So the big 4/18 Club–and by big I mean we have 3 members from my clan alone: Lil A, my cousin Steven, and yours truly–is having its day today, but unfortunately we are not all together to celebrate it. However, the great thing about membership in a club is that even distance can’t keep us from coordinating our outfits!
My sister and I’d had a quick conversation about Lil A’s outfits for her bday party a few weeks ago, and as the event was French themed, I’d suggested something with navy stripes and red leggings, primarily because I was secretly hoping back then that I’d myself get to wake up in Paris for my own bday and had visualized wearing something similar (err, minus the leggings). So I was thrilled when she emailed me this picture of Lil A in her birthday outfit:
And while Lil A was killing it in NYC with her fashionista self (3 outfit changes if I’m not mistaken from the pics I received!), her aunt was celebrating a mellower day in Paris. All I’d really wanted to do this year was to spend 4/18 in Paris with zero agenda. No long shopping list, no new museum exhibits to chase down, no appointments to keep. Just a girl in the city with a camera.
But first things first…aren’t sweets always a prerequisite for birthdays? I’d walk on hot coal and through a blinding snowstorm for these Ladurée macaroons–my favorite flavors are definitely the Pétales de rose and café:
Is 9.50am too early for champagne? Perhaps…so with my morning loot of sweets in hand, I head over to the Chanel mothership on rue Cambon to see if I couldn’t find a dream jacket for a birthday pressie…
That’s the lovely La Madeleine, a church that looks more like a temple, looming behind me in the above picture. But let’s get back to the matching outfits…see what I mean by the striped top on me in these pictures?
I strike out at this boutique…lovely items as usual (store was packed even this early in the morning) but nothing different from what I’d already seen and bought in NYC. Plus the shoes I was hoping to find in Paris for less than in the US after VAT refund were not available. And no sign of that dream jacket, which is becoming more and more elusive by the day. I am, however, tempted by a pale, pale pink Chain Me flap–not released in the US–but I email my Chanel Anonymous sponsor and am promptly talked out of falling off the wagon. Boo, what fun is it to curb your binge on your bday!
But as all you addicts know, we usually trade one addiction for another. So by the time I get off the metro at the Père-Lachaise cemetery, I am dying to devour the macaroons…
And no, I don’t find it macabre or morbid to visit a cemetery on your birthday. Walking through large cemeteries filled with ornate tombstones is to me a great reminder not of the dead but the living. It’s actually quite peaceful in this parklike setting (more on this cemetery in another entry)…of course, until you get close to Jim Morrison’s gravesite, where there is always a lot of activity.
I grab lunch, followed by a blackcurrant violet macaroon (I really wish they made diabetes-friendly versions so that I could bring some home for my mom), and leisurely take one of my favorite walks in Paris that leads me to the Musée d’Orsay…
then the Tuileries Garden,
where my view is full of this:
and my belly is full of that:
Lil A told her parents that she would like to go to Paris in a helicopter. It’s funny and adorable what kids say at that age, but what I really wish for her on her second birthday is that she gets to hang on to that blissfully unguarded spirit, so wonderfully captured in the first photo of today’s entry, for as long as she can.
Tags: Chanel, La Madeleine, Ladurée macaroons, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, Père-Lachaise cemetery, Pétales de rose, rue Cambon, Tuileries Garden
If I’m going to be absent here in the next 72 hours at least you know where I am. I’ll come back with a full report from Paris in a few, but I can quickly say that the weather is perfect and the city is as beautiful as I remembered it. Suffice it to say for now, on my first day here, I’ve already been to a few of my favorites places in this city…
and, well…uh oh in Paris…
Let’s hope this “uh oh” here is not as bad as the one in NYC!
Tags: Paris
It’s tax day in the US today and while some of you are running around trying to beat the deadline, I’m also running around like a glutton for punishment. Because yes, to get to visit another castle–this time it’s the “working” castle, Château de Franc-Waret in Fernelmont, Belgium–
I’d have to cross through lots of fields and gardens in all their green splendor, full of pollen:
Can you imagine being born into such an estate? Yes, it’s good to royalty by chance but the burden of maintaining a place like this!
But that’s probably why this is a working castle. It’s used for large events and for filming. This wing houses a large restaurant to cater any function…
and this is a more recently constructed addition to hold parties:
Those two puppies in the first photo were only a couple I could catch out of a litter of 3 (and their mommy made 4) with my camera. One had a broken front paw, but he barked the loudest to make up for his deficit. He also enjoyed the belly rub the most 
. They were all scurrying around the property with the groundsmen, enjoying the fresh cut lawn and even the water around the moat.
I don’t know about you, but I think I’d rather be one of these puppies than a modern royalty who inherited the tax bill on this place!
Tags: Belgium, Château de Franc-Waret, Fernelmont
As some of you may already know by now, I’ve made it across the Atlantic.
Spring is in full bloom in Europe and as beautiful as it is to be here at this time of the year, my allergies have me whipped. No, not whipped. Whooped. No signs of jet lag, but all the symptoms of allergies have been magnified tenfold for me here.
Pretty rough to be on the road while feeling like a 700-pound gorilla is sitting on my chest, and the meds are not working! And no, the first shopping I did was not at some boutique but a pharmacy. But what did I say the number 1 rule of travel was? That’s right, no whining allowed.
In today’s entry I’m sharing with you photos I took at the Château de Beloeil in west Belgium a few days ago. I probably sneezed from one end of the grounds to the other, but I still enjoyed the visit very much.
No long stories for me today because I’m foggy (just looking at the blooming magnolia trees outside the window make my eyes watery), but I do want to shout out to my gal K who recently interviewed me at her lovely FeatherFactor blog. Always fun to build on the sisterhood out there in the blogosphere! You can easily access her site from the link under my Blogroll to the far right of my blog’s home page.
Tags: Belgium, Beloeil, Europe, Feather Factor
Why do I always feel like a kid in a candy store when I’m in Manhattan? Perhaps it’s Lil A’s infectious sense of wonderment that’s rubbed off on me–btw, I suspect she has a future in fashion–
or perhaps it’s the fact that NYC is a perfect playground for big kids like me. For as soon as I step outside of the hotel lobby, it feels like fun is waiting to happen, no matter what time it is, no matter what I have planned or not planned. Today’s blog entry is about one such perfect Manhattan day.
So on this early Spring day with just the right amount of sun to temper a brisk wind, I take a short walk to St. Patrick’s Cathedral and catch part of a mass with a rather convoluted sermon that left me scratching my head…
Then back to Saks for a last round of shopping (who doesn’t love their express elevator to the shoe department!) and across the street to watch the skaters–love the JCrew store at this location, too…
Then it’s time for a really bad (and by bad I mean straight-to-the-derriere-good) veggie burger at the Shake Shack. No photographic evidence here of artery-clogging deliciousness. But in my defense I opt out of using transportation and walk the rest of the day. It’s really the best way to see the city anyway…
If NYC is your home, you can probably tell I’ve covered some grounds on foot from these pictures. I finally do get a break and rest my legs, however, when I make it to Broadway to catch a thrilling performance of American Idiot at the St. James Theater:
If you are a Green Day fan or just want to hear some great music, go see this show. It’s funny, bittersweet and moving all at the same time. It’s money well spent. After the show, with 21 Guns still ringing in my head, I go stand in one of the busiest intersections in the world and just soak it all in…
Listening to sounds in Times Square is like walking through a living dictionary because here you can hear all kinds of languages all around you.
From here it’s down to the bohemian Greenwich Village for dinner. Now I’m not really a foodie but I am a fan of reality TV, so if travel happens to bring me to one of the restaurants run by past winners of the show Top Chef, that’s just bonus.
Tonight I’m at Perilla, 9 Jones Street (between West 4 and Bleecker Sts.), Chef Harold Dieterle’s cozy place, and I’m glad I’ve brought my appetite. The food is exquisite.
And the night’s still young…
Tags: American Idiot, Green Day, Greenwich Village, Harold Dieterle, Manhattan, Perilla, Saks, Shake Shack, St. Patrick, Times Square
