My Passport To Style | Paris Part 2

fishy statue Paris

As promised here is part two of my Paris adventures, we stayed in the the four star Pullman hotel which was pretty central to Paris, as we booked it through secret hotels I was not aware it was the tallest hotel in Paris, there are 25 floors and we were situated on the 22nd! Once I go over my ears popping in the lift I loved the city view from our room.If your thinking of going to Paris it's definitely worth trying secret hotels we got a great price, but decided to skip breakfast at 50 euros for two!    

View from my bedroom on the 23rd floor of the Pullman

view at night twinkly lights 

I got a bit excited at the lavish window displays on my first day you can probably tell! What did I learn on my first full day in Paris? The French like pink particularly in their shop displays it crops up repeatedly, perhaps something to do with it being the city of lurrrve?They also like their ice-cream we found a Hagen Das resteraunt, where we stopped to chill in, in the 80 degree heat.  The French are very proud people not surprisingly they are surrounded by a rich opulent heritage and how ever small a shop it will be beautifully decked out.We found if you make an tiny bit of effort smile and say hello in French they will do all that they can to make you happy and the nice thing is it actually felt genuine, not like the shop assistant/ waiters had been drilled to be polite. I loved the fact that many of the businesses have been passed down from family to family.I got to visit the mecca of the macron, but sadly it was closed for maintenance. 

Moi- orange bag Kipling, purple suede lofas Bertie, leopard low crutch wide legs-New Look, black ruffle vest -Gap, heart print dusky pink shrug- Top Shop, Hat- charity shop 

    

The most beautiful bridge in the world perfect for leaning on

art deco shop window display

His and Hers Hagen Das puds, I regret not having the man waffle with hot sauce and pecan ice-cream  

fantastic angle, lots of dangly bits 

pink sparkly bag and pearl and chain drop collar

Guess which pefume?!

Outside Louis Vuitton- lipstick red cases form the base of the famous Eiffel Tower with a couple of black clay hares thrown in for good measure! 

Hugo & Victor sweet display, loving the gentlemen's  library feel

pink cake with edible Hugo & Victor badge

Edible confection creates a posh chemistry experiment vibe

Gucci- huge metallic dragonflies escaping with handbags

Bling wool shop, love the tennis ball greens mixed with other aqua hues 

Seriously beautiful crafted ochre yellow storage cabinet, if I ever win the lottery this  is one I'm coming back for!

guess who?

Why I Want A Mini Me

Living in my small city where the main and only shopping destinations are limited to the usual chains of Next and Topshop it's easy to stand out, just put on a brightly coloured hat and watch jaws drop and tongues wag for weeks. I shop mainly in Manchester and on line, but increasingly I have become a little frustrated by the repetition of clothing styles on the high street. My latest guilty pleasure is what I call shrink wrap window shopping.

Down The Rabbit Hole

 It all started when I was looking for a handbag that was a bit different to add to my collection. I stumbled across a bag with a rabbit motif whilst merrily pinning and realised it was a children's back pack, such was my delight in the design that I decided to push aside any doubts that this was a children's accessory and cut the nylon straps off to use the top handle instead, transforming it into a unique piece to add to my collection! 

What They Lack In inches They Make Up In Innovation 

Children's clothing is a growth industry at the moment as is the penchant for dressing daughters and sons in an outfit that co-ordinates with mum and dad. Children's  designers with growing budgets and expanding profit margins can afford to risk big on new bold designs and not worry too much about the perceived value to the customer in terms of how much wear and flexibility each item they design will yield when it hits the shop floor or website.

Can I Supersize That Dress Please? 

 Such a pity that children's labels have yet to invent the option to supersize your order yet! If you want to continue to indulge in the delusional behaviour of browsing the children's section with a view to buying your niece or nephew a new outfit go ahead, here a few of my current faves.I'm not brave enough to consider wearing a stuffed taco shell just yet!    

All images courtesy of Pinterest 

Paris Part 1 | I Wandered As If In A Dream

Marie-Antoinettes faux dairy farm

 I had the best time ever on my first trip to Paris, this planned holiday started out as an eleven day road trip, however a certain person who shall remain nameless only discovered two days before we were due to hit the road that his photo driving licence had expired! I know these things happen, but when you have paid for ferries and booked and paid for hotels in five locations and spent months discussing routes and the joy of reaching PARIS on your way back, well one can only splutter into ones tea whilst going very red in the face and trying to maintain a dignified silence for fear of filling with so much hot air that you head skywards and combust like one of Harry Potter's nasty relatives! In the end G came through big time and managed to book last minute flights to Paris and two hotels so we got half the week in Versailles and half the week in central Paris, which was five days more than if we had done the road trip to France, for which I'm now very grateful!!

main gates of Versailles palace

It might seem slightly insane but my first lot of pictures from our first three days in Versailles all revolve around the buildings at the house of Versailles the home to Louis the fourteenth and Marie- Antoinette, we went other places, had nice dinners etc, but for those of you not familiar with the pomp and splendour of the palace I thought you might enjoy a peek. I have been to many old stately homes (as I like old buildings mainly the exteriors weirdly more than the interiors) including those of the Venetian variety but this is the first building and grounds that I actually got goosebumps the moment I stepped through the golden gates. The buildings consist of the main palace and (which we didn't get to view due to queues of up to three hours, we missed the spectacular hall of mirrors, their own personal opera house and chapel amongst other room with titles like the Mars salon ) two holiday palaces! These feature the yellow room and the harp room and there is also a whole faux farm built for Marie Antoinette's amusement so she could enjoy playing milkmaid apparently!The faux farm was like going to hobbit land it was charming beyond reality and on the third day we went to the famous light and water show along with ten thousand other people in the palace gardens from nine till midnight which finished with fireworks.

portrait of Marie- Antoinette

Marie- Antoinette's favourite harp room in the first  of her holiday palaces 

 I loved standing around the huge gaping lake whilst jets of water in the centre changed form and pace, from blue to green, to a feathery pink spray and then to a molten red in time to the opera music that trilled from loud speakers, the quality of the sound was so crisp I was sure I would stumble across a whole orchestra sat on the lawn wearing powdered wigs with rouge smudged across their cheeks! But that was not all, a synchronised procession of fat copper flames came to life one by one, then moved so swiftly they gave the illusion of a train steaming down a track. Not sure if that makes any sense, if not I hope you enjoy the photos.  

The lemon yellow room

     

The sun casting a golden glow on the main palace buildings

Statue of Louis fourteenth, I love the bow on the horses tail

more house at the farm

dense water lilies another building at the farm 

love the weeping willow

more of never ending gardens and water features

Amphibian feature fountain with frogs that through evolution transform to a half man half frog 

So pretty sun setting over this water feature

synchronised fire 

coloured light and water display in the palace gardens