Bonjour!
Beret? check, stripes? check, new Instax mini 8 polaroid camera to be dead annoying with? check! This time last week I was packing and getting super excited for my New Year trip to Paris that my boyf surprise-booked for me for Christmas! I mean, I'd only been harping on about wanting to go with him for the last six months so the poor lad didn't really have that much choice *emoji teeth baring* bless him. He's canny (nice, for those of you that don't speak North-eastern).
So we boarded the Eurostar there last Saturday morning and spent New Years Eve wandering the streets and taking in all the sights of Pareee. The dream. We stayed for two nights and three days overall and did ALLLLL of the tourist things. I have been to Paris before but it's one of my favourite cities and everything is just so beaut; I was OOC snap happy (if you follow me on Instagram you will be well aware of this). Honestly if I had a pound for every time I made some sort of squeak or commented on how cute something was (including a door, many a street and a coffee cup...?!) I'd be a millionaire.
Day one was mainly checking into the hotel, getting sorted, adjusting to a lovely temperature of -2 and a spot of exploring (in Colette *emoji eyes*), before (a quick change into some ten denier spotty tights because they're really appropriate for arctic temps, yeah?) and heading out for the last eve of two-thousand-and-sixteen. There were people all over the streets singing and drinking, people by the (spectacularly lit) Eiffel Tower snapping away and people just generally bopping about in good spirits. It was a very cold, but very lovely eve.
Day two we went for a petit dejeuner of coffee and crepes before setting off to explore Montmartre - one of the most historic and cutest districts in Paris, and up a v. large hill so where the best views of the city are. The streets are cobbled and there are so many cute cafes to be sat in, crepes to be nibbled, artists to be sketching your portrait and trinket shops and stalls to be explored. It's worth the hike not only for the amazing views and the beaut Sacre-Coeur but it's also where Van Gogh lived, where Picasso's studio was and where the Dali museum is. It's 100% worth the half an hour of catching your breath once you reach the top!
Day three was when we realised we had SO much left to do and SO little time in which to do it *emoji sad face* so naturally we began with coffee and croissants! I was determined to at least do some shopping (obvs) and so we set out to find some parisian vintage. We went to Republique which is lovely and found one vintage shop which I guess is better than none where I managed to pick up a super cute little suede brown bag. We wanted to go inside the Louvre but the queues were IN-SANE so we went on a lovely river walk instead, saw the love-lock bridge and had another day-light visit to La Tour Eiffel where there were some lovely little markets to explore too. It was an excellent start to the year and we had a bloody lovely time! Hopefully to be continued in Summer when we might actually plan ahead on the 'to do' list...
And yes, I wore the beret and I wore the stripes and I am definitely Parisian now, oui?
Au revoir -
Rachael
x