☆Adventures in Paris: part 4☆

MORE WALL OF PICTURES = A=

So, I know I said it would be a three part series, but ... 

yeah, it turned out that I needed some more space xD

Well! This is the last part of the Adventures in Paris posts! And, also the one that contains my favourite parts about our trip. The day we spent in Versailles!

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We left our hotel at around 10 am,  we had allready decided what route to take on the underground, and we knew where to find our train, so we pretty much just hasted from station to station, until we finally came to the 30 min. long train ride (above the ground) to Versailles. I were really surprised to find that there is acctually a village by Versailles! >.< I always imagined it to be in the countryside, away from other houses :P hehe... But offcourse, I have mostly seen pictures from the garden, and up to the castle, instead of from the street and up to the castle

The weather was rather shifty, and there was a strong wind blowing most of the time, but I was determinded to be able to say that I had visited Versailles in lolita, so I wore my new Fancy Box skirt with the matching headbow.... 

(this was something I rather regretted, as I were an icicle most of the day（ ＴДＴ)  )

But really, the whole experience totally made up for the wind! (besides, there was sun at times, it just didn´t warm us :P ) 

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While we were standing in line to get in,  we got a very good look at the beautiful golden gate ^^ As you can see, it is covered in gold leaf! Imagine working as the polisher of that! O.o

We bought tickets to see everything, including Petite Trianon (which is Marie Antoinettes famous summer house), the gardens and Grand Trianon (which were a slightly bigger summer house for all of them). 

At first, though, we took a wrong turn and ended up going directly to the garden! We did not know that we couldn´t enter the castle from that side, so we ended up walking all the way around it and back again before we realised XD haha

We had decided to not look more closely at the garden just yet, before we had seen the castle, though x3

 

I were so excited, that my heart went doki doki the whole time while we looked around inside! >.< 

You know that kind of awe you feel when you go into a church? Like, you feel like you have to be really respectful and have the utmost of manners? That kind of feeling fell upon me as I stepped inside....

It was really magnificent! *O* Everything was so huge and grand and totally over the top, All the paintings were huge, and the frames even bigger at times. The furniture looked so beautiful, with douzins of carvings of flowers and swirls all over them. We walked from room to room, and everything was so grand that it kind of melted together in the end, into one big mash of pure glory.

Really, it was all .... to big for words to describe

 

This was the crown of the bed of Marie Antoinette and Louie o.o

 

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  I did remember to film a lot while we were inside, but everything was so overwhelming to me that most of the film is just twirling here and there, which only makes you kind of dizzy to watch XD haha... 

Basically, after the "grand tour", we were so blown away that we just decided to stroll in the garden for a while... 

(the charming fault in this picture is because my sister uses an analog camera :D)

 

Now... The cool thing about the garden, was that they had hid away loads of speakers here and there that played classical music that fitted with the rococco era, so that when you walked around, you really felt like you were starring in a movie or something! with background music... 

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Soon, we also realized that it was time for some food, Checked out the map that we had gotten as we purchased the tickets, and looked around to see if there might be a café near by. 

After strolling down a cosy alley with beautiful statues all along the sides, we came to a huge pond at the end of it. There was an amazingly cool statue in the middle, with something that looked like a sea god, that came up from the sea in a wagon pulled by horses and enormous monster fish o.o

Right beside the pond, was a really cute little café. We figured that we wanted to sit inside, because we were both quite frozen and we really just wanted to be warm more than anything else XD haha

It was quite full, but the waiters were very efficient, and we soon got a tiny little table for ourselfs...

 

Now, the only thing that really works when you are that cold, is cocoa :) So I got some cocoa, and one of the most delicious club sandwiches I have ever eaten. 

 

Afterwards, life felt a lot easier to bear, and we decided to look around for Petit Trianon, which supposedly was placed somewhere near our current location.

yeah XD Basically, there was an ally that led up to it, and my sister insisted on taking a picture of me in it! And... since I can´t be serious for a second, I blew up my cheeks and did the awkward pose! x3

I must say, that this must have been my favourite part of the tour... Petite Trianon was so cute! ^^ It was a lot smaller than Versailles it self, and there was a lot less people, which made it easier to walk around and see. Everything was really simple, as opposed to the grand "over-the-top-ness" of the main castle. 

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We got a good look around the whole place (and I saw a japanese girl dressed in a super cute outfit that looked like it was from Emily Temple Cute! >w<), before we headed out into the beautiful garden behind the house.

This was the prettiest garden in my opinion... it had a man-made river that led up to something that looked like a roman gazebo. 

There was also loads of threes that were in full bloom, and one particular cherry three cought our attention... 

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Really, we slowed down and just strolled along the small paths that was all around the place... We started talking about how lovely it would be to wear rococco clothes, and just sip at a cup of tea, or have a picnic... 

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 After a while, we came to Grand Trianon also! ^0^

This was the summer house of Louie, but I believe it was also popular just for holding parties as well... 

There was a really long room inside, that we were told used to be for dancing, and all the pictures were painted by the same person! ^^

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After looking around in there for a while, we decided that we ough to get back to the hotel soon...

So we began the surprisingly long walk up to the castle again, to get a last look at it all.

Basically... it was all so wonderful and magical that I wished it would never end! 

So, when we started heading home at around 6 pm, I couldn´t do anything but sigh... 

When we got home, we were both so tierd that we just decided to find the closest resurant there was... so we ended up with indian food that night! It was really good, but a bit on the hot side, so I drank a fair share of water ^^" 

Well back in the hotel room, we started packing our bags, and made sure we had everything in place for our trip home the next day (it was all traveling from morning until night, so there really is nothing more to it x3) before we said good night, for the last time in Paris.

It  was a wonderful experience to see Paris with my sister, and I enjoyed every single bit of it! ^^

We both agreed that we would love to do it again sometime, and I really hope we do <3

Thank you very much for reading all of this!^^

I know it was a lot, and especially many pictures, but I could simply not choose >//////>

Have you visited anywhere grand lately?

 

  Josephine

☆Adventures in Paris: part 3☆

First of as a warning, this post will be picture overloaded (‘-’*)

We had decided to do all of the shopping on Friday, so that we could spend Saturday and Sunday doing more cultural stuff! (´∀｀) 

My sister wanted to go get some small presents for her roommates back in Edinburgh. Right after breakfast on Saturday morning, we took the underground to St. Michel, and visited a tiny shop with an indian theme :) And right beside it, we found a shop that sold postcards! :D We bought some to send to our parents, (and I found a really pretty one that I kept for myself x3 ) 

But really, my sister wasn´t interested in going to Paris for the shopping, but more for the experience and to see famous places! So since we both wanted to see the wonderful paintings and statues at the Louvre museum, we naturally decided to go there as soon as we finished getting the presents and postcards   (⌒▽⌒)☆

I was such a big experience! I have seen the glass pyramid dozens of times in movies and on pictures, but to see it for real.... it was breathtaking! 

We got see all the most famous paintings and statues, like Nike, Venus de Milo, the coronation of empress Josephine (hey hey hey  (´∇ﾉ｀*)ノ), the picture of the french revolution and... at last, Mona Lisa ! O AO I were so moved that I even cried a little ; v; <3

I were really surprised at how small it acctually were! I am pretty sure it only measured around 50 to 60 cm in total height! *o* 

When we came into the room where she was displayed, it was totally packed with people, somehow though, we managed to squeese infront of the crowd to the wood "fence" that surounded the panting. It made room for an empty space of about 2 m. in front of the painting, and there was a thick glass plate in front of the painting itself, so it was very well secured! ^^

I think we spendt around 2 hours, just wandering around and looking at everything inside of the museum. It was such an enormous building! To acctually see all the most famous paintings and statues of the world, it was such a big experience that it is only recently that I have been able to comprehend what it is that I acctually saw that day o_o 

Before I left for Paris, I had written down a list of stores and places I wanted to visit, and because we just found a random place to have lunch at the first day, I wanted to visit the "Princess Crêpe" café for lunch this day! I had heard about it from another blog that I follow ( candyheart♡) and when I checked it out, it was proven to be a japanese crêpe shop were they make super kawaii crêpes! >w< iiiih (*≧▽≦)! 

(Also, when we visited the Baby, the star shines bright shop, we noticed that they had an add for the crêpe shop by the counter, because they had some kind of co-operation! :D )

We took the underground to St. Paul, and walked around until we found Rue des Escouffes, were we quite easily spotted the super cute café <3 >w< 

It was seriously one of the cutest shops I have ever seen! We were greated by two super sweet japanese girls, that smiled at us while we looked around. There was so much to see in there! Everything was pink and super kawaii <333 I loved it so much! 

 Fun fact: I have a cakebox that looks exactly like the two at the bottom  (☆^O^☆)

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They had the cutest art in there! * o* I felt super inspierd to draw really adorable things ! :D They had painted two "windows" inside of the café , and my sister said "imagine if it acctually looked like that outside!" me: " yeah ... *dreamy*" her: "totally wacko, right?" me: "umh... yeah, totally!" XD haha

 Also, I were so excited to see this! I have seen loads of pictures of these "fake" crêpes from Japan, but this was the first time I saw it myself *A* It looked so cuuute! I really loved it, and just had to take a picture ＼( ｀.∀´)／

My sister ordered a crêpe with honey ( I think it there was honey or caramel with cream, but I can´t really remember :P) And I ordered one with rasberry, cream and cheesecake! (I were so amazed by the fact that they acctually had cheesecake in crêpes, so I just had to get it XD iiih)

And here it is! ☆*:.｡. o(≧▽≦)o .｡.:*☆

 We asked if we could eat inside of the café, because they had only one little table with two chairs >w<. And when we were finished eating, I approached them and tried cearfully saying "honto ni kawaii desu!".... and they looked so amazed that I knew some japanese! o(≧∇≦o) I were so nervous that I could not say very much more, but I did say "sorry, I am very bad at japanese!" and they were all like "no,no that is really good!" (they knew some english). 

Then they asked me if I read KERA magazine, and I said yes, and they asked me if I knew Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, which I also offcourse said yes to! (I had my kreepsville 666 eyeball clips in my hair, which I think was the reason why they asked ;) ) and I told them that I had even preordered her cd! 

Before we left I even got a visit card from them, I said arrigato and sayonara xD hehe 

.....I felt totally embarrased! (#／。＼#) they were really patient and sweet with me though.

 It is one of the first times I have ever talked to someone in japanese! 

After that, we basically just went up in Montmarte and looked around for the rest of the day!

 This was a shop that only sold angel things! I felt like it would be pure perfection for someone into mori girl and cult party kei :D (the little box in the middle is a mini version of the shop! "La boutique des anges" x3)

 We found loads of cute little vintage shops, and shops with homemade things, and even shops with remade vintage things :D It was so cool! We had a lot of fun. My sister got a "new" vintage wallet, and I got a really cute button from the tiniest shop ever (with 5 people inside, it was stuffed o vo) 

We also took a quick trip to the artbook shop again, because my sister wanted to get an artbook with drawings from the comic "Hellboy" to her boyfriend (who is a big fan ;3 ). 

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We also went to see  Sacre coure, where I had my first taste of crêpes with nutella, on the stairs right above the carousel :D 

It was really goood ^^ We posted the postcard to our parents, and looked around for many more hours, we even saw Moulin Rouge! (from the outside offcourse XD) 

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We were awfully tierd and went back to the hotel to rest for an hour or two, before we headed out to get some dinner. We decided to go to a resturant in Montmarte that was dedicated to one of my sisters favourite painters (can´t remember his name at the moment =A=) 

and had a delicious three-course dinner!

 With onion soup (just look at that onion soup * 0*), an omelette with a great salad, and pistache icecream for dessert! <3

Basically, when we were finished eating, we were so stuffed that we just wanted to collapse into bed again. 

It had been another great day, and we had sooo much fun ^0^

Until next time, sweeties <3

Josephine

(PS: Now, there is only the trip to Versailles left to write about! ^^)

☆Adventures in Paris: part 2☆

I know it has been a long time, but finally! yaaay xD I am posting more about my adventures in Paris this April ^^

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To start off, I can say that the first day (which was Thursday the 12th) was only spendt on traveling. 

First, three hours in a bus to get to the airport. One hour waiting for the plane, then getting to Oslo, having to wait for 5 hours at the airport there, before I headed over to the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris! 

I were to meet up with my sister at the airport down there, since she came from Edinburgh and I from Norway :P 

BUT! the thing we did not know, was there were several terminals! And because she came from the U.K and I from Scandinavia, we ended up at totally different terminals. We are both used to pretty small places, and because we had no idea where we were, we ended up looking for eatchother for 3 hours! 

We were practically panicking by the time we could finally hug eatchother. 

And after that, we were lost at the underground for a couple of hours, before we at last found our hotel (the name of the hotel was "Hotel Montmartre" so you can guess where it was at xD)

I must say, it must have been the smallest, most narrow hotel I have ever been in! It had a small lift that we used to get my suitcase upstairs (I brought a big bag to fill loads of stuff into <3) and it barly fitted me with the bag. And we had to carry the suitcase sideways in the hallway, because it was so small. It was extremly cosy  ヾ(´▽｀;)ゝ.

We just fell into our beds and went to sleep right away! To tierd to even eat anything first! (~_~;)

 

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When we wake up in the morning, we both felt a lot better and after getting a great breakfast at the hotel, we were ready to go look around town. We decided to just walk around wherever we wanted for a while, because the lolita shops was not going to open up yet. And by coincident, we managed to find a narrow, little street filled with comic, art and figurine stores! It was like heaven!(ノ＞▽＜。)ノ <3<3<3<3<3

This is me inside one of the manga stores. It was PACKED with manga! It was crazy! 

Inside another one of the manga book shops ; v; it was really amazing! The sad thing was that everything was in French, so I could not read anything.... I still looked around and took some pictures of particularily cute ones that I wanted to search for on the internet for when I came home ;) 

There were also an artbook store ; _; like.... you guys! TOTALLY AN ARTBOOK STORE ;A; there was only art related books, from Disney to Megaman and I just wanted to buy everything, if it had not been for the lolita stores >w>

 And not only artstores, but a lot of cute little pattiseries also!  We passed several cavity enducing shops that just made my chin drop! You never find these kind of things in Norway!  There were beautiful sugar glazed cakes, blueberry tarts,  meringue and all the colours of the rainbow in macarons  (((o(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)o)))

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So, after looking around a bit more, we decided to have lunch at a tiny little café. We sat outside, as it was a sunny day, and enjoyed our crepés :) Mine had melted chocolate, banana and whipped cream! It was SOOOO GOOOD ; A; My sister had a dinner crepé with cheese, ham and mushroom ^^

 ( While we sat and had lunch, we snapped some pictures! this is my sister with the camera she took most of the pictures with, ^^)

Then! The clock was finally ticking towards noon, and we started thinking about getting to the lolita shops ^^ When we were in Paris, we only traveled by the underground, and even as identical everything looks down there, and what a huge maze it is, after a couple of trips up and down, back and forth, we practically knew the way withouth a second thought about it.

Soon, we were in Ledru Rollin, and I felt the anxiety growing as we peeked at our map and checked our adress notations to find our way around. 

... if you read my earlier entry about my purchases, I don´t have to tell you that we definatly found everything xD

I were so ridiculously happy that I had to censor my face XD Also, my only "coord" picture of the day! Not a very good one, sadly (I mean the coord, not the picture, since my sister is amazing at taking pictures o.o but I dressed for comfort, with no petticoat that day)but yeah... the feeling of holding a huge BTSSB bag in your arms is indescribeable ; v; 

Sadly, we forgot to take pictures at the Angelic Pretty store, but the second I spotted it, I just ran towards it x3 haha... 

I were really excited about being there, and first of all I just walked around and looked at everything that wasn´t Angelic Pretty :P I fell in love with the 6%DOKIDOKI accesories they had, and I almost died over the Kreepsville 666 things * A*. And all the fab Milk and Black Peace Now things ; v;  iiiih <333 

Finally as I approached the Angelic Pretty things, my heart raced, and I just wanted to grab everything in sight o_o 

Funny story: I went back to the AP shop 3 times, and shopped each time, just because I enjoyed it so much xD In the end the shop ladies just smiled at me >////v////> I got a stamp card, that I filled up O.o and a new one after that :3

Afterwards, we went into a little manga shop again, because they had such a cute window display (with totoro, K-ON and kiki´s cat :) ) where I found and fell in love with my cute Tsumugi Kotobuki figurine <3 

And then, finally, after having some orange tea and coconut icecream at a tiny teashop we decided to head home to the hotel with my our bags and rest, before we went up in Montmarte to look for a resturant. 

We ended up at a tiny little italian one, with beautiful paintings of italian landscapes and olive trees on the walls, and another tiny table, like the one at the outside café (｀・ω・´)”

One pizza and some cassis sorbé later, bed was like a blessing sent from heaven. Our feet were sore from all the walking, and I felt wonderful and super happy about all the new things I had got :) 

The room was basically all pink, as you can tell  Ｏ(≧∇≦)Ｏ

☆ I had a magical day, and could not wait for the next one to start ☆

(sorry for the wall of text >.<)

Until next time, cuties   (´ω｀★)

Josephine