notre Dame, taking a jaunt down the Seine pootling along the Champs Élysée and meandering the streets of Paris enjoying a cafe au lait and croissant while people watching (often one of the best bits of a trip away I think!)

As always the complexity of what to pack for any occasion arose last night and I'm sure as ever I've over packed...but I have tried to be careful after all this girl loves any excuse to shop!

So for now, au revoior mes amies

Guest Post: The Great German Train Robbery

So I have a guest poster! This is VERY exciting for me as it is my first guest post writer (aside from the lovely Mr ) and most exciting it is all about her AMAZING Filofax collection I think you are going to enjoy this....over to LJ...

First time blogger alert…


Well, here goes for my first ever posting courtesy of the wonderful lou lou.

Having spent an evening with her and spending a fair portion of said evening discussing our shared love of Filofax and stationery I was encouraged to write a post about my A5 Finsbury which I use for work, however I have a far more pressing post to write… the Great German Train Robbery – what bargains! What wonderful delights could I get my sticky little mitts on…?

I had to wait a while for the delivery as I am based in Switzerland and Filofax Germany don’t deliver here – which is very strange as it’s just across the border and the UK can deliver to here with no problem.

Thankfully my friend Sabine who I have now ‘enabled’ and is a pretty good ‘enabler’ herself already, although based in the same office as me, goes regularly to Germany to visit her parents, so we both put in pretty fabulous orders (suffice to say her parents were a little stunned when they saw the evidence of our addictions). So to my joy, my children’s joy and my man’s bewilderment, my new babies arrived on Monday… please get ready for a picture heavy post…

“What’s in the bag Mum?”

Filofaxes are beginning to get nervous…

It’s OK guys & girls, these are the last boxes xxx

Oops!!! Did I order more than I realised…?

A special thankyou for my little boy, Christopher, for helping with the photos (and for letting me include his black pocket Metropol in the line-up, along with his little brother’s green pocket domino complete with fairy on the front)

Teasing shot… even more effective than chocolate wrappers 

A4 Logic in red, bought purely for practical purposes, but is actually really, really nice…

Personal Fresco – check out the inserts on this baby!!!

Ooh – this doesn’t look like a FF box…

Personal Panama in maroon – so lovely. Quote of the day came from Christopher when I handed it to him to look at and Marcus (littlest chap) tried to take it off him immediately “No Marcus, I haven’t even smelled it yet!!!” That came after his comment from smelling the first of the leather FFs “Mummy, it smells just like your purple one!” – (my personal Finchley which he has only had the pleasure of holding once before). Clearly my children are learning about the finer things in life

Pocket Finchley in soft jade

Finchley travel wallet in pink

Mini Topaz in pale blue

Personal Piazza in sunflower – I was really looking forward to receiving this one, super bright yellow and completely different from any of my others, so was rather disappointed to see that it’s not actually the same colour as a sunflower. I am considering giving this one away as a present, but am not sure if I can bring myself to give away a Filofax…

Topaz wallet in green – with fabulous space for cards and bits and pieces

Pocket Finchley in teal

Mini Topaz in red

The Filofax family

And finally – proof that not all the Filofaxes are mine…

I hope you like the photos – thankfully I didn’t include all 56 photos that we took yesterday, I thought there would only be so many boxes and teasing shots that anyone would want to see

And thank you Miss L for introducing me to the wonders of Filofax earlier this year – please don’t introduce me to the joys of expensive jewellery or anything, I think one obsession is enough for my wallet – LOL x

So there we go, thank you to LJ and her first Filofax blog post - now if I can just get her to write one all about her faboosh A5 diary/to do pages that she designed herself I'll be even happier Lx

Panama Planning: The Birthday Filofax Reveal...Part 3

The birthday Filofax haul - aren't they gorgeous?

So I've written at length about my stunning birthday present Filofax the gorgeous Amethyst Deco here and here BUT I was lucky enough to also receive a second leather bound, 6 ringed beauty!

The very lovely AJ (who it has to be said while new to Filofax addiction has outstripped me already with a haul of around 20 different binders!! Hopefully she will start taking some pictures as her self-designed A5 diary and notes pages are super fabulous!!) emailed me regarding the Philofaxy mention of the Great German Train Robbery where so many stunning binders were on sale for just 9 Euros (yep 9!!!!!) and asked if I would like anything for my upcoming birthday - you can see why I think she's fab - such a great enabler lol.

So after browsing though the vast number of binders on sale I spotted the Personal Panama on the site...I've been obsessing about this particular binder since Caribbean Princess featured her pocket size in a blog post here . It just looked so sleek and posh especially with the gold rings! So once I'd saw it was part of the promotion it was an easy decision!

Isn't she lovely - and very regal!

The lovely gold clasp opened up

I really do love the different closure of having the leather loop over the gold coloured clip. Do I worry it might tear/break/scratch - only a little bit. But if I know one thing about Filofaxes it is that they are mightily more durable than you would ever think!

However as you know I do have 1 or 2 Filofaxes (ahem or possibly a couple more...) but one this lovely needed a purpose and it just so happens I had the perfect task for her. The Chartered Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing study Filofax. As I wrote about here I've started a new course which will take the next 18 months or thereabouts to complete and with the amount of reading, home working, assignments, exams and the like I need to keep on top of a dedicated Filofax was necessary. Now I was planning on using my Personal Grape Domino (currently unused, lies flat, wouldn't worry if it got bashed too much in a school bag) but as soon as the Panama arrived it was clear that she would become my grown up school planner!! I'll just need to make sure I'm careful with her ;0)

Now I've been reading lots of posts by other Filofax bloggers on the art of setting up a successful study planner - Caribbean Princess, Imys World and  Life of the Perpetual Student being particular faves as well of course the huge wealth of information on Philofaxy which is always my first port of call for information on all things Filofax.

So here is how I've set up my planner - now this is bound to change as I'm only 1 week into the course but I had to start somewhere:

And she lay flat virtually straight away too - winner!

I really like the open pocket and the credit card slot layout in the Panama. It will be really handy for using with clippings, post its etc in the future.

It's the week on one page again...

This Filofax arrived with a Cream week on one page diary for 2011 as well as a week on two pages 2012 diary. As I've mentioned many a time my favourite layout is the week on one page with notes so I've hacked my own version here inserting in a cream to do page in the centre of the two weeks - and it seems to work really well. The diary is really only used currently for logging when I have to be on site for a class or when the assignments are due etc. It is the list of to dos that is key for me - as you can see from this week I've added the topic name on Monday - External Environment and on the to do page the list of activities (read the slides, listen to podcasts, what I need to be reading etc etc) so I can tick off as I've done them.

With a different topic each week and different tasks (and an assignment plan due on the 28th October) keeping on top of the workload is going to be paramount to whether I succeed at this course or not!

The next week and to do list...

2012 week on two pages

Now this is the week on two pages diary. Yes it is in German - but even I can work out what the days of the week are! I love the fact that it has lines under each day (hello UK Filofax stores could we not have a format like this?) This week in January shows when my first assignment is due (gulp) the pink lines indicate that I will in fact be away in Canada skiing then (double gulp) so being extra organised to get the assignment in on time is CRUCIAL.

I really like this layout but I don't think it will work for me as well as the above hack week on one page - this does mean of course I could move it into the Deco which is my everyday planner for a trial in 2012! We'll see how we get on in the run up to Christmas on that me thinks!!

Super cute lined days of the week plus a little top notes section!

Handy zip pocket

The handy little zip pocket is currently empty but will no doubt end up full of passwords or trinkets!

Look at that gorgeous leather...

So that's my current student layout in the Panama. What do you think? If you have any suggestions on planners for studying or tips do let me know!!! But I really should do some instead of just blogging about it I guess...

Lx

The birthday Filofax (es) Reveal....Part 2!

My Deco Family

So if you haven't already read I was lucky enough to receive an Amethyst Personal Deco for my birthday from the gorgeous Mr P (well normally gorgeous but today a little worse for wear after a work night out last night hehe) and while I blogged about it here the photos I took were terrible and really didn't show the beautiful true colour. So coming up are some more piccies of my new baby and some shots of how I've now set her up...WARNING very picture heavy post ;0)

A truer representation of the colour - gorgeous no?

Clasp close up - ooh and you can see my iPhone too!

Look at the gorgeous suede interior...

As you open up my Deco I have some key essentials like stamps and a couple of business cards. Then right at the front is my first clear open top pockets - I love these for storing cuttings, notes etc. In this one I have some Tesco sticky tabs (so so cheap!!), a Christmas party clipping for a venue we are thinking of using, and some magazine clipping of lustful items including a stunning red bag, leopard print belt:

Turning over the clear pocket....

Here I also have a clipping of this gorgeous Kurt Geiger purse - I don't need a new purse as I have a super cute Marc Jacobs one but the colour is so pretty so I clipped it with a view to birthday/Christmas presents for people (such a great price too!)

Next up we have the obligatory Filofax sticky notes holder - I treated myself to a new one last week in London (I am getting through tabs at a rate of knots now I'm studying hence the cheapy Tesco ones as well being in here!)

I will be registering Deco as soon as I finish this post!! Can't believe I haven't done that yet!

Some more business cards including my CIM membership card and the Prada gift card (you'll have seen that before - if not I can tell you -Yes it's in here just because it says Prada I am that shallow!)

Then we get to the planner section.....



 As always I'm using my favourite format the week on one page with notes. I really wish they did this a) in Cream and b) without all the multi languages, takes up so much room! But I do still love this layout - allows me to see the whole week, I can have lots of to dos, remembers, lists on the right hand page and I have the dinky month dates in the right hand page bottom left! I've tried many other but this is still my fave!

Super cute post-it marking the start of 2012

So after the 2011 planner comes the start of 2012. This is the start of my Things I Want to Do in 2012 list - not very big so far but I'm sure I'll be padding it out soon!!

I'm currently using a month on two pages format for 2012 - this allowed me to start planning in key dates but not have all the room in Filo sucked up with 2012 stuff. I'll change over to week on one page format at the start of 2012 (I've bought the Cream week on one page and some cream to do sheets to create my own hack of Cream week on one page with notes - not sure if it will work but I'm road testing it in my study Filo - post on that coming soon!)

Look at me I'm going Skiing!!!

Behind my Projects tab are all my notes about Paris (less than 2 weeks and counting) plus lots of lists of books/movies/games etc that I want to read/watch/play:

Behind notes I have lots of blank paper, blank to do's and some rough notes. Behind the information tab I have lists of spin classes, holiday time booked off from work and remaining days available, Christmas party planning information, websites etc etc

The Financial tab currently doesn't have anything behind it....I need to be far more up to date with CP's Fab Frugal I've been very lax!

I have no address information in there yet that's all stored still in the Malden (will fix that now)

Another clear pocket at the back - this time with a clipping of some tiles (how cute are they!!) plus my Filofax stickers, London underground map, Take That concert ticket from the summer and hole reinforcers. The 10 Ways is a magazine article on how to de-clutter your mind and focus on the task in hand - something that is key for me now I'm juggling work and studying.

Finally several gratuitous shots of the suede pocket and close ups of the Amethyst leather - sighs at the beauty...

So there we go, my Amethysts Deco all set up and working beautifully. Now to download the pattern for the Filofax protective felt bag done by Thomas which is just as fabulous as it is practical, to make sure I don't wreck her in my ginormous handbag of doom!!

Lx