Paris Part Quatre!

Day 3 - EVENING

Alexa's 21st birthday deserved a celebration of epic proportions, so we headed to the supermarche for bottles of wine.
Getting ready to go out in the dorm we drank our wine and started a game of 'I have never' it didnt take long for us to get quite merry.

We had a reservation at the Italian restaurant nextdoor, so a group of 30 of us headed over. I think we were quite noisy :S!! I had a four seasons pizza and it was so good! We could see them cooking in a proper stone oven. We ate and drank some more and enjoyed each others company. When dessert came Alexa was surprised by a sparkler in her creme brulee!

here is a picture of me, katy and the 2 laurens.
i love the tea dress im wearing, its not vintage but there were some great reproductions a year or 2 ago.

continuing the party we went down the road to a karaoke bar we had spotted the first day. Unfortunately the language barrier or (i think we got ripped off as tourists) got in the way of our fun. We noticed the alcohol menu was really expensive so we asked for tap waters, we were given 3 bottles of sparkling water and then they tried to charge us 6 euros for each one! So we went to leave and most of us managed to get out but one of our friends got stuck inside and the bar owners threatened her with calling the police! She reluctantly payed the money and everyone chipped in when she came outside.


here is a picture of some of the girls with the expensive bottles of water and some local boys who jumped in the photo.

The french boys pointed us in the direction of a good club. In the end we only had 1 more drink and walked back to the hostel because we were already majorly drunk and had to get the Eurostar the next day. It sounds anti-climatic but it was an awesome night.

Day 4 - Homeward bound!

The trip went so quick and I had such a great time! We had a few hours in the morning to do one last bit of shopping/whatever before we headed back to Gare du Nord for the Eurostar. Because of our night out we decided to just make our way to the station and chill out in a cafe and wait for the others. On the way we found a cute little camera store with a window FULL of lenses. It was amazing. The shop was more like a cupboard so we didnt go in.
(not a great photo i know, sometimes its hard to believe I'm doing a photography course)
The beautiful building that is Gare du Nord, i love the impressive roof. One last panini and then we boarded the Eurostar home, the mood was a lot more subdued this time round, everyone was tired and sad to be going back home to the reality of dissertations, deadlines and general work. (oh and the welsh weather!)


We arrived back in Newport 7.30 British time, it was pouring with rain. Welcome home!
haha


hope youve enjoyed these posts and i wasnt just rambling!

Paris part Trois!

Day 3

After the Eiffel tower we headed out to Republique on the Metro. We were trying to find a different photography exhibition, this turned out to be adventure!

By this point in the day we had begun to get hungry and since we had yet to sink our teeth into a marvelous french cake we went on the hunt for a patisserie.
We found a lovely little shop and all chose a cake. I had a chocolate religious, which is essentially a big profiterole topped with a little one, they are supposed to look like nuns (hence the name) they are also very much the same as eclairs.
Here is a pink one off google images.

Me and vinnie with our cakes, and I <3 Paris t-shirts.

I look a bit of a mess, I had on a lot of layers because I'm always cold!


We then went for a drink in a german cafe/restaurant. They were putting up their christmas decorations. We sat outside and had our drinks, the place reminded me of a ski lodge it was beautiful! (I think it was on Place d'Republique if I havent just made that up!)


After being suitably filled up and having our thirst quenched, next up was the exhibition. It was located on Rue Charlot. It didnt take long to find but it was a very long road and we were at the opposite end!
Luckily there was plenty of really cool shops and galleries along the way.
We didnt walk far before we found Mon Amour. This little gem of a vintage shop was full of glizy jumpers. It had a huge collection of accessories such as bows and belts as well as some awesome platform shoes and an adorable fur collared coat! It wasn't outragously expensive but I didnt have many Euros left. This place will be my first stop next time I go to Paris.

A little bit further down on the opposite side of the street there was a rockabilly shop called Mademoiselle Vegas, think tattoo culture and rock and roll inspired gifts and that pretty much sums up this boutique! It had it's very own pink scooter in the window too.



We carried on walking and stumbled across an antiques shop which had a carousel horse in the window. It looked as if it had come straight out of the Mary Poppins scene where they jump into the chalk picture on the pavement, I love it!
'supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!'



There were a few small galleries on the way, including one that was showing some photography work inspired by Coco Chanel. I stupidly forgot to take pictures or write any of it down.I will ask the girls if any of them made a note of the photographer.

Eventually we got to the exhibition we were planning to see Prix Pictet 2009. It is another annual event, this years theme was earth and had photographer such as Andreas Gursky and Naoya Hatakeyama showing work. unfortunatly we hadnt realsied it was 9 euros to get in, so we had a peek through the window and then walked back haha!

we had a busy night as it was my friend Alexa's 21st birthday, so I will post another blog soon! A taster: eating out, getting drunk and an incident with the french police (almost)

Au revoir!

Paris part Deux!

So day 2 of my trip to Paris.

We got up early and walked to the Eiffel Tower, there wasnt much of a queue when we got there, especially not for the stairs so we went straight in.


There are 700 stairs from the ground to the 2nd floor and we climbed them all, when you reach that stage you have to get a lift to the summit, so after a few group photographs and some nice shots of the view we got in line for the lifts.
Here is a picture from the second floor looking up at far we still had to go in the lifts! it looked like it was swaying and makes you a bit dizzy and im not even afraid of heights!


This guy cant be afraid of heights either, he was painting!

It had started to get busier by this point so we had to wait for 10 minutes or so.
At the top theres is an enclosed viewing stage with images to help you pick out the landmarks. one of my friends asked 'but wheres the Eiffel Tower?!' it was funny, I think she was joking (I hope she was joking!)
You then climb a small staircase to the outside. It was incredibly windy up there! Again we took a few pictures and put a euro in the telescope to check out the view a little closer. here are some of the photographs

The art du Triomphe there.

We made our way down in the lift and then the stairs, it felt a bit scarier going down for some reason, I felt like I might fall forward down the stairs! We crossed the road and a bridge over the Seine and walked along the riverside, I dont think we really had any idea where we were going (i certainly didnt). We stumbled across this:


It is a replica of the Liberty flame, I definitley recognised it but it still intrigued me so I looked it up when I got home. I found out that the Liberty Flame sits above the entrance to the tunnel in which Princess Diana died during a car crash in 1997. The structure itself had no metion of this so me and my friends were quite surprised. anyway I think its beautiful.

There will have to be another wait for the next half of my Paris excursion because
Im going away for the weekend to Bristol (its only about 30mins away) but still it means no blogging for a few days and I'll probably have even more to write about when I get back.

au revoir! x

J'adore la Paris!

I'm back!

Wow! what an amazing 4 days I had in Paris, I do not know where to begin!
I guess I will start with the journey there.
I got up early Wednesday morning and got the coach with the rest of my class, we were heading to St Pancras in London to get the Euro star. For those of you who don't know, the Euro star is a train that goes from London under the English Channel and pops out the ground in France on the other side.

On the way to London I saw the Hoover Building!! I couldnt get a picture because we were moving, so I got this one off google images. I had only ever seen it on the tv before so this was a great and (unexpected) treat. Its a wonderful example of Art Deco architecture. Sady its now owned by tesco and boasts several tesco flags all along the top of the roof (not so art deco)



We got to St Pancras and boarded the Eurostar. It took us through the London suburbs then underground and when we came back into the light we were travelling through French countryside, I saw lots of wind turbines along the way (I am taking photographs of them for my final major project and am a bit obsessed) When in Paris' Gare du Nord station we regrouped and got the Metro to the place we would be staying.
We stayed in the Oops! hostel on Avenue des Gobelins. I was excited to hear this as I recognised the name of the street as a title for one of Eugene Atget's photographs. Atget was a french photographer at the end of the 19th century. He catalogued life in Paris, from the streets to its people.
The shops look a lot different now! check out the photograph I weas referring to:


The first night we just settled in and went out for a bit of an explore of the surrounding area, had a drink and a meal then went to bed so we would be fresh as a daisy for Paris Photo the next day.

Paris Photo is an event held every year in The Louvre. Galleries from all over the world come to exhibit work and collectors go to buy prints from all sorts of photographers. As a photography student it was great seeing some famous images up close, learning new names and also seeing how each photographer had fabricated their work. It has given me lots of ideas! Here are some of my pictures of our first full day starting with the stroll to the Louvre and then some of my favourite bits from Paris photo.

along the way I saw Notre Dame. :]

a beautiful Art Nouveau Metro sign, these were designed by Hector Guimard

Early American, Watermelon and Blackberries by Sharon Cole. I loved this picture its so beautiful and I love how it emulates still life oil paintings. its odd because i love this image but I'm not usually a fan of those still life paintings!

Maurizio Anzeri this work has become majorly popular recently, all of the pictures on display by this artist had been sold. They are beautiful. You might want to check out the website because my photograph is a bit poor! If you can't tell he has taken old images and embroidered over them.


This is by Richard Avedon antoher celebrated photographer. This image was 56,700 Euros!! I think its a cobination of the work being an Avedon and the fact Marilyn is the subject.

SWEETIES! by Hong Hao it said it was a scanned photograph. I might give it a try myself!
this is to give you an idea of the size (by no means the largest photograph at the exhibition)
There was so much going on there and so many galleries I can't put up all the images. If you want to see more look at the Paris Photo website

http://www.parisphoto.fr/


after a long day at the Louvre we went to a local supermarche to get some food for dinner, we went for proper french inspired baguettes with a selection of cheeses and cold meats. We ate then headed to the Eiffel Tower to see it lit up at night. On the hour it glitters, it looks beutiful. We came back with a few souvenirs (including a I heart Paris tee each) and with the plan to climb the tower early the next morning.


This will be a horribly long blog if I keep writing so I will leave you with this and post the rest in installments too :)

au revoir!

Paris!

I am off to Paris for 4 days with my Photography course. I am SO excited.
This will be a short post as I have a million things to do.

when I am back I will write a full review of my trip, expect:
photographs (obviously)
maybe a few vintage inspired outfits
a review of Paris photo (world famous photography fair)
and some touristy bits


http://www.parisphoto.fr/?lg=en


Im off to finish packing

au revoir! x