fill in the blank friday

The weekend is here again! We have lots of plans tomorrow and no plans on Sunday. I foresee a nap in my future. I took one today and it was delightful. Midnight premieres are hard on my feeble body. In fact, I think I'll take another nap.



1. My favorite color is purple. Oprah fun fact: green is her favorite color not purple.

2. My home decor color palette includes a lot of reds, greens, browns, and black.

3. Other people always tell me I look good in the color navy and green. This works out well because I own lots of navy clothing.

4. The color I detest is chartreuse. Now that is a horrible color that no one looks good in. Except for the Lucky Charms Leprechaun.

5. If you were to look in my closet most of the colors you'd see would be white and black with a few pops of color. I don't think I will ever own enough black clothing.

6. A color that I simply cannot pull off no matter how hard I try is orange. Maybe it's because I am not a huge fan of the color. It is going to be a hard summer since tangerine is the color of the season.

7. The color of my favorite dress is my black dress from Sandro that I got in Paris. I love that dress more than words.

Wrapping it up

It has been way to long since my last post. Daniel and I have both been busy at work. The month of June is shaping up to be super busy. We both had bachelor/bachelorette parties last weekend, two weddings to attend the next two weekends, Relay for Life and hopefully a lake trip coming up. Plus, we decided to go to Miami for my birthday to visit my dad.

Anyway, I wanted to post a couple more pictures of our trip to France and wrap it up. Our last day in Paris we went on a market tour. Next time we are there I will definitely be returning to the markets. You can get everything there. Seriously, you could buy dinner, socks, clothes and anything else you can think of. It was such a cool experience.

We got lunch from one of the stands on Rue Cler. We bought a rotisserie chicken and got to try potato gratin. It was something I would definitely recommend.

The rest of the day was spent shopping and trying to see the last couple of sights we had missed via on the bus tour.



For dinner we went to an amazing restaurant that specializes in duck. Daniel and I are not the most adventurous eaters, but we really tried to go out of our comfort zone on this trip. I had tried duck confit when we first go to Paris and loved it and was excited to try the best in the city.



Au Petit Sud Ouest's menu consists of duck, duck and more duck. A husband and wife run the restaurant and speak great English. It was one of the best meals we ate while we were there. I could write a whole blog about how amazing the potatoes were. Best ever. It was the perfect way to end our trip.

So, if you ever have a chance to go to Paris, GO! Don't let all of the negative stereotypes deter you. Everyone was nice and I would go back for sure.



And this is what we came to. The dogs were very happy that we were home.

A few of my favorite things

We are almost at the end of my Paris blogs. Hopefully, they aren't super boring.

Our second to last day in Paris was spent shopping. It was my favorite day. Before we shopped, we finally got to go up the Eiffel Tower. I definitely, 100% recommend booking online if you are want to get tickets in a reasonable time. We were given that advice before we went and I am so glad we took it.





I'm so glad that we do go up the Eiffel Tower. It was such an amazing experience to see Paris from above and definitely something we can cross off our bucket lists.

After we finished at the tower, we did a bus tour and made our way towards the Champs Elysees. I was a woman on a mission. When we decided to go to Paris last November, I started thinking about what my one big souvenir would be. I felt like there was one thing that came to mind when thinking about Paris, Chanel. So, I decided to start saving my money so I could leave France with THE name in French fashion.

We made our way to 31 rue de Cambon, which is where the original Chanel store is located and Coco Chanel had an apartment above the store. I knew exactly which handbag I wanted, but unfortunately they didn't have it at that store. The good news is there was another Chanel store a couple blocks away, so we headed to that store.



As soon as we got to the next Chanel store, I saw my bag. After talking to a sales associate I found out that it had been placed no hold. However, our sales associate was an angel from heaven and made a few calls and located the bag at another Chanel store. She went and got it for me and I finally had my dream bag.



I love love love my bag and do not regret purchasing it all. I have never been a big collector, but I love handbags. No matter how much weight you gain, a handbag always fits. I feel very thankful that I am able to purchase such a classic bag and I love my husband for not questioning me and letting me buy it.

We went to H&M and Zara and ate croque monsieurs at a sidewalk cafe. It was a very Paris day. We decided to go back to the Marais because I had seen a couple stores I wanted to go back to.

It was at one of those store, Sandro, that I bought another one of my favorite things. I got the cutest dress ever, but I did a little miscalculation with the exchange rate and paid a lot more for it than I would have. So if you see me this summer, don't be surprised if I am wearing this dress. I have to get my money's worth.



My last favorite purchase was my fascinator. I have embraced the British trend and I think it makes occasions much more special to have a fun hat. We were at a market and there happened to be a stand where they were selling clothes and accessories. I saw this fascinator and had to have it.



Finally, I have to mention where we ate dinner that night. Paris Perfect, our apartment company, recommended La Taverna and I read good things about it on Trip Advisor (which is where the picture of the restaurant is from). We had tried to eat there two previous nights, but the first night we couldn't find it and the next it was closed.




We were both very glad that we persevered and went back. The food was amazing. I had gnocchi and Daniel had rabbit. The restaurant is owned by a husband and wife. He cooks and she is the waitress. I always think it's a good sign when the majority of the people in a restaurant actually live in that city. I would recommend going if you're ever in Paris.

The Louvre

While we were in Paris we had to go to the Louvre. We decided to hire a private guide. It was a little expensive, but totally worth it. We got to cut the long long long line and she gave us the highlights. They say it would take 3 years to see everything in the Louvre. We had three hours.

The pyramid entrance.


A replica of the original castle and the walls they discovered while excavating.


Some of the architectural details.


Statues including the Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory of Samothrace.


My favorite statue - Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss


The very best part of the Louvre was all of the paintings. I loved art history in school.


And even more paintings.


The painting.



In order to get close enough to the Mona Lisa, you had to enter a Rage Against the Machine-esque mosh pit. It was scary.

After we finished at the Louvre, we ate lunch in the Palais-Royal. No wonder people say the French don't like Americans. Their Palais-Royal is a beautiful garden with high-end stores and apartments. Our Palais Royal is a cheap discount store.




There was a fashion shoot going on while we were there. It was neither anyone famous nor a past winner of America's Next Top Model, so I lost interest pretty quickly.

We then went on a French Revolution walk and learned more about what led to the revolution. It was pretty interesting, but I chose the absolute wrong thing to wear. Jeans + black t-shirt + ballet flats is not appropriate for a three mile walk. I felt like I was on the Bataan Death March.




One of the highlights of the tour was getting to see the cafe where John Galliano let a whole bunch of Jewish slurs loose and ruined his career. Not good.




I really liked the Marais area of Paris or as I call it the Mar-Hey Girl Hey! since it is the gay district. There was some really good shopping and my favorite store, Sandro, was there.

Oh, and we learned how to use the metro. It wasn't scary at all and was the best way to get around. I wish we would have tried to figure it out earlier in our trip.

Easter in Paris

Getting to spend Easter in Paris was an experience. The city pretty much shuts down for two days, but there are thousands of people in town for their holidays.

We decided to take a tour of the Seine and go to Notre Dame. Our schedule was full for the next three days, so it was nice to have a day to relax.

The Eiffel Tower is more beautiful in person than it is in pictures. Pictures really don't do it justice. We had tickets to go up in the tower, but due to our crazy way of getting to France we missed our reservation. After walking around the tower and seeing the line, really there were three lines with hundreds of people in each, we decided to try and get reservations again.



Then we decided to go on a cruise down the Seine. It was nice to see Paris from a different prespective, but it was super cold. We did get to see all the beautiful bridges. The French don't do anything half-ass.



We got to walk through Notre Dame. It was a little odd because there was an Easter Mass going on while we were there and the priest just kept on going. I can't imagine being at church and having tons of people walking around taking pictures. Odd.



We did get to see a beautiful carving representing the ressurection of Christ. It seemed pretty fitting for the day.



That was pretty much our Easter. It was nice to take it easy after going for two days straight.

We're back!

We are back from our trip to Paris! It was SO much fun and we really fell in love with France. They people are so much nicer than we have all been led to believe!

I am going to chronicle each day on our blog, so people that want all the details and to know what we did (and ate) can have that information.

Day 1 started off very eventfully. We were scheduled to have 43 minutes to make our connection from Amarillo to Houston. I woke up at 5 am that morning panicked because I had a feeling we were going to miss our flight. Guess what? We missed our flight. The plane was pushing back as we got to the gate.

The gate agents arranged new flights for us and we flew to London then Frankfurt and finally Paris. The silver lining was that the first class seats on the flight to London laid completely flat. It was the best slept I have ever gotten on an airplane. Plus, we got to be in London and experience a little of the royal wedding craziness.

By the time we got to Paris, we were exhausted. We checked in at our apartment as soon as we got there. If you are going to be in Paris for more than a couple days, I totally recommend an apartment. They are way bigger than the hotel rooms and usually have better locations. We stayed 2 blocks off of the Champ de Mars and right across from the Rue Cler.

The best part of the apartment was the AMAZING view of the Eiffel Tower. It was so surreal to watch the news in the morning and look out the window at the tower.

For dinner we ate at Le Florimond and it was delicious. I tried duck confit for the first time and really enjoyed it. Maybe that had something to do with the fact that it was fried. The owner explained the menu to us and answered our questions, which was a relief since neither of us speak much French.

All in all, it was a great first day in Paris! I'll blog more about the other fun stuff we did later this week!

Bon Voyage!

We are leaving for Paris tomorrow! We are going to spend a week seeing all the capital of France has to offer and, if I have my way, eating pain au chocolat at every meal.

I will blog every dirty detail once we get back and post loads of pictures, that is after I submerge myself in the royal wedding coverage. I still haven't convinced Daniel that we should take the Chunnel to London and join the festivites. We'll see if I can wear him down.