Home, Family, Easter!

Hello my dears!
It's been such a beautiful home coming with the closest!
Sun has been amazing, we've enjoyed outdoors, had dinner and sweet treats, spent the quality time during this beautiful Easter! My dear Mother came over, my sister too, before leaving overseas for work, and we also got to keep our favourite little rascal here for three days, oh she's adorable! She had lots of small and big pairs of hands to keep her happy!
I just love to be back home, it's the best part of traveling!

Hugs and love, my Friends!


We fixed a big breakfast on Thursday morning, French style, yummy! Stomachs full!!

Easter decorations! Eggs were painted some years ago, have managed to restore them safely!

Here she is! The black beauty!

We drove to Lauttasaari ice rink Friday morning, I took a walk while the guys had fun on skates!

After dinner: carrot cake!!

Les macarons from Ladurée...

Today somewhere between Seurasaari and Hietsu!

Au Revoir!

Soon I'll be on the plane back home! I'm so happy about these few days, about everything I saw and did, everything I felt!
I'll always carry a piece of this beautiful city with me!

I took one last walk along La Seine, threw down a 20c-coin and promised to come back again!

My sweet Paris, je t'aime!

Street art!

I like to keep an eye on the graffities, posters and such where ever I might be! When they're made well they're really cool, colourful and eye catching! Important issues and politics are involved alright!
A collage follows:

Montmartre!

Montmartre is one of my favourite parts of the city, if not the best. I love the bohemian feel, the atmosphere of the narrow streets, the way the locals gather together to the little cafés to talk, laugh, debate, have wine, I just love it! The other side is that there's so much people it's almost difficult to get by! But that's almost everywhere, being the city it is.
Here's some pictures from the past two days! Sweet Montmartre!

Tea, Paris style!

It's an honour to see the impact on tea over here. There are numerous salon de thés, excellent selection of blends, and according to me, the proportions are as they should: everytime I've ordered tea I get a full pot of it! Not just one sad little cup, but a pot that carries at least three cups! This kind of tea behaviour makes me want to sing!
There are many luxurious brands but one in particular is pure gold: Mariage Frères.
I was told by three people altogether that this is the place to go. I can't believe I didn't know about it, I thought I knew the streets of Marais! And more importantly, I thought I knew something about tea!
My dear friend, the one I met before leaving here, told me she orders her teas online through them, and my two lovely French colleagues told me to emmediately go to their salon!
So today I did, and it was just overwhelming!! I made some serious purchases! Once I'd made up my mind and went to the counter, the friendly man behind it said: ok, all these, yes, why not!! Across the road was even a bigger shop, plus a museum! A museum of tea! Merde! Beautiful!

Here's what I saw:

Luxury in Paris!

Today I went first class: Rue Saint-Honoré. From flea markets to high fashion!
My pennies have been count tough, I'd have to play a whole lot of clarinet to go mad in this neighbourhood, but there's always something you can treat yourself with..!
I took le métro to Tuileries and wandered my way to Place Vendôme, gasping breath while window-shopping the ultimate joailleries existing, continued down to Rue Cambon, and payed a visit to Chanel, (which was crowded with people!), my utmost target of admiration! It's breathtaking, huge! Room after room filled with beautiful clothes, bags and jewellery, videos shown on the walls from runway shows, the vendeuses carrying out mineral water, soft drinks and champagne on big trays to the clients, while the safety guards with their headpieces keep an eye on everything...it's a circus very well organised, very poised, everyone's saying Bonjour Madame, Bonjour Madame, and I reply with my biggest smile: Bonjour à vous aussi! C'est formidable! C'est Chanel!

I left all that behind me and went for one of my passions: sunglasses! I was convinced I'd find myself a new pair, and so I did! They're Miumiu, a brand I love for their fun and edgy feel! This is my second pair, I even have a customer number here in Paris! There's a picture of me in them, aren't they cool!!

Afterwards I thought the situation required a glass of rosé, since the case and the beautiful paper bag came in that very shade! So I went to the prestige Café de la Paix next to L'Opéra Garnier! I also stopped by at Ladurée for a macaron and a silver jar of their exclusive Vanilla Thé...oh I think I went to heaven for a while! I bought a box of them to take home as souvenirs, they're something really special to share with your closest!

After all this I took a bus and metro to Montmartre, where I had a late lunch, salmon salad with blinis, in Rue des Abbesses, one of my favourite streets filled with restos and cafés. Oh I think my heart will explode! All the pretty things, beautiful enteriors, the old tradition, style and class, it's overwhelming!

I'll calm down now, send you all things sweet and pretty, and will keep you posted for more!
Salut mes chéris!

All things old!

My Sunday began early! Once I reached the 14th arrondissement around 9 am, I grabbed a tea and a croissant au beurre to go and started looking around. It was my first time in this flea market, it was huge! I loved it how it was just continuing with the streets, some side streets, then the main street again! But pretty soon I realised it was mainly antiques with quite high prices. I didn't mind, it was really nice to wander around there, feel the atmosphere and watch people gather together. There was mainly locals which felt nice too! I got to think that even though some of the stuff was quite normal flea market stuff, it felt a lot more special lying there on a Parisian flea market!

Afterwards I hopped into a bus and drove to Montparnasse, found an art market by accident, and had soupe á l'oignon for lunch and a crepe for dessert, mmmm, so good! Then took a bus to Boulevard Saint Michel and walked along La Seine. I love those stalls by the riverside! They're so picturesque! Some of them have the touristy thing going on but not all. I bought old covers of Vogue, let's see what'll come of those!

I walked back to the hotel past Notre Dame and The Shakespeare and Co. Took a picture for you of this world famous bookstore! Before my first trip to Paris I read Ernest Heminigways' Nuoruuteni Pariisi (A Moveable Feast) and of course loved the images of young artists coming to Paris, working, getting inspired, sitting in cafés, paying their bills with their works.. it all looks so romantic to us, of which I'm sure it always wasn't, but it's a part of the spell. This bookshop still supports young writers by letting them live upstairs and work for the shop for a few hours. The legacy of Sylvia Beach carries on.

I sat in numerous cafés myself because it was quite cold! I was hoping to get a glimpse of real spring over here but no! Yesterday might have been even worse than home, because it's so much more humid over here. That's the worst type of coldness, it's colder than dry coldness! I had Vin Chaude to make myself warm, a little like glögi, hot red wine with orange and cinnamon!

Here we go, pictures from Yesterday!

Porte de Vanves marché aux puces

Pont Neuf, La Seine