Oh, Paris…

Why are you so beautiful? 

Why don’t I live there?

Why do I have a gluten intolerance that prevented me from partaking in your baguettes, croissants, and pain au chocolat?

Why did I have a cold when I was visiting?

Will always said he would take me to Paris, and he finally did after 11 years.  We were only there for two days, but I will definitely be back.

We took the Eurostar from St. Pancras station to Gare du Nord on the evening of a day of French national strike.  We didn’t have any problems getting a taxi to our hotel though.

Where our initials in (fake) rose petals were on the bed:
 
Awww.  After we stopped laughing, we took them off.

We were staying in the chambre à lettres room of the Apostrophe Hotel, a tiny 16-room boutique hotel in the Montparnasse area.  I was hoping for the music room, but hey, it was a great little hotel.
 
It doesn’t show in this photo, but the curtains were printed with the deaf-mute alphabet.

It was pretty late when we got there, but I went straight for the soaker tub.

I have serious tub envy.  I wanted to take it home, but sadly it wouldn’t fit in my suitcase.

But we weren’t there to spend our time in a hotel.  The next day, despite my head cold, we went out to see the city.  The weather was beautiful again—we had sun and blue sky for two days.

 

In the Montparnasse area, near our hotel.

 


Notre-Dame de Paris.  Amazing that this has stood since the 13th century, when it was completed after 200 years.

In the Latin quarter

Musée des Beaux Arts, formerly a train station

La Seine (any morning cloud was completely gone by then)

“Oh man, not so fresh…”

Will’s favourite statue in the Tuileries Garden. “Oh crap, I forgot my pants and I have a tiny penis…”

I personally preferred the dogs running around the lawn at the Louvre.

The Louvre – we didn’t go in because we didn’t have time

For some reason, Will was taken by Paris streetlights.

We stumbled upon Canada Place.

  
General Lafayette

The back of Notre Dame, from the Bateau-Mouche.  It reminded me of the scene from Before Sunset where Céline and Jesse are sitting on a boat and Jesse tells the story about how German soldiers wired Notre Dame to explode, but the one who was charged with flipping the switch couldn’t do it because of how beautiful it was in there.  Every time I watch that movie on TV, Will comes in at that scene (and only that scene) and tells me that historically that’s not quite right.

Sitting by the Seine on a gorgeous fall day.  I’d personally be afraid of falling into the Seine, but what I wouldn’t give to be there right now…

Not a famous landmark by any means.

Under the Eiffel Tower

The traffic around “l’Étoile” at l’Arc du Triomphe – totally insane

l’Arc du Triomphe

Les Halles

 
Église Ste-Eustache

At Jardin du Luxembourg, where the flowers were still in full bloom.

Despite not being able to eat the food that Paris is famous for, I still ate well.  We had Vietnamese in the Latin Quarter one lunch (I sampled Vietnamese in my travels and found that my favourite is still here in Toronto), a late-night bistro, and thanks to a recommendation by pastry chef/cookbook author David Lebovitz living the sweet life in Paris, we ate at Le Louchébem in Les Halles where I had a half roasted black-footed chicken with delicious haricots verts and pommes sautés. (It was so much food, I ended up skipping dinner and having a container of pineapple from M&S Food back in London instead.)

I completely fell in love with the city.  Paris, I will see you again soon.  And I’ll spend more time.

Welcome to England

Welcome to England, he said
Welcome to my world
- Tori Amos “Welcome to England”

It wasn’t intentional, but I had a Tori Amos song on my iPhone for almost every leg of my trip.  Will thought it was a little odd.  I put this song on when we landed at London City Airport to start the second leg of our trip.

I’ve been to London twice before, but the last time was 11 years ago and I was with my mom and my mind was clearly elsewhere, because it was right when Will and I started dating.  I wanted to be there with him.  He always said he’d take me to London, and it only took 11 years.

I love the architecture in London; I wish Toronto looked like this.

I have to say, we had the most amazing weather on this trip for Ireland/England/France in the fall.  It was cloudy and overcast in Ireland, but there was no rain.  The first day we were in London, the skies were perfectly clear.

In the morning, we walked around the financial area and to the Tower of London area.

Tower Bridge, taken from London Bridge (which was not falling down)

Tower of London

Then we had lunch in a pub in Hammersmith, which allows dogs (like any proper pub should).

View of the Thames from the patio where we had lunch.  A lovely way to spend a Monday afternoon.

Later in the afternoon, we took a boat ride on the Thames.

This footbridge is famous; it’s appeared in many films including Bridget Jones’s Diary and About a Boy.

After that, it was off to John Lewis on Oxford Street to buy an air mattress for us to sleep on our friend’s floor in his Shoreditch flat, then Vietnamese for dinner.  No outfit photo this day, I looked terrible and refused to be photographed.

Window-shopping in Dublin

I spent a sh*tload of money on food in Dublin (€150 in three days, but I guess €50 a day isn’t too bad), but I did not do any shopping.  In fact, I didn’t use my credit card at all until the Tuesday, and my trip started on Friday.  Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

I did do a little window-shopping on Grafton Street, which really meant I took photos of the window displays at Brown Thomas (upmarket department store, actually owned by a Canadian company).

I wanted to check out MAC’s Venomous Villains collection, but there was no point since it’s cheaper here anyway.

That’s Liam Neeson (yum!) in the photo on the wall

I did find the heads a little freaky

Colin Farrell in the photo on the wall, and Helena Christensen in the photo on the table (not sure why she’s there, she’s Danish, not Irish).

Walk to Dublin…

If I walk to Dublin
I’m gonna pass that turquoise lady in her new Nike flats and something’s flat
I said I need size 10,000 for my ass yes
  - Tori Amos, “Walk to Dublin”

I meant to write about my European adventure sooner, but going back to work and trying frantically to catch up, and a nasty cold intervened in the interim.  But enough with the excuses!  On with the photos.

Ireland was the first leg of our trip (3 days).  I’d never been before, but I took several Irish literature and history classes in university (so I have a little more than a passing interest).  However, I’m embarrassed to say that what I knew of Dublin itself is pretty much from Maeve Binchy books I read when I was a teenager.

We arrived on Friday, October 8, after an overnight flight.  Not too much sightseeing done on that day, we were pretty exhausted.

The River Liffey, just across the street from our hotel.  The bridge shaped like a harp is pretty striking.

Statues depicting the devastating Potato Famine. Disturbing, but an important part of Irish history.

Customs House

The General Post Office in Dublin.  I studied Yeats several times in university, so I had to visit this.

Dublin is definitely a party town.  The first day we were there, we wandered around a little bit, and spent the evening in Temple Bar pub-hopping, eventually ending up in a Japanese restaurant for dinner (not very Irish, but it was some of the best Japanese food I’ve had).

The second day (Saturday), we drove out of Dublin to explore the Irish countryside.

Dún Laoghaire, just outside Dublin

 

At Glendalough, the ruins of a 6th century monastery founded by St. Caoimhghin (Kevin), who lived in a hollowed-out tree. 

At the Wicklow Gap.  It was beautiful there, if a little chilly. 

Will did the bulk of the driving, which was fine with me.  Narrow roads + driving on the left side + big rental car (a Toyota Avensus – Hertz upgraded us, but that’s not a good thing in Europe) = bundle of nerves!  However, I did try driving for about ten minutes.  I kept punching the window looking for the stickshift, turning the windshield wipers instead of the turn signal on, and side-swiping parked cars on the left side of the car because I had no concept of where the car was.  So I can say I did it, but I don’t want to do it again.

We spent our last day in Dublin (Sunday) exploring the city more.

Trinity College Dublin on the left.

 
Grafton Street, the posh shopping street

I forget the name of this church.

 
Saturday’s outfit

• Anthropologie River Delta Shift by Anne Pinkerton
• Club Monaco cardigan
• Wolford tights
• Geox boots

Sunday’s outfit

• Anthropologie Climbing Cowlneck
• Club Monaco cardigan
• Mavi super-skinny jeans
• Geox boots
• Hilary Druxman necklace

Good mirror in this hotel.  Didn’t find one like it anywhere else.

I’ve been gone for a week, I need home for a rest

I took about 500 pictures on my trip (to be culled for duds, I’m sure), and this is the last one I took.

 
Big Ben, taken from the cab on the way to Victoria Station to catch the Gatwick Express to the airport.

Coming home from a trip is always strange.  On one hand, I’m so thrilled to be back in my own place, with my own comfortable bed.  (I fell into that comfortable bed at 7:30 last night and passed out shortly afterwards.  Sooo unbelievably nice after spending the past few nights on an air mattress on the living room floor of a friend’s London flat.  Can’t complain about the cost of the accommodations though.)  On the other hand, I’m sad to be home again.  But the grass is always greener on the other side, right?  I have much to be grateful about my life here. 

Still, I don’t want to go back to work just yet.

And I wish Toronto were as pretty as Paris.

Or as exciting as London. 

Or as fun as Dublin.

I’m leaving on a jet plane

 

Not the most inspiring photo by any stretch, but it’s my hard work of the past few evenings to cram everything I need (including a pair of Hunter rubber boots!) into a suitcase and a tiny backpack (that’s actually smaller than my purse) for my European adventure with my boyfriend.  Dublin, London, and Paris in 10 days.  My flight leaves in 3 hours.  I probably won’t be posting while I’m gone, but I hope to be writing. 

I’m really looking forward to getting away; it’ll be a chance to refresh and clear my head.  I hope to come back feeling rejuvenated and ready to move forward.

Can’t be tempted…

Maybe this is blasphemous to say, but I’m getting really bored with Anthropologie.

My Saturday morning ritual involves groceries and a stop at the Anthro at The Shops at Don Mills, but last Saturday I decided to skip Anthro and just go home. 

It’s not that I’ve replaced Anthro with any other store, I’m just not shopping right now.  Maybe it’s because I’m leaving for my European vacation tomorrow (and not a moment too soon).

Not even the latest Anthro catalogue could tempt me.

 
Maybe because it’s hard to tell what she’s wearing.

Ditto. 

 
Lovely and ridiculous at the same time.

Love the idea of ruffled boots!  But I hate suede.

The latest outfit set couldn’t move me either.

Cartoon doggies!  But nope.

`
Love the tights and boots!  But still nope.

Adorable!   But I already bought the jacket in black. 

I’m hoping my Anthro-aversion will pass, but at the same time, it’s good for my wallet. 

Windows

This week, I’ve felt about a hair away from either a tantrum or a nervous breakdown.  Hyperventilating at my desk at work is not good.

I need a vacation.  Oh wait, I have one soon!  This time next week I’m going to be in Dublin.  I'll be jet-lagged out of my mind, but I won't be here.

In the meantime, there’s nothing that can’t be cured with Vietnamese spring rolls.

Or some eye candy, courtesy of the windows at Holt Renfrew on Bloor Street.

Burberry, with tea set courtesy of William Ashley

Yves St. Laurent, with papier-mache poodles

Diane von Furstenberg wrap dresses (loooove), with stacks of Campbell soup cans (don’t get it)

Louboutin

Can’t afford any of these, but somehow, it satisfies the soul.