Paris J'taime Vol.1

Photography and design by me

Hi guys, Sydney has been really cold and wet, hope you guys are feeling strong, unlike me, I've trapped with all kind of sickness since I got back from Europe. Yes, I visited Paris and Croatia about one and half month ago,and the price was a massive jet lag and endless sickness. But I have to say it's all worthy! I generally have no extra energy to write down the details when I travel, just keep going and walking and filling every thing we can do into the schedule.

Somehow, the dream doesn't always go as the way you think it would be. You know why? Because Qantas airway lost our luggage. Can you believe such a big enterprise, Qantas can still cause us traveling without our baggage for 17days? Oh, well I will probably write this part in Vol.2, there are just so much about Europe and once I started I couldn't stop, hahah!

Since this blog is nothing like Lonely Planet, it's just about what I think about Paris and share with you the photos that I took. Hope you would like them:)

Paris absolutely has the the privilege to overwhelm you at every corner of the streets, the historical buildings of course, the alleyways reach to one and another, the tall gates and gentle sunlights, no wonder those photographers adore Europe so much, it's so easy to take the advantage of the natural lighting and have fun searching interesting objects to shoot. In fact we actually didn't visit all the famous spot due to our lost baggage issue, the best day in Paris would be the last day that we finally gave up waiting and just let the adventure lead us to the way it should be. 

I guess this is somewhere Le Marais, great for shopping

The icon of Bastille

Coffee looks very different!

I love observing their chairs in cafes and restaurants

Tuileries Garden

Ouvre Muséum 

Montmartre has lots steps

Sacre Coeur behind

Cut to the chest, here are my top 3 places in Paris:

1. Montmartre, the reason has to trace back into the old days. I took some French courses when I was in final year of university. I watched so many French films and always dreamt about if one day I can visit there because I adore "Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain". This place has changed so much comparing to the film but Sacré-Coeur was still breathtakingly beautiful to me. There, you can also have the view of Paris, wandering in those hilly paths, and of course, meeting people in the art market, we met a portrait artist at the bar and he was really good at doing our portrait! 

2. Bastille market, every one looks so happy here, the venders were so energetically shouting and chitchating with each other, we really enjoy the experience in the market. With local produced ingredients and so many delicious dishes would make you drool( good price as well), the only struggle is just too many options in front of you! 

3. Versailles garden, what a grand garden! We were both amazed the design of the garden, you can stay in that garden all day long, just get a bike cruising around, or go on a picnic, rowing a boat and be romantic and so on. And I firstly saw a swan started its flight upon the damp, it certainly wooed me.

Even we had to stay 2 days waiting for lost luggage delivery in the apartment, we still managed to visit some beautiful places in Paris(just a bit short ), we experienced Moulin Rouge, fancy Le Maurice near the Tuileries garden(luckily Louvre was near by or we might miss it as well ), Eiffel tower dinner, river Seine cruise ( thanks god we did this tour, otherwise Qantas's mistake made us miss all the famous spots, and this tour basically tamed my hatred not seeing all the places that I want to see).

It's just so much you can do in this city and I absolutely adore this city, I will stop for now and wish yo guys happy hump day today!

xxx Aka

Hello August

Hi guys, it's August already(again!). Thought I would upload tons of travel photos of Europe that I took   from my holidays but I guess you always need to save the room for unexpected things.  So a quick review about my July:

Came back from Europe with severe jet lag, well, Australia is winter so from lots sun to a little bit sun was big difference to me. But the memory in Europe is too beautiful to regret. Je ne regrette rien. I regret nothing. Even I got horrible cold and stomach problem for 3 weeks. Still, no regret. Maybe I hate my productivity a little. Hahah

Panicked about lots things to organise. Wedding, future, visa and so on. But I have finally leant to choose my priorities in life. I am always greedy, and expect myself multitasking like so many people who I admire. Sometimes you just need to slap your face, both side and hard and then bloody wake up to the reality. It's actually not as hard as I thought it would be, making priority list helped heaps. So if you are like me, want to finish so many things at the same time but end up only achieve partially on each task, this is my suggestion, make a list and try to stick with it. Once you start to stroke out a couple tasks on the list, you will feel so much better and chasing the rest of tasks without procrastination will not be too hard. 

Had some thoughts about my life, good or bad, it's a certain path to grow up I think. Look at myself in the mirror and tell myself what I really want in life, be strong, be brave and have fun.

Highlight of the month would be my snowboarding weekend away, it included lots of pain and chill air and silver white snow, and I absolutely love it. I remember the first time that Andrew took me to the snow, which wasn't a very good snowy winter in Sydney, the snow was really icy and I had so much tears because I hurt myself a lot. I constantly question myself why I like snowboarding, it's so painful since I am still a beginner and my balance is awful and it took my learning curve not so smoothy. But every fall made me less scared about falling, I stand up and try again till I finally have a click. Every single time I finally achieve a turn or run then I am over the moon. It's that simple, and this trip, I finally can do the zigzaging without freaking out. And I slowly feel better about my fear against height. I am on top of the world:) 

So as usual, I made a desktop calendar to kickstart the new month. Download it by clicking the image and enjoy the new adventure. Live a little, Life is bloody beautiful.

Have a good weekend as well guys!

xxx Aka