Thank you to all of you for such warm wishes and kind words about our wedding. We really did have the best day. And Paris was amazing! I won't blog about our honeymoon exhaustively because, you know, other people's holiday photos. Also, I have lots of unblogged projects and adventures to catch you up on. I'm good like that. But I mean obviously I am also going to tell you a bit about Paris because we had an amazing time and took millions of photos.
The Eiffel Tower, seen from the top of the hill at Montmartre. This is as close as we got to the tower, I'm afraid.
So, we had 11 days in Paris, and had a total blast. We were staying in the same cute little studio apartment in Montmartre that we stayed in last year. This was great because it meant we knew exactly what to expect from the apartment and we knew the area. Also the apartment owner, Rafet, had treated us so kindly when we stayed last year we wanted to give him the repeat business.
Our street
We didn't do many of the cultural or especially tourist things in Paris, I must admit. Most of our time was spent exploring the 18th arrondissement and everywhere that was within walking distance of our apartment. We walked so much that Nic knackered his ankle, and I made my toes go numb, but it was good because I guess it balanced out all of the bread, champagne and pastries. Just wandering the streets made me feel so happy. One of our favourite walks was down the Boulevard Magenta to the Canal Saint-Martin, with occasional rambles further to the Marais district.
One of the many pretty bridges over the canal
I really loved this area. The canal was really beautiful - especially on a sunny day when its banks were lined with people eating lunch, drawing or just socialising. There were also lots of very cool bars, cafes and shops on the nearby streets. It was just a very beautiful and restful place to be, especially on a hot day.
Ice cream on a sunny day in Paris. This was a happy moment in my life, I must admit.
One of the places that we kept going back to was an awesome bar/cafe/community centre called Le Comptoir Général, on Quai des Jemmapes. Nic had read a review of it that described it as being 'Holy Fuckballs Amazing' and, you know what? It totally was. I want to go back for one of the evening events next year, but this time around we were happy to visit in the daytime for lunch and coffee.
Inside Le Comptoir Général
The other excellent place we found for lunch was Pink Flamingo, on Rue Bichat. You can eat in the restaurant or you can have your pizza delivered to you at the canal. They give you a pink helium balloon to help the delivery guy find you. The pizza is pretty good - not quite as good as the pizza from Trattoria Pulcinella on Rue Eugène Sue - but good. You can get an 8-cheese pizza named after Eric Cantona, which obviously Nic ordered.
Pizza tracker! His face was even happier after he'd eaten his pizza.
As the area was so scenic and the weather so beautiful, I thought it'd be a good place to photograph a newly minted dress. This is one that I cobbled together some time to sew during May because I wanted to wear it on honeymoon.
The Frog Princess dress, Swedish hasbeens 'Ornament' sandals and yellow Zatchels satchel from Berylune
Yeah, it's another By Hand London Flora dress with a circle skirt. I loved wearing my wedding dress so much that I wanted to make another version. The fabric is the floatiest, softest, most delightful cotton voile from The Village Haberdashery. Back at the start of May, I ordered some Moda cotton from them and Annie very kindly surprised me with a gift of a couple of metres of this voile, saying she thought it would make a pretty Flora dress. It was the sweetest and most thoughtful gift, and most unexpected. I was so touched by it that it made me cry, and I really love the resulting dress. It was the perfect dress to wear on what turned out to be a really hot day in which we did a lot of walking.
When the fabric arrived, I thought I may have to underline it or line the skirt as it's so light - but thankfully it's not at all sheer. So on this dress, as with my wedding dress, only the bodice is lined. Admittedly, the dress probably looks better with higher heels than these low-heeled clogs, but I knew I'd be doing a lot of walking!
A little close-up of my massive face, so you can see the pretty print on the fabric. Looking at this photo, I might need to take a tiny bit more width out of the neckline again but, you know, shit happens.
This is the goofiest picture of me I've ever put on the internet. Wevs. Now you can see the skirt in partial glory. Kind of. But I think the big silly grin on my face shows you how happy I am with my dress. Anyway, I did lots of fabric shopping in Paris and I have a couple of really cool lengths of fabric that are basically crying out to be made into a Flora bodice/circle skirt combination.
So that's my Frog Princess dress. I even managed to avoid getting pizza on it, which was a bit of a triumph for me, especially considering I was eating it on a wall next to the canal. Hurrah! I'm going to leave you with a few more pictures of the Canal Saint-Martin area and I'll be back later in the week. Bon soir, mes amies!
One of the locks along the canal. There are a number of these, leading right down to where the canal goes underground - from Rue du Faubourg du Temple to Bastille. One one of our visits, we watched a barge navigate the locks right until it went underground. It was really cool.
Nic on one of the bridges over the canal. Do you see the locks on the bridge? NONE OF THEM ARE OURS. While we were in Paris, part of the Pont des Arts collapsed under the weight of those tacky things. Not our style.
While we were standing on this bridge, a very sweet man offered to take our photo. I mean, he could have been angling to do a runner with the camera, but the risk paid off. I think this is a pretty cute photo.
This is how I spent most of our holiday. Just straight chilling. It was TRES BIEN.
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