starry starry night, paint your palette blue and grey

this is going to be my last post about my time in paris, and i do hope they haven't been too dull for you! as well as wanting to show you my pictures & share my thoughts on the sights, it is also a way for me to keep a kind of online journal that i can look back on & think about my memories from that trip.

this post is going to be a little photograph laden, so i don't blame you if you don't get to the end! i have been thinking about setting up a flickr, but i think i would just feel like a bit of a ponce as i don't think of myself as a photographer in any way.

the musee d'orsay. i chose this place over the louvre as it has a famous impressionists gallery, which just happens to be my favourite art form. there was quite a queue to get in, but the 40 minute wait wasn't too bad because i got to spend just as much time looking at the van goghs (favourite artist alert) and exploring the many degas pieces, an artist who i had never really looked at before.

the view along the champs elysees (i think) towards the arc de triomphe. it was a pretty overcast day, so some of the photos came out a bit dark & misty.

submarine poster along the champs elysees. i also saw one for the trip with the caption "une comedie SO BRITISH"

the arc de triomphe was pretty impressive, i was actually quite surprised as i was expecting it to be about the same size as marble arch in london, but it was bloody massive!

a very busy laduree, not the one that i visited though.

a distant eiffel tower.

mother & i did plan to get off the sightseeing bus at the eiffel tower, but i decided not to because it was chucking it down by that point & we weren't going to go up it as we're both pretty scared of heights.

i was impressed by how intricate the metalwork was, it really was rather beautiful.

paris as a whole was very beautiful, and i would love to go again another time, as i don't feel you can see it all in one visit.

padlock

one of my favourite sights from my trip to paris was found completely by accident. after walking through the courtyard of the louvre (although i didn't actually go in the gallery as the queue was like 3 hours long), we crossed the road to wait for the sightseeing bus & on the bridge behind us were hundreds and hundreds of padlocks.

i'm not sure what tradition/superstition this is, or even the name of the bridge, but lots of the locks seemed to have inscriptions of names & hearts, so i'm guessing it's something to do with wishing for everlasting love. after all, paris is the city of love.

i just loved the huge range of locks that were there, all kinds of colours, shapes and sizes. some were old, plain & rusty and some were shiny and newer-looking.

some had no writing whatsoever, some had rudimentary initials daubed on in tip-ex or paint, and some had personalised & poetic inscriptions. i think this is such a lovely thing to do, and i truly was amazed.

hello, there's a queue.

another one of my favourite things-i-did-in-paris was visiting laduree on rue royale (one of three patisseries in the capital i believe). i have heard, and seen, a lot about macarons (yes, macarons. macaroon is the americanised name which really annoys me.) but i had never actually eaten any myself until now, and they were unbelievable!

mother & i had eight between us, i had vanilla, raspberry & mint, soft salted caramel and chocolate, and mother had the same except swapped the chocolate for pistachio. it's hard to describe how they tasted; they were very sweet & had a lovely, albeit strange texture, kind of like a biscuity cake if that makes any sense at all!

sorry about my slightly bizarre table photos, i don't think i'm going to make it as a food blogger any time soon.

the raspberry was my favourite, mainly because it was the least sweet, & i don't have that much of a sweet tooth. the vanilla & chocolate were also lovely, i really would recommend visiting laduree if you're ever in paris (even though it is pretty pricey!). the one we visited was not particularly busy, although there were a few people who pushed past us prompting the (brilliant) australian woman behind us to shout "hello, there's a queue!"

i also caved in at the airport & bought a box of eight to take home with me, 15 euros, eek.

the flavours i got were raspberry & mint, melon, vanilla and chocolate, lovely! still have two left which i think i will have later with a glass of cream soda, just to really crank up the sugaryness.

a dreaded sunny day, so i meet you at the cemetery gates.

hello! i have returned from paris, which was so so amazing. i had a really lovely time, and i've scheduled a couple of posts about my favourite moments so i don't overload you all with too many pictures in this post!

the hotel we stayed in was really lovely (the guy at the check-in desk looked like a young ray la montagne, bonjour.), and only ten minutes away from pere lachaise cemetery which i was really looking forward to seeing. it may be a tad morbid for some, but i find cemeteries & graveyards really beautiful places. i think they say a lot about human nature, and people's personalities too - some graves were very elaborate & impressive, whereas others were smaller & more understated.

i was in awe the whole time, and could have wandered around the cemetery all day. i do, however, feel it is definitely important to respect those who have left us & i assure you i wasn't just walking around snapping pictures like some crazed tourist, i was very aware that - while the pere lachaise cemetery is a major tourist attraction in paris - it is still used as a graveyard today.

unfortunately, as we were walking around the cemetery it started to rain pretty heavily, and then we could hear a heavy rumble of thunder overhead and a few intermittent flashes of lighting. while this was very atmospheric & somewhat sinister (it felt very mary shelley's frankenstein, which i finished reading about a month ago), it made taking photographs somewhat of a farce as i didn't want to get any water in my camera lens. this meant that whenever i wanted to take a picture i had to get my mother to hold an umbrella over me and then shuffle about as i took photographs. it was a tad on the ridiculous side.

the rain also meant we spent rather a long time searching for jim morrison's grave as the route was very slippy and that part of the cemetery was very confusing to get around. eventually we found it, after passing it twice without realising.

apparently one of the traditions for visitors of the cemetery is to drink alcohol, take drugs or have sex on his grave (i seriously am not kidding!), so now there is a permanent security guard there, something which i find rather hilarious.

oscar wilde's grave was, by comparison, very easy to find, mainly because it's a huge stone structure covered in lipstick kisses (another tradition for tourists). people had left all sorts of gifts there, from paper cranes to an aerosol of breath freshener. oscar wilde truly is one of my favourite writers; he's witty, insightful, very clever, a feminist and had a way with words which is beautifully poetic as well as being crystal clear.

also, ten points to anyone who recognised the smiths/oscar wilde related song in the post title.

a paraphased quote from oscar.

there is something so beautiful about a moss-covered grave.

in other news, i saw harry potter last night with two of my friends! it was so good, really went beyond my expectations (even though the ron/hermione kiss was a bit weird compared to how its depicted in the book) & i must admit i welled up a fair few times.