After finishing my course in Paris and (proudly) receiving my certificate I hopped on the train to Brussels and went to see my friend Emma from New York.
I'm just going to go ahead and say it: Paris has more museums than one could ever cover in a life time. That being said, it's hard to choose favorites and before this trip to Paris I always named Musee d'Orsay as my absolute favorite, because of it's vast collection of impressionist art, which happen to be my favorite. Now I can say that I have two new, less known favorites: Musee Rodin and Musee Nissim de Camondo
I was so happy to have little pockets of my New York life with familiar faces towards the end of my course in Paris and when Vanessa came to visit me in Paris for the day, we went to the Royal Monceau Raffles Hotel to have tea in their charming courtyard. They have a selection of Pierre Herme pastries (Pierre Herme actually runs the restaurant as I found out later) and warm scones with clotted cream and passion fruit raspberry jam (seriously, who could say no to that?) and fruit salads with rose petals, not to mention gorgeous tea cups. Perhaps summer finally arrived in Paris too?
HolyBelly is a simple cafe near Canal St Martin with a homey atmosphere and run by Australians. Interestingly enough, everyone near me eating at the cafe was also Australian, so it must be a good place...
Here are some of our favorite doors throughout Paris, above are my mom's and below are mine, most of them from Instagram. Be sure to follow along if you don't already! Hope you're having a happy and relaxing weekend!
One of my favorite parks in Paris is the Jardin du Palais Royal, a small garden located within a Palace in the heart of Paris. It usually has less people and a really quiet and relaxing atmosphere to sit and read, or shop in some of the stores along the arcades.
Maison Kitsune is somewhat of an institution in Paris, the have a popular clothing brand, make their own CDs and now have Cafe Kitsune in the arcades of Palais Royal. They make great coffee, not to mention ice cream and matcha lattes, and they also sell Bob's juice, which is a great find for juice lovers in Paris. I had watermelon and ginger juice and a cappuccino.
Patisserie Ciel combines simplicity with Asian flavors and absolute precision and consistency in cake making. They make beautiful variations of angel cake filled with delicious cream centers. I tried the yuzu and the chocolate and was stunned by the lightness of the cake with the flavorful centers. Their take away boxes are some of the most beautiful packaging I've ever seen and great for gifts.
Now on to some of my summer favorites in the picture above! I love light nail polish colors for summer like Essie's Fiji or a good white nail polish, but I have to say Chanel's Frenzy is my absolute favorite. When it comes to sunglasses my mom and I always fight over who gets to buy our favorite pairs of the season and often end up buying the same ones and these are no exception (Prada tortoise sunglasses). I love that these sunglasses are light on the inside and have a tortoise shell look on the outside, perfect for summer. I like to keep my jewelry dainty in the summer with simple thin gold and silver rings from Anna and mix things up with a little sparkle from J Crew. Last, but not least Bobbi Brown cream eye shadow in bone (01) is easy to apply and lightens up your eyes for a refreshing summer look.
Let me know if you have any summer favorites I should try out!
