Paris - Day 1

The building opposite where we stayed that my mum totally didn't notice...

We're in Paris!!! Yay! It took me a while to actually get into the city. My flight over from the UK was great, on time, no problems, awesome. I then tried to remember how I got into Paris 2 years ago, found the name of a stop I remembered, saw it was near where we were staying, got my ticket and onto a train. I so wish I had had some more trouble sorting that stuff out, because if I'd been delayed by a minute I would have missed the train I was then sitting on...and that could have saved me about 2 hours. The trip from Charles de Gaulles airport to the city takes about 40 minutes, my trip took 2 hours and 40 minutes. I know, right? It had all sorts of electrical problems, we were sat between two stops for about an hour, and then just kept pausing between stops...but I got there in the end, and we had a lovely meal at our usual little place by the Pompidou. :)

Today was super lovely! Paris was finally NOT 30 odd degrees, we did not feel like we would burn alive, we were not leaving a trail of sweat. It was awesome! We did our usual coffee and croissant in the morning, around 9:30...so early! :P

We forgot that in France if you order a coffee, you get a small black coffee. It sure did wake us up! We then headed off to walk around Paris. We didn't have much of a game plan for the day, just thought we'd have a wander. We went past the Louvre (it's pretty hard not to from where we are) and oh my! This is the queue we saw...and that's not even the end of it! (I have a photo of the map of Louvre later...I shall try and put into perspective how long this is then)

So, after being totally baffled by peoples willingness to queue for the Louvre (which is over rated in my opinion, much like the Mona Lisa. It's not that it isn't full of lots of art, or that you couldn't spend all day in there...it's just I didn't feel it was any different to any other art museum. I guess it's worth it to form your own opinion though) we decided to find the Notre Dame.

We have stayed in the same area(ish) for our three visits to Paris, and on our last visit (2 years ago) we discovered that we were ridiculously close to Notre Dame. How did we miss it? We have no idea! But we did, so we made a point to visit it this time! It is an amazing piece of architecture, truly amazing. I am so fascinated by it. Loved it.

After quite some time sitting and admiring the Notre Dame we found our favourite little Boat bus, the Batobus (we highly recommend it for anyone travelling to Paris). Getting around Paris on a boat is so very relaxing. We thought we would have a look around the Musee D'Orsay, but unfortunately, there was a queue, and we're not too interested in queuing. So I took a photo of the Rhino outside and off we went.

We knew that Rodin's Museum was nearby, so we went for a walk to try and find that. On the way we saw this. It made me smile. :) (turns out this was all over Paris)

Today the museum had free entry! Go Musee D'Orsay being busy! :D So we happily went in. My mum rested whist I had a little walk around the garden with my camera.

Me and my painted friend, he's not the smiling type.

Another painting friend, he seemed pretty shocked by the trees.

He didn't seem to like the sun too much.

Ah, the three guys doing...something. Everyone was taking photos from the front, but the view from behind wasn't too bad either. :P

We had some ice cream whilst there and sat in the sun by the pond. It was really nice. It was then time to head back to our hotel for a nap. We went past the Hotel des Invalides. It's a pretty awesome building. I seriously love all the older buildings in Paris (in most countries actually, I think we definitely have been lacking in creating awesome architecture recently).

We got the boat from Musee D'Orsay to the Louvre, it's a good 40minute boat ride, but so nice in the weather we had. We then had a walk through the Louvre...at 4, and there was still a queue to get in!

This is a picture of the Louvre and the gardens and whatnot. See that white square? Thats the pyramid thing with the entrance. See the picture below?

The queue, at 4 o'clock, has only just gone past the edge of the pyramid thing (along the bottom edge of the white square in the map picture). That's an hour long wait to get in, see:

The photo I showed you from the morning, was out and along the far edge of the black lines showing the building. Through two archy doorways. It's a long way! It's a bit excessive. Seriously, what are you so keen to see inside the Louvre? The posters of Mona Lisa do do it justice. Anyhoo, let people do what they want. Here a pretty picture of whats outside the Louvre. :)

We then had some beer before our nap. We napped well. Then out for dinner at our favourite place again to watch the football (and enjoy yummy food, AND Chimay Blue!!! :O Seriously awesome restaurant!). :) A pretty awesome day. Bring on tomorrow! :D

Mountains

We came up to the mountains yesterday for another one night stay, and the weather was glorious! And my camera had battery! Yays! So here are a few more photos from our lovely mountain times.

Our chalet.

My mum and sister resting in the sun.

Dinner in the evening.

Eggplant, tomato and goats cheese. It was supposed to be feta instead of goat's cheese, and I think we all agreed that would have worked better...but we didn't have any up in the mountains. 

Chicken!

Prawns in a sort of red curry sauce, super yum!

Nomnomnomnom!

I do love little visits to the mountains, it so relaxing up here. :)

Now off home to get ready from some Durham adventures! :D

My Little Sisters Graduation

As I said earlier, my little sister graduated from High School yesterday. It was a GORGEOUS day for the ceremony, and she looked beautiful. Proud of my little sis. :)

 She was pretty hard to photograph, she looked down a lot, and when she looked up she pulled faces like this, but she still looks gorgeous. :)

Congratulations little sis!

Bobbi Brown make over

Before

Yesterday was my little sisters graduation from High School! That's all of us grown up now, scary! As a treat we went to go and get our make-up done at the Bobbi Brown area in Globus. She looked gorgeous, photos to come soon, and I was quite happy with how mine was done too. The lovely lady that did my face put eyeliner on me, which was probably the only thing about the whole look I didn't like. I find it such a heavy look...but ho hum, here are the before and afters! (I think the lighting changes...cuz I did nothing to my hair during the day)

After

You can see the eye make-up a bit better here. :)

To Do

Today feels like it's going to be a lazy day. The clouds are out, and they make me feel lazy. :P But I still have my list of to dos:

- Walk whilst watching CSI.
- Empty and load dishwasher.
- Work some more on Visa stuff.
- Maybe go into town.

It's short, and very doable. But these should keep me occupied whilst I'm at home alone. :)

A week of scrummy food

Key West Grilled Chicken

We have lots of yummy meals planned for this week! I'm back in Geneva where we have a gorgeous kitchen, gorgeous weather and a gorgeous table outside to eat on, so it's really hard not to want to cook lots of yummy goodnesses. Adding to that, I have quite a few recipes pinned that I have wanted to try but haven't quite been inspired to try back in Sydney (our kitchen is on the small side, plus I always assume it costs more money to try something new...). I've got my mum all excited about trying some yum new things to! It will be a yummy week. We shall be attempting all the beautifully delicious meals you see hear, as well as Greed Pork Belly (for our left over pork) and some experimental croissants after the success of the spinach, mozzarella and feta ones. Mmmm, I can't wait to start eating all these meals!

Spicy Prawns with Zesty Avocado Spread

Grilled eggplant, tomato and feta.

Warm Chicken Salad with Pepper, Pear and roasted Pinenuts. 

Yummo! Have you got any yum meals planned for this week?

Mountains

I always enjoy going to the mountains when I come home to Geneva, they are just so pretty. So, I was pretty happy we got to go up Friday night to sort some stuff out on Saturday. BUT, my computer died on me, and although I do LOVE the sun, the breeze, the flowers and the view...I also really love taking photos of it too and am always slightly bummed when I can't. Ho hum.

Saturday night we went round to some friends of ours for a lovely catch up (plus to celebrate a birthday). It was a really lovely evening, I always love going round to theres. I'm not sure my liver appreciates it much, but I enjoy it! :D

Today has been spent napping on my bed with the window open...been a while since I've had a proper lazy day.

Holidaying

I'm back, and hopefully for a while! I've done some thinking and sorted out my head re my blog. Unfortunately, I can't say my head is entirely sorted out about life...I shall always be confused about life, but I think I've sorted out my blogging problem...I as trying to control it too much. I used to just post, whenever and whatever...I probably bored a lot of people, but I enjoyed it, and I enjoy looking back at those posts. Ultimately, what I want from my blog is something my close friends and family can read so they know whats up in my life, and something I can look back at when I'm older and smile at (a less embarrassing form a journal really). It'll be nice to see what my thoughts were on certain things, what things I loved, and what I didn't, and smile at it. So yeah, I shall be from now on updating you on pretty much anything I want to from my life: what I did during the day, photos from my day, quotes I'm loving, music I love, movies I want to see, materialistic things I wish I had the money for, memories, drawings, dreams and food I love.

Speaking of food, I made myself one of my favourite lunches today. Today is gorgeous outside. We've had quite a bit of rain since I arrived, so it's lovely to see the blue sky and sunshine. The weather has made me happy, and I thought I should make the most of it and have a lovely lunch outside. So mozzarella, tomatoes and balsamic vinegar it was. YUM! If you haven't ever had this dish, I recommend you try it, now. It so simple to make, and so yum, and seriously lovely on a summers day.

Yup, one of my favourites. Needless to say I enjoyed my lunch time. Yum food, sunshine, gentle breeze, birds chirping... :)

And whilst I'm sharing, my family tried this amazing recipe this week: Croissants with spinach, feta and mozzarella. When we were making them they looked horrendous, a mess. I think they turned out looking lovely though, and man were they delicious. Another easy recipe I recommend trying. Yummo!

Time to read some Hobbit (anyone else excited about the movie?).