Hello! Did you all have a lovely weekend?
I certainly did. We paid our little caravan in the woods a visit, and then headed off to Paris for a lazy weekend eating cheese, drinking beer and cocktails and wandering the streets idly stopping to eat Croque Monsieur and shop for tat.
Today I mostly plan to bore you with holiday photos. But if you make it to the bottom I bought you back a little something from my holiday….
We stayed in the Holiday Inn Opera. It’s tucked away on a back street, fairly near a slightly dodgy area at Fauburg st Denis, but also near some very nice areas. It’s a beautiful old building and I was very excited to try out the original lift which is of the cage type that shuttles up the centre of a curving marble staircase. Sadly it was closed for refurbishment, so the first thing I did on arrival was prance about on the marble stairs instead with their gorgeous stained glass windows.
⤠Beret - eBay ⤠Brooch - vintage ⤠Cloak - TopShop ⤠Jumper - F&F at Tesco ⤠⤠Palazzo Trousers - New Look ⤠Shoes - Clarks ⤠Bag - Stylist Pick â¤
After a bit of wandering and a Croque Monsieur for lunch we returned to the hotel to get ready for dinner. The room wasn’t the nicest I have ever stayed, in but it was clean and spacious. So we freshened up a bit and then I did some more posing on the chairs.
⤠Dress - Stop Staring ⤠Shoes - Stylist Pick â¤
I needed alcoholic refreshment after all that tiring posing. So we retired to the very beautiful Belle Époque Hotel bar to drink over priced bottles of Kronenbourg 1664 and admire the pretty ceiling
Then we wandered. The evening photos are courtesy of my iphone and much beer and are therefore rubbish. But I don’t let that stop me.
At the end of the road was the gorgeous Art Deco Rex cinema, showing lots of films that sound very exciting and glamorous in French but are really just the same cheesy rubbish they’re showing here.
I did take some day light photos, but it looks so much more glamorous at night when it’s all lit up. We retired to a nearby bar to drink Happy Hour cocktails.
I recall that we solved many of the worlds problems, yet somehow inexplicably failed to write down the conclusions we reached. We also marvelled at the bizarre French belief that putting tables on the pavement and then entirely enclosing them in a heated plastic box still constitutes an “outside smoking area” .
Then, bizarrely, we ended up in a German restaurant eating sausages and drinking Heineken from a “girafe”. This caused some consternation from the waiting staff, till we explained we were English and perfectly capable of drinking 2.5L of beer over dinner.
It was quite amusingly huge though. It arrived in a “tower” with a central column filled with ice to cool the beer and a tap to top up your glass.
After a pleasant meal we managed to get lost. We were only 15 minutes walk from our hotel, yet, for reasons that now escape my comprehension, we managed to walk for 20 minutes in entirely the wrong direction, travel in a huge square and end up on the Rue du Rivoli. Possibly the reason had to do with Mr Chick insisting we were walking the wrong way when we were walking the right way, and me listening to him, but I couldn’t possibly say.
Another grumpy half an hour later we returned to the hotel for more beer and complimentary dressing gown wearing.
On Saturday we awoke mildly hungover, ate some brioche with pictures of cartoon characters on the packet and then went for a wander round the streets to take photographs of impressive buildings and fountains, eat more croque monsieur and buy french Starbucks christmas drinks (cranberry mocha and salted caramel mocha, most tasty)
By this time we were running low on Euros, and our train was very early on Sunday morning, so we retired to a boulangerie and a supermarche and purchased champagne, cheese and baguette before returning to our room late afternoon to watch pay per view movies (namely Cars 2, X Men First Class and The Green Hornet, so get your filthy minds out of the gutter)
Now I’ve finished boring you with pictures of cheese I did manage to save some Euros to bring you back some tat as a present.
If you leave a comment on todays post I will enter you into a random prize draw on Friday to win this glorious Eiffel Tower key ring and Folies Bergère fridge magnet.
I know, I know, I’m just too generous, but hell, you deserve it for being so wonderful.
P.S. If you are off to Paris you might find the post I wrote after my last trip in 2009 handy. It’s all about how to have a luxury trip to Paris on a budget.
Comments
26 responses to “Bonjour!”
You look gorgeous!! You even made Paris look attractive- I have to say I’m not a fan of the city. Give me Rome anyday! x
I’ve never been to Rome, maybe next year!
Sounds like you had a lovely time! Like Susie, I’ve never made it to Paris…anytime I get enough money together I head to Rome, as well! Although I’m planning a trip to Istanbul in the next year–so excited!
Loving your work with cheese and beer, and ditto to that Stop Staring dress – it’s lovely!
Must get to Paris at some point, a damp week in a remote chateau that necessitated buying warmer clothes and therefore less cheese is not the impression of France I want… 🙂
Love the orange trousers, were you talking about those in the pub after the blog awards?xxx
I think I was! I wore them to travel as they’re so comfy!
Wow, good memory!
I can’t believe that tower of beer!!! You looked beautiful as ever and sounds like you had a fab time. L -x-
I hope to go to Paris next year I like the look of your hotel very elegant. I must read your earlier post as I will be going on a budget. I like your outfits very chic.
Looks like you had a marvelous time! I so want to visit Paris!
You look amazing & it looks like such a fun weekend. I generally non-comment stalk your blog but I can’t resist such an offer! x hivenn
Ah I love Paris, and you look fabulous as ever! I can’t think of anything nicer than being in Paris eating cheese and drinking champagne :o)
Oooh, Paris, I want to go back!
I’ve been to Paris but didn’t look anywhere near as glam as you do! If you ever get chance to go Milan it’s lovely too, amazing Railway Sation there. X
Sounds like you had a really good weekend. 🙂 I was in Madrid visiting my friend whose there on an Erasmus year. Turns out vintage shops are a little more scarce on the ground there than I expected but there’s a couple of worth-while ones in the Malsaña district. And there’s a bar that gives dangerous measures of gin that I don’t quite remember the name of…
I adore Paris so much, not only is it the first foreign city I ever visited, but it’s also the city where my husband proposed to me. The best city in the world without a doubt.
Ah, I have fond memories of drinking from a giraffe when I lived in Reims! You needn’t enter me into the prize draw – I have plenty Eiffel Tower tat already! (in fact it’s almost time to bring out the Eiffel Tower Christmas tree decoration – yay!)
xx Charlotte
Tuppence Ha’penny Vintage
Paris looks like so much fun! And you looked fabulous! I liked seeing the fun, old buildings in your photos. There aren’t too many art deco buildings or old building with stained glass ceilings out here in New Mexico 🙂
Lovely pics, what a funny post.You do make me chuckle! Glad you had a fab time!
Thank you for bringing a bit of glamour to my day! Am hoping to take the family to Paris next year- I think my 4 year old little girl will love it!
Love that Navy Dress with the White Collar – looks fabulous 🙂
I’d love to go to Paris as I’ve not been since I was little and I don’t think I appreciated it properly at the time!
Oh, your post had me giggling….really, I felt like I’d actually gone along for the ride with you. I love Paris, its one of my favourite cities and thats not because I watched Sex and the City like most people and fell in love with it then….its much more to do with old classics, and also a school trip there when I was 13 and barely knew anything about glamourous foreign places!
I do like going to places like Starbucks abroad and buying things that we dont get here….call me weird but I like being able to go ‘oh, they dont do that at home!’.
I’d probably end up eating my weight in croque monsieurs, pastries and other french delights so its a good idea that I’ve not been in a while. Although I do like the look of that cinema, very lovely!
Also really like your posing on the stairs….both for the outfit as I’m fond of a cape and because well, its on some stairs and I always love a bit of random posing!
Looking good! It sounds like a fab weekend. Particularly the beer giraffe.
I love those ‘rocky horror’ lifts (as I call them). We had one at college and half of us went up and down in them at any excuse, the other (possibly sensible) half would rather take 5 flights of stairs!
You are looking very swoon worthy on that chair love. And, my mind was no where NEAR the gutter. Honest.
Happy Anniversary! x
Always fun to see how foreigners see my country!!! I’m french and travel a lot but for me Paris is one of the most beautiful city in the World…
Did you make some vintage shopping?
I was in Rome 2 years ago and I didn’t like it… not the best place to shop vintage and italians were not really friendly especially in shoppes and restaurants… but it’s perhaps the same thing in Paris for foreigners!
Hello Retro Chick,
Well I’m green with envy – you lucky thing.
My mister plainly refuses to take me Paris (I could totally Amelie myself up and skim stones and prance around Sacre Coeur in a Zorro mask. He’s been once and didnt like it (South of France snob)
So I would love your Parisien tat (i also adore that word its so descriptive) and would like to be entered into tomorrows drawer xx
PS we did something similiar in Amsterdam in the hotel Citizen M, some dodgy pizzas and the movie Paul 🙂
Lovely photos! I went to Paris ten years ago and never again, really want to visit again some time. I love that Stop Staring dress too.