2014 Travel, The Paris Edit

I’ve made it to 28 years of life living in England, and I have never experienced Paris. Despite this, it has always been a thing of dreams to me; a city entwined with romance and cloaked in illusion. I can’t help but think of the Chanel advert with Nicole Kidman, where she disappears off into the Parisian night, or alternatively (another Nicole Kidman related daydream) Moulin Rouge, and for this and many other reasons, the city has always been on my list of places I needed to see.

So last weekend, the boy and I packed a bag and headed off for a birthday weekend (his) in Paris. In all honesty I can think of a whole host of other cities he would have rather spent his birthday weekend, but seeing as we couldn’t go for mine he graciously gave his. Because he’s good like that.

Window display in Laduree, home of the French macaron

My experience of Paris was slightly different to where it had been positioned in my dreams. It involved food poisoning, closed establishments, delayed flights (both ways) and end of the world style rain. But hey ho, these things happen, and mainly to me. Despite all these things that I feel like were designed to make me giggle rather than cause problems, we had a fantastic weekend. We ate cheese (he) drank wine and coffee, and we moseyed along beautiful streets with stunning architecture, wondering what it would be like if we were Parisian and lived in such a wonderous city.

L’Arc de Triomphe on a grey Saturday

Has my opinion changed? No. the boy made a comment when we were walking around that the internet has ruined travel. He thinks that you have seen all these places before, so when you arrive its underwhelming and gone is the sense of surprise you experience when you see something for the first time. I see it from the flip side; I think that the internet has given you the option to choose, allowing you to whittle down the list of places you want to visit until you have an ultimate power bucket list, ready to hit hard and explore.

L’Arc de Triomphe, Paris, France

We were in the city in time to see the parade through the Arc de Triomphe to celebrate 100 years since the start of the war, so were privy to the pomp and circumstance of the army march. They lit the flames and laid the poppies, and then we watched as the canons were fired. It was a real privilege to be there for this occasion, and purely accidently too.

The Eiffel Tower itself

As well as the beautiful postcard ready sights Paris has to offer, the hotel was pretty special. We booked a night in the Hotel Splendor, which was magic themed. The highlight was the staircase, with magician’s hats adorning the banisters. Very unusual!

Notre Dame, sans Hunchback

We also had time to visit Laduree, the winner in French macarons and my inspiration to take a macaron making class. A friend of mine bought me a box of the delightfully coloured marvels when we moved into our old house, and I savoured them like I had never eaten before. Thus began my affair with the macaron, so I was pleased to get in line to view the rows of brilliantly covered sweet treats.

Saint Chappelle, before the end of the world rain began

Paris, even in the rain and grey still had mystery for me. We visited the Arc de Triomph, The Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Saint Chappelle and the Champs Elysees, but didn’t get time to see Montmartre, the Sacre Couer or any of the Bastille.

The Money Shot

Eiffel Tower | Paris | France

But next time, as in the words of Howard Koch, “We’ll always have Paris”.

Crazy stairwell in our hotel

Have you been to Paris? What was your favourite part?

2014 Travel – The New York Edit: The Statue of Liberty

The Statue of Liberty has been on my bucket list for the longest of time. Its an iconic monument and ive always felt that it would be a really interesting place to visit. Imagine having left your life and spent months on a boat crossing the ocean; cramped conditions, poverty, sadness, and then out of nowhere, when you feel like you have finally lost the will to live, looms a statuesque woman, holding the torch of liberty and guiding you from the old world to the new. Does anything seem more magical?

I got to New York and booked the visit. Top Tip – and one I didn’t know about – if you want to visit the crown and take in the views from there, you need to book 4 months in advance. Cue huge sad faces from me, and a need to pull my socks up and go visit what I could see.

The ferry trip was amazing. I was one of the smug few who had got on top of the ferry and headed for the side looking away from the statue, as opposed to the scores of people all hanging off the side where you could see her in the distance. I had actually thought about it, and figured that the boat would have to turn to head towards the island, and therefore I would eventually be on the right side for the money shot. Mwahahahaha. I was. Excellent.

When we got to the island, we were presented with free audio tours (take note, Harry Potter tour and your pricy, on-top-of-the-ticket-price audio tour) and I learnt some pretty amazing things about Lady Liberty herself, I was on statue geek cloud nine.

I love this photo. It looks like she is presiding over Manhattan

Did you Know? Although she looks like a solid mass, the statue of liberty is actually constructed like a bridge? They built her frame and then cloaked it in large copper sheets, moulded to her shape. So she is actually only the thickness of two pennies. This is due to the speed of the winds in the bay, and to prevent her from cracking under the force.

She is made of copper, which is why she is green. For the first two years, she was the same colour as a penny.

One of her designers was Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel, who later went on to lend his name to the famous Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.

Have you ever been? What icon have you always wanted to visit?

2014 Travel – The New York Edit: Empire State Building

Last night I finally manned up and went out doing tourist stuff by myself. I took the Empire State Building tour with nothing but my trusty Nikon, and I’m so pleased with the results. The weather at the top of the tower was pretty blustery so I didn’t stay out there for too long, but once I worked out that turning the flash off was my best bet, it was nothing but plain sailing.

So come be a tourist too, and check out my photos! I’m also keeping the world up to date on my travels on Instagram, so go take a look! (link in sidebar).

On the left you can see the Chrysler Building