notting hill

this is me

Hyde Park

this boy was too cute, he was running after the squirrels trying to take photos. and the dad was trying to get photos of his son and the squirrels, so i decided to get a photo of all of them.

lovely ay?

hellos. i'm back from "londres." i love that city, oh yeah and vanilla latte exists there!! i haven't had those since...hm.....i got here...? either way, it feels like a long time ago.
oh and before i forget, THANKS AGAIN ESTHER!!!!! (i know you this is in your favorite)

Sunday morning- on my way into the city from Heathrow

I woke up super early on sunday to catch my flight to London. I walked passed a "blacked out" Notre-Dame to go to the train/rer station to go to the airport, guess Quasimodo wasn't even up yet. My hard work paid off though, I was in central London by 10am.

Day 2

Covent Garden+Apple Market

Paul Smith (Covent Garden), its a string of store fronts- from shoes to Men's to Women's, there are usually different themes for each window. another was filled with some kind of inflated plastic neon-coloured snakes (now i wish i had taken photos of them). i definitely liked the bikes the most.

South Kensington tube stop- Victoria&Albert Museum
My third favorite museum (trailing after the Met and Louvre)

coinkidinks: I was in London during its fashion week, 25th anniversary too!
young street fashion probably doesn't get any better than London. the whole atmosphere is just very different from Paris. these people obviously could care less about what others think of their outfits/choice of clothing. no rules what so ever. the fashion week main tent is in the Natural History Museum which is right next to V&A. unfortunately I was only around that area during lunch break so not many people were around. still, i saw some crazily dressed people just walking on the streets, especially since i didn't take the underground most of the time.

more fabulous windows from Harvey Nichols
and perhaps one of the best crumble i've ever had (daylesford organic 5th fl, harvey nichols). pear and....sunflower seeds/oats/nuts(?). I don't really know what's in it, i just know its tasty and healthy. i also love the freshly sqeezed kiwi juice (yep so much that i ordered 2)
after snack time, i walked a long...long way (form Knightsbridge back to Bloomsbury)

to be continued...

london here i come!

I'm officially on SPRINGBREAK!! (unfortunately, it doesn't feel quite spring yet.)
anyhow, I'm off to the land of topshop and fish&chips tomorrow morning. i will be back on wednesday. in the mean time, entertain your beautiful selves with the one long entry i just posted or the blogs i follow. i promise i'll come back with more than enough photos and random stories.


love, char

a day in the 16th

today, i visited the girls (Ellie&Remy) in their territory- the 16th arrodissement. they brought me to a comtemporary italian restaurant right by victor hugo and the tomato+mushroom rigatoni was delicious. once again, i ate it before i thought of taking photos.
after lunch, we set out on a walk to Palais Tokyo for some modern art. on our way, we passed Place des Etats-Unis and Ellie decided it was time for an impromtu photoshoot. so finally, we now have photo evidences for our families that we are all still very much alive.

(guest photographer: Ellie)

Palais de Tokyo...hm...story of the day. Oh, "modern art"...
my head is still buzzing from this tres bizarre exhibit. its hard to explain and also the fact that that one display probably killed a lot of my brain cells makes it even harder for me to explain.
so we had to turn off all our phones (5 between the 3 of us!) and cameras before entering this "danger" zone. basically, i voluntarily walked onto a platform and let tons and tons of anions flow through my body. immediately, i felt something with my hair, then it got to my scalp and thats when i ran off the display stage. it is one of the weirdest thing i've ever experienced. like Ellie said, we probably all have cancer now.



the rest of the afternoon went on as we discussed how disorientated we were while sitting in the most under-staffed cafe ever- Cafe du Trocadero. stay away from that place or be like us and feel terrible as we watch that one waiter run around the cafe and take care of 20 tables by himself.

just another day

Descartes is a crazy fool- that's all i have to say. i don't think i can ever understand his drive to make himself stupid first then spend days questioning everything. sorry, but living in the moment is so much better. still, i spent my night writing about his "meditations" yesterday (homework is still a part of my parisian life, bummer) and i'm still recovering from the emotional tiredness at this moment.
anyhow, apart from the lack of energy, i had a great day!! i got to my architecture walk on time, i finally went into the jardin de luxembourg, AND the sun came out again, hooray!! now, lets just hope it stays like this for the next couple of weeks. i also hung out at Le Rostand-a cafe that Francoise introduced to me last weekend. thats right, i met up with Francoise here in PAREE!! she was so excited to take me there but sadly, we ended up going to another cafe because it was packed. so after soaking up the sun in luxembourg garden today, i went back hoping there would be seats. the coffee and crepe were very satisfying indeed.

St-Gervais-St-Portais

Hotel de Beauvais
the most beautiful townhouse i've seen, Mozart stayed there when he was in paris- lucky guy
its now used as an OFFICE building, booo

St-Paul-St-Louis

jardin de luxembourg

my camera ran out of battery but its pretty much a given that i'll go back there very often in the future (when its sunny) and i'll take more photos then.

alright, i'm off to write postcards to all these people i miss very very much.

no love from Louvre

ugh...back to winter weather. il fait TRES FROID.
i needed to go to Louvre to draw for my art class but totally forgot its closed on tuesdays, not mondays as i've always thought. lesson learned. so what to do? bored but determined to stay out, Remy and i decided to take a walk, where else? the Tuileries garden. there's just something magical about that place- i guess its the serenity. i can't wait till the sun comes out so we can hang out by the fountains/pools of water.

speaking of those pools, we saw some actions going on there this afternoon.