Paris

How I love visiting Paris. Bruce and I were lucky enough to go for our birthdays last weekend and we couldn't have picked a better weekend weather wise.
It is such an inspirational city and there is always so much to see and do.
We marvelled at the sculptures and paintings in The Louvre,enjoyed wandering around the streets, looking at various cathedrals and shops, enjoying the more chilled pace of life compared to London. We were lucky enough to eat an excellent meal at one of Paris's best restaurants Guy Savoy,and were introduced to him at the end of the meal.
Thought i'd post a few pictures of our trip.

Art Nouveau decoration
As soon as you get off the metro you can still see some of the original Art Nouveau decoration at various metro stops around the city, including Pigalle which really is an up and coming place now compared to when I visited as an art student quite a few years back.




Blossom

I have noticed some stunning blossoms this spring and liked this shot by Notre Dame Cathedral with the pink bike under the pink tree and a wedding couple having pictures taken on the left hand side.




Papier Mache Owl
Thought this was very cute in the window of a shop in Montmartre.



We stayed in a pretty cool boutique hotel in Pigalle and this Chanel plastic ornament was on the table in the room. Not sure what I think of her?



Shops and Displays.
Paris is renowned for it's shopping and I love to come and take inspiration from these places.
It is so lovely to see all kinds of small specialist shops next door to each other in streets, a sight that you do not really see much in the UK now which seem to be filled with various Supermarket/ large chains. The Parisians obviously take pride in their shops and some of the displays were so inventive.

The picture below was just some bakery that I walked past that had beautiful colourful candleabras hanging from the ceiling.



It was worth visiting Bonton, a children's shop at 5 boulevard des Filles du Calvaire in the Marais - Bon Ton is an amazing concept store with a cafe, homewares, toys and clothing - the clothes were beautifully displayed but unfortunately you cannot see much from this photo.





I liked the eye catching vibrant garden display in the window of Olivier Desforges.



Bon Marche.

I enjoyed looking around the oldest Department store in Paris and made a beeline for the Children's Dept.
I love some of the new prints from Stella McCartney seen below on a dress and raincoat.







We thought this kangaroo display was great- very eye catching.
We noticed a definite trend for the Union Jack which we kept spotting all over Paris on all kinds of clothing and homewares, and even on one of these Kangaroos!