Paris

Paris- Final Day

On the last day of any holiday I think it's best spent relaxing. However when in Paris you have to make everyday count so we crammed my last day full to make the most of it.

    When we woke up I peaked out the window to inspect the weather and saw a thin sprinkling of snow across the garden. I tried to get some photos, but by the time I had jumped in the shower and got dressed it had mostly melted! Just before we headed out for the morning we squeezed in an episode of Gossip Girl which Bronte was desperately trying to get me addicted to (which has worked!)
   Instead of heading to Paris, we took the train in the opposite direction to a gorgeous place called Sait Germain en Laye. Bronte wanted to show me this place due to its beauty and calm atmosphere it holds. We wandered round in search of a quiet cafe to sit and grab lunch, but ended up walking in a circle so settled for the cafe next to the station. We spent a while there eating and chatting and we were joined by an Au pair from Canada. I must say, it was nice to sit inside in the warmth instead of rushing around in the cold outdoors.
   Once we arrived home I had the struggle of repacking my suitcase. As I might have mentioned before, Easyjet only allow one bag for handluggage so I had to squeeze my poor Michael Kors bag into a suitcase only just a bit bigger then itself! I ended up repacking about four times due to me forgetting the many items strewn all over the floor as well as accidentally packing my phone inside my camera case which was buried at the bottom of my bag.

    Me and Bronte, for the third time in a few hours, took the long walk back to the train station. I got the train back to the airport, having to sneakily jump through the barriers behind those who we're sensible enough to buy a ticket. I arrived at the airport rather early, but it gave me enough time to draft my first Paris post and enjoy my last Pain au Raisin. I maybe had to much time on my hands, but I did discover, whilst waiting at the boarding gate, a new arist which I've fallen in love with. The best way to describe her voice is by saying she's a cross between Ed Sheeran and Birdy. Her voice is to die for so everyone take to Spotify, listen to her angelic voice and give her some support.                  

      Finally I want to say a massive thankyou to my friend Bronte for not only showing me the wonders of Paris, but for also putting up with me taking photos of everything every five seconds! I also have a second thankyou and that's for all my readers! I've been working extra hard on all my content and I really appreciate all of you that have taken the time to comment with such lovely messages. I have a lot planned for my upcoming posts so I hope you click the follow button!

Here's the rest of my holiday photos, taken all on my camera. They're not just from the last day, but from day one to day three. Enjoy!

Photo of the Day

February the 9th

Technology is the biggest pain in the bum. When it works, it's great, but when it doesn't it drives me insain! Maybe we all rely on it too much and writing a blog would be easier if it was on pen and paper, atleast that way it would never delete itself! 

   As you can probably tell, I'm not best happy with technology. I was just about to post my 'Final Day in Paris' post, full of  great, unseen photos when my computer froze and my post deleted itself! 

   Instead here's my photo of the day along with some things I've been meaning to share with you all. I've got tones of great posts being drafted currently and I just want to give you an idea of what's to come. Firstly I'm going to be sharing with you all my favourite pancake recipe on Pancake day next week and I want you all to send me as many photos of your pancakes as possible!

      I love love love not only cooking, but eating! I enjoy flicking through a recipe book, going out to get the ingredients and cooking a meal for the family in which no one has tried or heard of before. Il also be adding to my Recipes page tomorrow a recipe I used on Friday; Three Cheese and Kale Pancakes. Sounds odd, but tastes delicious!

   Secondly I want to discuss gap years. As you all probably know by now I'm currently taking a gap year before I go to university. I've had two holidays so far, but travelling isn't how I want to spend this year. Instead I've been making a list of things I have always wanted to do, starting with learning French! I've used the app Duolingo for a while now and just recently signed up to a pen pal website where I hope to find someone fluent in French to help teach me. I've also bought a book, written in French which I've been attempting to read, but not been doing so well at, but I'm not ready to give up.

    Thirdly I've discovered a new mascara that has done wonders for my lashes. Il be writing a full review with photos so you can see for yourself the real difference it makes. I've always hated my lashes even after putting in lots and lots effort, they just always look terrible! I recently bought a new MAC eyelash curler, as seen in my previous beauty post, which curls my lashes really well. Along with curling them I then use three or four mascaras with different brushes to try and separate and lengthen my lashes. For my trip to Paris I bought Elle magasine with a little freebie inside; Benefits new mascara called Roller Lash. Once the tester has run out I'm going to most definitely buy one! It's so so great and if you haven't used it before I would try it out. Check out some other reviews.

    Here's my photo of the day and tomorrow I promise my 'Final Day in Paris' post will be up. Today's photo is slightly random. The reason for it is that I've recently been kicking out the unhealthy food in my life and been trying to cut down on the huge amount of bread I consume whilst increasing my intake of fibre. For breakfast I would always have toast, but recently I've swapped it for Crunchy Bran, a cereal I wouldn't normally ever think twice about simply because it's so plain. Recently however I've taken a real liking to it. Random, but thought it deserved a picture to mark a day in the life of.. 

Happy blogging!

Clever ways to store your beauty essentials

I don't know about you, but my dressing table is always an absolute tip! My make up is always tossed onto the table, there's make up wipes everywhere and what really bugs me is the cotton buds that seem to escape their pot and scatter themselves almost everywhere. If that sounds remarkably familiar then here's just a few ways I de-cluttered my dressing table and created some clever storage options.

     Firstly to store all my beauty essentials I bought a small, white flower pot...

It can fit almost all of my everyday beauty essentials in, such as my brushes, foundations and mascaras. I'm thinking of decorating it with gold dots to add a little colour, but even a plain terracotta pot would be perfect as it can easily be painted and decorated. 

      Secondly I can never seem to find a suitable place to hang my jewellery. This storage option should be pretty easy for everyone to source. I have always had a little light on my table but hardly ever used it. Small lamp shades are the perfect size for necklaces and the metal bars just under the light bulb are perfect to hang jewellery off of. If you don't quite understand what I mean, then take a look...

As you can see, I've also hooked earrings off of the shade. You could also put earrings through the lamp shade, but I keep mine in a small box. 

     Thirdly I needed another place to keep bits and bobs. Cotton bud boxes are perfect to keep things in. I use one to keep my earrings in and one to keep other bits in, as you can see below...

I then have a larger box to keep other items in, just so they aren't thrown everywhere. This box was the packaging for a Jack Wills gift set. As it's just been Christmas I am sure you probably have plenty of boxes lying around which can be put to use.

        I hope these help you tidy your dressing table up! Happy blogging!

Paris

Paris- Day Three

Most people on their gap year long to travel the world or at least visit as many countries as possible, but I dont get this urge at all. I have been very lucky throughout my life so far when it comes to travelling. I cant exactly complain when a few years a go, in the space of 12 months, I travelled to Dubai, Barbados and Newyork. My fathers occupation is what has allowed me to travel from county to country and I think thats why I have no plans to travel the world or visit as many countries as possible in my gap year. All I plan on doing is enjoying the year of freedom that I have.

        My third day in Paris began with a well needed lie in. The day before I woke up early in order to get a full day in Paris, but ended up heading home about five so we decided to start our day slightly later. We got the metro first to Musee d'orsay. The metro in Paris is so so different from the London underground because of the slack rules. I stood and watched person after person squeezing through the barriers behind someone with a ticket. I did this a few times with Bronte (i know, naughty me) and had to sneak in behind someone at the airport station. Anyway, back to where we arrived at the museum. Because it was the first of February the museum was free, but also had a rather large queue in which we had to stand in outside in the freezing cold. It was however so worth it! The musuem used to be a train station and reminded me of Grand Central Station so Im sure you can imagine that the architecture was unbelievable. The art was equally as amazing, especailly the Van Gogh expedition. I tried to take some sneaky photos of the art, but was told off by a hidden secuirty guard, but I couldnt resist.

     We took a trip to the nearest cafe where I had possibly THE strongest coffee I have ever had. Once we had warmed up we walked towards the Arc De Triomphe. I was so excited to see the view especially because I had never realised you could even go up the arc! Safe to say the view was incredible and I could easily have stayed up there for many more hours. The many flights of stairs up there wasnt so enjoyable, but made a good photo which is posted below. 

     Another round of crepes was in order and so we attempted to find a close cafe. We ended up walking around for ages because many of the cafes were closed due to the weird open and closing times they have in France. We ended up finding a busy looking Italian place with a good looking menu so decided it was time for dinner. I love those places with great character and great food and this had both. With our drinks we got a complementary pot of popcorn, which put a smile on both mine and Brontes face, even though it was the most un-Italian snack possible.

    After filling my stomach to the brim with a burger and chips we headed to the Eiffel Tower to see the sparkling lights which occur every hour for five minutes. This was another thing I was over excited for and ended up taking endless photos and videos of. Our next move was to go in desperate search of the perfect crepe. After stuffing even more food into our faces we ran to the train, almost bringing all my food back up! 

     Once home Bronte introduced me to addictive world of Gossip Girl. We watched a few episodes before I was practically asleep sat up. Below are my photos from the day. I hope you all enjoy! Feel free to leave any comments and dont forget to click the follow button!

Photo of the Day

February the 3rd

Today I started work at the awful hour of 6.00am, but went home at 10 for a nap before I had to go back for another 5 hours at 2. I therefore haven't had any time at all to write my next Paris post. I did however decide that today's the day I officially start to teach myself french. I bought a book recommended to me by a French girl I met in Thailand and today started to attempt and read it. I have my trusty dictionary by my side and I just hope soon enough il be able to speak a bit more french then I currently can. Here's my photo of the day; a throw back to my weekend away. 

Happy blogging!

Paris

Paris- Day Two

Today was a miserable day in Paris. The sky was forever gloomy and it rained on and off for the whole day. Not to mention the fact it was freezing cold and I had definitely not put enough layers on.
     We set off nice and early in order to get a full day to explore Paris. On the way to the train station (a twenty minute walk from the house) we grabbed breakfast. No trip to France is the same without a typical French croissant. However I don't like plain croissants because they're just to boring, but instead I had a favourite of mine: a Pain au Raisin and because I was hungry I also had an apple turnover which had a less simple name that I can never remember, let alone spell!
     To start our adventure we headed to Boulevard Haussmann to do a spot of shopping, a necessity when visiting Paris. Bronte took me to all her favourite stores which we ended up spending hours in. We headed to a little shopping centre at Gare Lazare then took the metro to Chatelet where we had a lovely lunch looking over the river Seine. The view was amazing and in the distance you could see the Eiffel Tower. No photo did the view justice. The cafe we ate at was also just above the metro station so every time a train went under us the ground shook and as you can imagine, the first time it happened, it scared the living day lights out of me! The architecture in paris never ceased to amaze me so I couldn't stop looking out the window the whole time.
       After lunch we walked over the Seine to the Notre Dame. By this time we were both absolutely freezing and the queue to go inside the Notre Dame was huge, so we had a few photos in front of it then headed to find the closest cafe where we could shelter and get a crepe. Nutella crepes are possibly the tasty thing about Paris, second best are Pain Suisse. Whilst we enjoyed our crepe it poured down with rain and for entertainment we had THE weirdest waiter. He was the type of guy who saw himself as hilarious when really he was just a pain.
    We took a brisk walk over to Hotel De Ville and it was at this point we both realised how cold and tired we were. We did a spot more shopping, mainly because all the shops were so cosy and warm and we needed to escape the arctic winds! Because of the awful weather we decided it was best to head home where we could warm up and have dinner with Brontes host family. They had made quiche and a type of pastry that the French only eat during the month of Janaury. The pastry was called Galette de Rois and is puff pastry with a frangipani middle. They hide little china figurines inside the cake and whoever gets the slice with the figurine is said to be the 'king' for the day. After dinner we all sat and watched a French tv series. To be honest, I understood not one bit of it.
Here's some photos that document my day. I can't put into words how beautiful Paris is, but I hope these photo allow you to at least see a little piece of its beauty. 

Photo of the Day

February the 1st

Last full day in Paris today *unhappy face*. Me and Bronte are currently looking through old school photos. I've decided i will fill you all in on my trip to Paris once I am home and have time to give you all the details. Here's my photo of the day for today!

Happy blogging!