Yes, Paris is definitely the city of love, fashion and wine.. We experienced this woman’s favourite things at the maximum last weekend.
Ok, we were feeling as a child for 1 day in Disneyland and loved it! Walking around all the Disney items from your favourite cartoons and still being a little bit afraid of all the heights in attractions;) Fitting all the crazy over-priced merchandise items at the gift shops and making pictures of it, repeating taking rides in the rollercoasters, even though our shoulders hurt and being extremely exhausted when the park closes while eating a nice menu in one of Paris’s ‘restaurantes rapides’ or so called, Mc Donalds!
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| Fashion @ Disney |
Off to the serious things after being a child for 1 day..
Because we had not to much time in Paris (1,5 day) we decided we wanted to do the things we are good at: shopping! According to our city guide, the exclusive, vintage and sophisticated little boutiques are located in the ‘Marmais’ district. It seems to be a Gay and Jewish culture that goes perfectly along in the small, chique looking shopping streets with an unknown number of nice kosher bakeries and falafel places.
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| Sucrée boutique @ Rue les rosiers |
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| Nice little shopping streets @ Marmais district |
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| Zadig & Voltaire brand store |
We went to a lot of boutiques that sold the most craziest but also fashionable and good priced things. Popular upcoming brands are located, like Zadig & Voltaire. A French brand that is going very well and even has their own brand store in Amsterdam at the moment. The clothes are made from luxury fabrics with natural prints and basic, edgy looks. We loved the small boutiques that sells clothes from popular good-priced French brands, but also nice pieces of Vero Moda and Kookai. Being a little bit of a tea-addict, I had to pay a visit at the Kusmi tea store. Once going in, you will be overwhelmed by such a variety of Detox tea, green tea, ice tea etc.. You don’t know where to start or what to smell. I absolutely love green tea and the owner of the shop recommended me a Japanese green tea wit popped rice and corn and made me try it. One word: Delicious! I purchased little boxes of loose different green tea’s and took 1 bigger can of green tea with almond. I just tried this tea with a scent that was absolutely worth those 12 euros while typing this post and its really even more tasteful than the smell itself!
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| Delicious Kusmi tea! |
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| Bracelet purchased at the Sucrée boutique |
Since shopping is quite exhausting, we dropped by a nice little wine bar with the most delicious tapas snack… The wall was filled with bottles of red wine and our plate was filled with a variety of self-choosed tapas. Olive tapenade, hummus, aubergine with tomato sauce, tuna dip, mushrooms and some tabouleh all accompanied with some dark brown bread to dip. After this afternoon snack we continued shopping until the regular closing time on Sunday’s, around 8 o’clock.
The subway net of Paris is very good to travel with. The trains are clean and the maintenance on the stations is better than I have seen in other cities.
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| French macarones! |
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| In the line for a Berry icecream or cupcake |
Our hotel was located in Montmartre. This district is known by the ‘Sacre Couer’ basilique and its cosy and nice located restaurants around it. We went to a colourful restaurant on the top of montmartre with great colourings on the wall and delicious home-made bread. My meal was (for the 3th time) a salad with goat cheese! The Frenchies are known for its delicious cheeses, so I had to try all the varieties of it. Melted with a roasted bread, on top of a salad, or mixed with apple packed in some pastry. The other girls tried French specialties as well, like quiche lorraine, croissants and baguettes. All even delicious!
In our last day we stopped at Champs Elyseés for a quick breakfast and started our last part of the shopping weekend. The champs elyseés is filled with a lot of big-brand stores, but it’s nice to walk around and see the beautiful buildings they are located in. Especially the Louis Vuitton flagship store is incredible and worth a visit. For our last stop, we visited the big warehouse La Fayette. It’s similar to Macy’s for the brands and goods, but smaller (fortunately!). Once we were in we spotted a big line of Japanese tourists in front of the Longchamp shop-in shop. Still amazing how much these people love the standard designer brands like LV, Longchamp, Chanel, Fendi etc..
The cosmetic department is huge and you could spend hours walking by all the different brands with each brand has their own specialty.
At the top of the building you are able to go to the terrace where the view over the city is amazing. I purchased a book about all of the worlds famous designers at the lecture department. It’s a limited edition from ‘Taschen’ and filled with interviews and history about great designers.
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| Breakfast.. |
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| Louis Vuitton @ Champs Elyseés |
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| Amazing view from La Fayette.. |
After all, we had a great weekend in Paris, but not too much time to see and do what we wanted to, or what you have to be doing when you are in this amazing city. Fortunately it’s only a 5 hour drive from the centre of Holland and that makes it so much easier to go back for just a weekend. Even though it is only to visit Disney studio’s, shop in the other districts of Paris, eating a baguette at the Sacre Coeur stairs, or just walking around trying to improve your French!
