another long day. which means another long post.

i need to rest and do some real parisien living. as in, read this french play i bought and just sip coffee the whole afternoon and not do any walking.
i am this tempted to skip the louvre and musée d'orsay. but i do want to see the mona lisa and whistler's mother. sigh, whattodowhattodo.

today i noticed:
- people really take their time in the morning. a lot of the stores do not open till 11. yowza. very chanceux.
- the parisiennes wear boots in the rain. today's weather would have been open toed or flats weather in toronto.
- the young parisiens (16+ to late 30s) have picnics at night by the Seine or the pont des arts (the bridge that leads to the louvre). and they have it with wine. so nice.
- some people also have their dinners (which consist of baguette and cheese and of course wine) by a bridge, standing up. again, it was really nice.

today i went to:
- merci
- montmartre
- sacré coeur
- les deux moulins
- père lachaise cemetery
- basilique saint denis

merci is a concept store. it is sooooo expensive but i was thisclose to buying this beautiful vanessa bruno blouse but they didn't have one in my size. :(

it was quite a climb to sacré coeur, but not as bad as i thought. this is in montmartre, the land of amélie!

montmartre has the loveliest homes.

café des deux moulins!!! it looks different from the movie. i think nino quincompoix (amélie's soulmate) sat where i sat. except there's no glass for the menu. everything is on a chalkboard. and they've really amélified the place, as you can tell.





now for the basilique saint-denis, where marie antoinette and louis xvi are buried (i couldn't leave france without paying a visit to one of my most favorite characters, marie-antoinette).
(middle, left- marie antoinette, beside her, louis xvi)

at pere lachaise cemetery

we found oscar wilde's tomb...where i...

...planted a kiss just like the others!

all i wanted really was to see oscar wilde's and moliere's tombs. unfortunately we couldn't find moliere. very sad as he is one of my favorite french playwrights.

i also did the night tour around paris with fat tire bike tours. it was awesome! pictures from that little tour will be on a separate post because i think this is way too long now! :)

today i ate:
- banana and nutella
- sushi (bah, it was awful. i missed the japanese restaurants in toronto! but then again, you don't come all the way from canada to eat sushi in france. i just needed a little change, is all)
- creme brulee
- coffee
- chicken gyro and fries

tomorrow is museum day. or not. thursday is versailles. friday is the french revolution walk. saturday is giverny.

aaaahhh. harhar.

have a great week, everyone!

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this is going to be a HUGE post: normandie + paris, day 4

salut! this is a two-part blog post. i wanted to blog yesterday, but poor hiro (my mac) died.

yesterday i observed:
- when we went to normandie yesterday, we passed through so many toll booths. if you plan to take a road trip, make sure you've got lots of change on you.
- the stopovers at l'autoroute are veeeery far in between. and because of that i missed tim horton's.
- their café à emporter do not have lids. their cars do not have coffee holders. coffee is not really meant to be taken out but to be enjoyed and savored in a cafe slowly.

at normandie we went to see:
- arramanches-les-bains
- rouen
- omaha beach
- normandy american cemetery
- mont st. michel

the fields are full of these yellow flowers.




the crosses had no names, just the numbers from their military tags.




the very imposing mont st. michel, with the abbey on the very top of the hill. those are all little stores and houses in the bottom. when the tide is high, it gets cut off from the mainland.


that is quicksand out there.

today i observed:
- the parisiens love their baguettes and they just hold it under their arms or against their chest, juste comme ça. and rightly so, because their baguettes are soooo good. i took a bite off mine and it was delicious. and i noticed that's what they do too.
- it's also good to good bye and thank you before leaving the store
- paris is still very beautiful in the rain. i think i like it cloudy in paris better.
- very chic young girls and guys (in their teens)!!! it was so awesome to see them in blazers and heels. they don't look like they're trying to look older though. it seemed very effortless.
- for tourists, it's great to walk around the city during the weekday. less busy.

today i went to see:
- village saint paul
- rue mouffetard
- le marais
compared to yesterday (crazy driving on the autoroute, getting lost, all those roundabouts, my dad driving with a manual car) today was a much more relaxing day. i loved it.

au petit bonheur la chance, 5e - a really petit and adorable store of "objets de notre memoire". for those who like ephemera and trinkets this is the perfect store.

anabela, i took this for you!

today i ate:
- croque monsieur (IT IS SO GOOD)
- baguette with goat cheese (their BAGUETTE is soooooo good. perfect combo of crunch and chewiness)
- fromage salad (for 2.50 E you get a heavenly mix of camembert, goat cheese, feta with capers, swiss, cheddar and baguette chunks)
- omelette with goat cheese
- maltesers (harhar. for walking, ya know)

my favorite boulangerie

i also went a little crazy and bought three pairs of shoes and a bag.
sigh.
paris, je t'aime. really.
have a good week everyone!

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"je suis canadienne"

today i learned:
- saying bonjour cheerfully when being served at a store or when entering a petite boulangerie or cafe is very important.
- i don't think the french are snobby at all.
- i love the metro! they leave the windows open so you've got air coming in (not sure if it's clean air though, but ca ne me derange pas) and there's signal for cell phones!
- the parisiens speak very quietly on the train.
- essayage - fitting
- i can pass for chinese and japanese. (the latter pleases me a lot considering i've always wanted to be half french and half japanese). hence the title. and this surprises them because my french is really good, so they say, and then they proceed to ask me if i'm from quebec. no, unfortunately not.
- people get tickled pink when they see me whip out my polaroid.
- little french girls and boys are so nicely dressed.
- medical tape is better than bandaids. use them if you are going to be doing a lot of walking. it requires less changing and it protects better.

today i went to see:
- the eiffel tower
- trocadero square
- champs elysees
- l'arc de triomphe
- rue cler
- notre dame (for sunday mass)

today i bought:
- two dresses and a pair of shoes from nafnaf
- a pair of silky balloony girly shorts from zara (i've always wanted them but toronto had no sizes!)

today i ate:
- banana and nutella for breakfast
- banana and nutella crepe at rue cler (good place for buying fruits and fresh produce)
- grilled baguette slices with goat cheese
- coffee with hot milk (it is so goood)
- pizza from one of the many pizzerias close to the apartment

demain, we are off to normandy, st. malo, dinan & mont st michel. my dad is driving.
teehee. wish us luck!
have a great weekend, everyone!

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i'm here!

bonjour!
i am finally in beautiful paris!

i thought i'd upload pictures and say hello before my dad and i walk to the left bank. we've already done rick steve's historic paris walk.
paris, mes amis, is sooooo beautiful. the apartment that we are staying in is at least 200 years old and is right in the middle of cafes and restaurants. as i am writing this i can hear lovely french chatter, the clatter of cups and saucers and people singing. it is very much a lively scene outside. (and what am i doing inside?!?! harhar. my dad went out for a quick walk. he's looking for a grocery store to buy some food. nutella specifically. harhar. i just woke up from a very much needed nap). the weather is very pleasant - tights and sweater weather.
this is the view from l'appartement:

some pics from our walk:

i had an upset stomach from the plane ride (and plane food!). but i've already had the following:
- salade de chevre chaud
- steak with bearnaise sauce
- red wine
- chocolate mousse
- cafe creme
- macarons en vanille

i've gotten to practice my french a lot today. it surprises me how much i can still understand. and it amazes me how such a simple movie, sabrina, (as silly as it sounds) can create dreamers.

and that is all for now. i brought my polaroid and my konica film camera as well, so i'll have so many pictures to show you that you will get tired of them. harhar.
have a good weekend! :)

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-i got my box of polaroid film in the mail, finally.
-i'm not done packing. my dad is. haha.
-it was a busy day at work. i am trying to get everything done before i leave.
-i finally went to anthropologie. it was quite a trek. but worth it. i got two trousers for cheap. the area was just like the grove in l.a.
-i got some canadian money converted to euros. and some travelers cheques.
- i am so excited. i plan to watch bolt on the plane (harhar. i'm THAT excited. i've already looked up the in-flight entertainment).

i hope you guys had a good spring day today! :)

PS: i need HELP. i don't know what to pack. i've packed for summer weather and it looks as if it's going to be quite rainy. and the girls in my favorite french blogs are wearing boots still...am i going to have to pack for two extremes?

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hiro, jarvis & japanese dress books class

the more i use apple, the more i feel that everything apple is the way to go. which my colleague calls being "apple-fied".

meet hiro.
(hiro from heroes)
{how do you do?}

i love it. i am no longer going back to pc.
aaaand:

meet jarvis.
(jarvis from iron man)
{how do you do?}

i love it. or him. it takes getting used to, but i like how i don't have to wait until i get home to check my emails and my calendar. plus i needed a new ipod. i needed more space. he looks scratched and dusty but it's the case. harhar.

this spring/summer i have two classes to take that i am really excited about!
1. conversational french at the alliance francaise.
2. AND. the japanese dress books class at the workroom! karyn, who has made tops/dresses from these pattern books, has finally created this very much requested class.

see, i bought the book a long time ago but when i opened to check out the pattern i wanted to faint. harhar. all these lines. all these japanese characters. i tried to decipher it but couldn't. i tried to follow tutorials online, which may work for intermediate and advanced sewers. but for beginners and lazy sewers like me, having someone there to show you what to do is what i need.

i had my eye on these dresses and tunics for the longest time:

and just recently i found the prettiest fabric (similar to this h&m top that i bought and love) that i thought would look really nice as one of these dresses.



then i find out that karyn is offering this class. and so i signed up right away.
it is almost full, so if you're interested, make sure you sign up soon!

sigh. everything just came together.

now if other things just came together and made sense. sigh.

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