Paris

Paris up close and personal

Perhaps my favourite city in the world, when I lived in France we used to go into Paris almost every weekend one of my favourite memories from living there. The last time I was in France was for a French exchange which was organised through school in 2012, and I couldn't even recall my last trip to Paris so as you can imagine I was extremely excited. This trip I was accompanied by my mum and brother along with our close family friends (Jane, Harry who is my brother’s age and Caitlin, a bit younger than myself) who we travelled with. I absolutely adored this trip and I can’t wait to visit with my friends someday.

Shattered from our long journey - coffee and tea near our hotel. 

Sacre Coeur

Henri and I (eurgh his hair is so long here) 

The Sacre Coeur is a Roman Catholic curch and minor basilica

This was the first time I actually went to the top of the Eiffel Tower even though I had visited many times before, visiting it at my age I felt I could appreciate it more. The queue was surprisingly very short I guess we were lucky as normally the queues can last hours!

Chloe, myself and Leila

 I’ve never had a problem with heights and I didn’t even consider how high up I would be.

For the first time in my life I doubted my fear of heights, we first got a lift to what we thought was the top... going up this tiny lift really didn’t feel safe and it swayed in the wind making myself and many others feel uncomfortable... stepping out the lift wasn’t even a relief and looking down at Paris was terrifying, it took us a while to get over how high up we were and to actually take in the beautiful views of Paris, honestly breathtaking. 

all one for some awkward posing

Little did we realise we weren’t even at the top yet, the thought of another lift made me so nervous but it really was an opportunity I was dying to experience.

Getting right at the top was a relief and I felt a lot safer with the bars across, so it was pretty enclosed in a good way. The photography opportunity killed me, everything looked so perfect and clean, and especially the way the roads were structured. It was so easy to spend hours up in the Eiffel Tower which we did.

Having my mum as a tour guide was a bonus to some extent she was so enthusiastic about everything I could tell it brought back loads of memories. She mentioned a walk she used to meet her best friend Joanna every Wednesday where Chloe (her daughter) and I would go to the park, walk up to the fountain and watch people sail their toy boats, this honestly made me so sad to live in England where everything seems to boring in comparison. 

A life in Paris must be incredible, I’d love to live here I’m just not so keen on re-learning the language even though it was my first language.

A bit about Chloe, she’s a childhood friend, an absolute angel; I’ve known her since I was born. She’s a year older than me and studies in an English speaking school where her mum, Joanna works. It was so lovely to see my mum, Joanna (her mum) and Jane (the family we travelled with) all together as they’re best friends, seriously friendship goals rofl. The thing I love about Chloe is that even though I hadn’t seen her for absolute years she was so easy to talk to and never failed to make me laugh as was her younger sister Leila (Harry and Henri, my brother’s age). From their house it takes aprox an hour on the train so they’re always in Paris and the last few days we were going to stay at their huge, gorgeous house to spend some quality time with them.

We walked everywhere in Paris and we didn’t even use a map, thanks to tour guide mum. I can’t exactly remember what days we visited what so here’s just a bunch of photos taken over the few days. 

My absolute all time favourite comedy/romance film is “LOL”  (2012)  The film is the remake of a French film “LOL (laughing out loud)” which is also a great film but the modern version is my absolute favourite, It may be because of Miley Cyrus, Demi Moore and Douglas Booth... (definitely Douglas Booth) They take a trip with their French class to Paris, the montage sequence is probably my favourite part of the film here’s the link if you haven’t seen it (you must)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58g7EUOyTyM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58g7EUOyTyM

 But anyway I clearly got a bit fangirly but obviously they filmed in the most recognisable locations within Paris so linking the two together happened a lot.

The weather during out stay was so beautiful, clear blue skies were common and we were very thankful for the good weather, the only annoying part was during our visit to the Eiffel Tower is was cloudy.. the only time I swear which make my photos really dull.

After sunset, the Eiffel Tower lights up every hour for exactly 5 mins,one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen, so surreal. 

One of mine and Chloe’s habits during our time in Paris was spotting well dressed women which was so easy, everyone’s fashion taste was so spot on, designer here and designer there making me want to be rich so bad roflL It was apparent that everyone within Paris has a unique style there isn’t really a trend to follow everyone follows their own which is something I love.

BABES xo

The last three days of our trip were spent in the Zivanovic household in Boinvilliers which is north-central France such a beautiful small town.  We had such an eventful time evident from lack of photos I took but it was so lovely to have a three families together and be able to spend time together which we hardly ever do!

One of the things I did record photography wise was the 15K bike ride Chloe took me on, she promised it wouldn’t be hard... I couldn’t physically stand up at the end of it. Nevertheless, the views of pure countryside were so pretty. The cycle was successful minus Chloe breaking her bike then managing to fix in with her bare hands which she was very proud of, even mentioned how she should perhaps take it up as a career hah I love her.

I don’t have any photography for this small trip out but visiting a hyper market was a highlight I really love foreign supermarkets and a hyper market is even better...

first macaroon

DISNEYLAND (still great when you’re 16 I swear)

We used to go to Disneyland every single New Years when we lived in France but personally I think that visiting back now when I’m so much older I was able to re-live memories and enjoy everything so much more. I can’t quite articulate how incredible Disneyland is no matter how cliché it sounds, it really is magical. We arrived at 9am and didn’t leave till 10pm we really did make the most of it, the excitement on our siblings facing was priceless considering we didn’t tell them we were going it was so sweet.

Disneyland spam

Going to Disneyland on our last day meant that we had to get up at 4am in the morning to get back to boring England I couldn’t think of anything less appealing and I was shattered. 

I really had the best time in Paris with such amazing people, I really hope to see the Zivanovic a lot sooner than years to come! 

Oh yeah I should mention that when we arrived at Paddington station, London (after a long journey, 4 hours sleep, no having showered, wearing no makeup) I met Joe Sugg! He was really lovely and easy to talk to, Caitlin  (the family we went with) and I are huge youtube fans, we have so much in common even though she is younger than me, we see this family quite often at least every other month which is nice! But yeah meeting Joe Sugg really topped the trip off.

This blog post was so so long its so easy to waffle but thanks for reading!!

Solene