Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Since it's raining...

Who would like to stay inside and play make-believe?


Today I would like to be a pirate on a fainting couch.
I would also like to finish up my little sister's birthday present (you guys can see it tomorrow or the beginning of next week, promise), so I have a feeling being a make-pirate will have to wait until at least the weekend.
Tomorrow my darling sister is twelve!
Have a lovely Thursday, everyone
(photo from Design*Sponge)

Wednesdays are Sleeping-In Days

At Ursula's school, the kids have Wednesday off, which meant that we all kind of slept in today - not a bad day to sleep in given that it's cold and grey outside.  I have thus far spent the day reading Infinite Jest and making espresso in an attempt to show my father that I should get the machine when I go off to college and we return home to the trusty French Press machine that makes more than a half-cup of coffee at a time.  Seriously, in a house where three people drink coffee, the espresso machine is a little small.
Anyways, how about a ridiculously light-filled room to wake everyone else up?  It's like seven on the East Coast, right?  Here you are...

Amazing, right?  Seriously, if I lived here I would never leave my room and survive on books and Lapsang Souchong for the rest of my days.
At home, I have a skylight above my bed, but nothing like this, and I have to say that it's way harder to wake up without it.  There was something about the light in my room that just made it easier to get out of bed, and while we have a window in our room here in Paris, we keep the curtains closed at night, which rather hinders the flow of natural light...
Anyways, have a lovely Wednesday morning!
(photo from Apartment Therapy)

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Sailboats

My brother and I want to get my little sister the same thing for her birthday: a model sailboat that she can sail on the pond in the Jardin du Luxembourg.  I think I'll get to - he has class tomorrow morning, and I don't, but here are the reasons I should:
1) I have it planned out.  How I will modify and perfect the boat, and that is very very important.
2) I actually know how to sail.
3) I like boats better (this one is very true)
4) I'll be at the shop the moment it opens.
I love you, Caleb!

UPDATE:
We may split getting her the sailboat.  Model sailboats in France are expensive!

Rose Cake

Friday is my darling baby sister's twelfth birthday (twelve!  Ursula will be twelve!), so for the rest of the week, this will probably be devoted to 1) Ursula and 2) Birthday plans.  I'm sorry if you don't like either of those things (um, what?), but it's my baby sister who is worried about having her birthday away from all of her friends and in a foreign country where she doesn't speak the language so guess what she gets whatever she wants.
In the past, I have been in charge of the cake.  Not the baking part - I can make decent bread pudding and that's about it - but the decorating part.  In the past we have had a tree cake, a monkey cake, and a cake with lambs on it.  I don't really know what I'm doing when it comes to decorating these things - I just kind of approximate a lamb - but I enjoy it, and this year, since she has not specified (even if she has, this is what's going to happen), I get to do what I like.
A little while back, the extremely talented woman behind I Am Baker posted a design for a Rose Cake, and I fell in love.
Ursula wants the inside to be "regular chocolate," and that's fine with me, because I can't do normal layers, let alone vertical layers.  But I think I can do flowers, so that's what's going to happen.  Beautiful, right?  I thought it was so sophisticated and sweet for a very special twelfth birthday for my darling girl.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Sharing A Room


At home I have my own room, but here in Paris (and last summer in Switzerland), my sister and I share a bedroom.  In Switzerland, it got a little cramped - I couldn't stand up in the room, there was only one bed, and Ursula has a tendency to roll and sprawl... it's kind of cute sometimes, actually.  Here, it's much better - there are high ceilings and two beds and enough room so that if we want to be closer it's a decision we can make, not something forced on us.  The only problem is that we're both not the cleanest people.
Our brother makes his bed every morning before school (even here), and I seriously don't know how that happens.  Sometimes I can barely put my clothes away... and neither can Urs, so our room is a bit of a disaster area, but you know.  We're both okay with it this way for now.  My parents keep joking that I will be the worst college roommate ever, but to my future roommate: I promise I'll be better and clean up and make my bed and not leave shoes lying in the middle of the room.  I also won't let the alarm clock ring for hours and wake you up while not getting up myself, like Kuzu's roommate did for a while.... Don't worry!  I'll be good!

(I believe that the photo above is from Design Sponge or Apartment Therapy, but I'm not entirely sure!  I'm sorry!  If anyone knows where the photo came from, any help would be appreciated!)

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Wanderlust: Australia Edition

Who would like to go to Australia?  When I think of Australia I think of vastness and warmth and sheep....
What about you?


Doesn't this look incredible and unexplored?


Or you could go to the coast of Victoria with these incredible rock formations that look like they're from when the earth began...


Or to ridiculously breathtaking Ayers Rock?  Where would you go?

Happy Weekend!

(photos from here, here, and here)


Friday, March 25, 2011

Plants

Now that Paris is beginning to bloom, I would love to put plants on our balcony and inside!  At home our garden is taken seriously (I think I've said this before) and in the winter our lime tree moves indoors to my room so it can still be in the sun without any snow... Anyways, I've been seeing star-shaped white clematis everywhere (it almost looks like jasmine) that I would love to put up, or maybe just become very French and have topiaries.... what do you think?  Have you guys ever grown plants on balconies?  What works well, and what doesn't?

Growing up, I called this Sweet Autumn Clematis - it grows fast and thick and would look lovely on a wrought-iron balcony, don't you think?  
(photo from here)

I'm not a huge topiary person - it looks a little too forced to me (I grew up in a rambling, English-cottage-style garden), but if you're going to do topiary, you may as well go all the way, no?
(photo from here)

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Camping



When my father was little, he was a boy scout.  I tried Brownies for like half a year but it wasn't much fun, partially because Cambridge, Massachusetts is nothing like Knoxville, Tennessee.  When my father was a boy scout, he literally had the Great Smokey Mountains in practically his backyard - he grew up hiking in there, he led a trip to Alaska, and after college he went backpacking in India with my mother and his friend Blaine (at different times).  Anyways, when we were little (and still) we would spend a week every summer camping in Acadia National Park.  This wasn't serious camping - this was camping where you got to bring your car - but still, it was really cool.  And once or twice, we went backpacking in New Hampshire at this place called Unknown Pond.
When I was thirteen, my mother took me with her to South Africa for about a week and a half, and on the way back we stopped through Kenya, where my grandparents were.  The four of us had some pretty great adventures in the Rift Valley with Maasai families my mother had known since childhood, and then, at the end of the trip, my grandparents surprised us and told us we were going to Little Governers Camp in the Maasai Mara for two or three days.  That trip in the Mara was incredible - my family drove through and camped there again when I was fifteen on our way to Rwanda - and we stayed in huge platform tents beside a river where you could see the animals come to drink.  Seriously, we would be having lunch and there would be a lion across the river from us, just drinking some water.  It was incredible.
My family has some lightweight, nylon, backpacking tents that we take with us to Acadia and to New Hampshire and that we slept in when we all went to Africa, but sometimes this is what I think of when I think of tents....

(Okay, that one doesn't really count given that it's inside...)

(so is this one)

(and this one is more of a covered porch, but still)

All photos from Apartment Therapy

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Cafés

For the past few days I've been working on finding my café, because let's face it, working in the apartment in the morning and going to school in the afternoons doesn't really mean you're meeting lots of French people, and it would be nice to meet some.  French people, I mean.
The first café I tried was in a little corner tucked behind the Panthéon, near the place where I registered for classes and one of the campuses of the College de France.  This might actually stay "my café" because the coffee is excellent, I like the way it looks on the inside (I am very superficial), they have extension cords just in case, I can read in relative peace, and people question my nationality there.  On the other hand, while there are occasionally students (people my age), it's not like there are a ton.
The Café Soufflot was the next café I tried, on Rue Soufflot heading straight up to the Panthéon.  It's a pretty busy street, but I had seen tons of people there studying and stuff, so I decided to give it a whirl.  The coffee isn't great, but twice as expensive.  I'm sorry, but I'm not going to pay like ten dollars for a café crème, ever.
There are plenty more cafés scattered around Paris - around the Quartier Latin and Raspail, especially - so the search continues!  Do any of you have any that you'd recommend?

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Tuesday Mornings Are Better Here

How about this dreamy safari from Marie Claire?  I'm not sure it even counts as that, but this is where I would like to live in the warmer months.....









Okay, sometimes my fantasies are unrealistic, but I figured we knew that already.  Besides, isn't this somewhat peaceful for your Tuesday?
Photos from Marie Claire Maison.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Hair and Nationality

This is a conversation that I had with a guy from the British Isles today in a cafe:

Guy: "Where are you from?"
Me: "Boston"
Guy: "Boston, America?"
Me: "Yes."
Guy: "No, you're not.  You can't be American."
Me: "Oh?"
Guy: "Americans don't have hair that colour."
Me: "Have you been to America?"
Guy: "Yes."
Me: "And you didn't see anyone with hair this colour?"
Guy: "No, I didn't!  Where are you from, really?  Scotland?"
Me: "No.  I'm from Boston."
Guy: (turns to his friend) "You're American - does she look American?"
Friend: "No."
Guy: "See?  He's American.  You can't be American."
Me: "But I am."

He bought me coffee afterwards, presumably to make up for the scene he caused regarding my nationality in a tiny cafe while I was trying to read.... so far, today has been odd.

Espresso Maker

Recently, tired of spending tons of money on coffee every day, we invested in a little stovetop espresso maker, one of these guys:

Photo from here.

And, seriously, it's my favourite thing.  I love that it just goes on the stovetop, which means that you don't need to figure out the whole filters thing (I can barely make coffee in a French press, okay?), I love that it's elegant and little and a pretty ingenious design, and I love that it makes just enough coffee for my parents and me, who are the only coffee drinkers in the house.
Since we have a fancier coffee thing at home, I'm campaigning for the espresso maker to take with me to college.  I think it would be nice, anyways....
Also, my weekend was filled with a trip to Belleville to buy za'atar and sumac and orange-flower water, a trip to Shakespeare and Company to buy Infinite Jest (well, I bought Infinite Jest, not really sure that that was why we went), and a jazz performance on Sunday by our friend Jobic in a beautiful building in the sixth.... how was yours?

Friday, March 18, 2011

Wanderlust: Madagascar Edition

I find the very idea of Madagascar fascinating.  Maybe because it's an island and Africa at once, maybe because it seems isolated and ridiculously cool, maybe because in about seventh grade I had a crush on this guy Rafe at sleep-away camp who said that he was born in a kayak off the coast of Madagascar... but anyways, would you like to go?


You could go here and watch the clouds over the sea....


Or walk on beaches with caves overlooking turquoise waters...


Or hike through sunken forests like this one.

Would you like to go to Madagascar?  Have you actually been there?  If so, what was it like?  Let me know, and have a lovely weekend!

(Photo credits from here, here, and here)

Today

My darling sister broke her left arm while riding on her unicycle...  Despite the broken limb, she seems proud of the cast.
Feel better, Ursula!

Crawling into Books

Sometimes I want to crawl into certain books (sometimes the ones that are heartbreaking, sometimes the ones with beautiful houses) and never come out.  I want to visit Edgewood of John Crowley's "Little, Big" - the house that is all styles all at once, Victorian and Tudor, the house that changes depending on where you look at it.  I want to visit Kerewin's Tower in "The Bone People" - I want to stand on her rocky South Island beach and look into the desolate Pacific (guys - read this book.  I'm not even kidding).  I want to visit the Stamper's home, determination keeping it alive against the river in "Sometimes A Great Notion" and to Never Give an Inch (if you don't understand the reference, go read the book).
And then there are days that I want to live in Rohan/the highlands of the South Island or Narnia or visit the talking flowers in Through the Looking Glass.  I want to live in Charlotte Brontë's wuthering moors and at Manderley in the Happy Valley and among the sinister rhododendrons.  I want to live on the farm in The Grass is Singing and in Lawrence Durell's Alexandria where the stones gleam in the morning with fish scales and rain.
What are the books or worlds you'd like to live in?

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Seriously, guys

All of you should go read this piece on the gacaca from Texas in Africa.  What do you think - are they right?  I think maybe that's true - that there will be tons of resentment from the Hutu population and, ultimately, that's a really bad thing for reconciliation (well, obviously).  Isn't resentment what kind of led to the genocide?  Please, please tell me what you think!
Love,
Bronwyn

Paris picnic

Yesterday my friends from classes at the Sorbonne and I went and had a picnic on the Champs de Mars underneath next to the Eiffel Tower, celebrating the first real flush of spring.  I'm pretty sure I got sunburned (that never, ever happens in March!) so next time I'll have to remember sunscreen!
I felt a little like a tourist, but mostly just really cool and excited.... the best part is that we plan on picnicking more often!
Do you guys like picnics?  What would you bring to them?  Have you ever had a picnic in Paris?  These two product roundups by Design*Sponge remind me of picnics in New England with my family (when I was very small we used to go over to the Old North Bridge but quickly changed over to Great Meadows when it turned out that everyone liked it better).  For a picnic in Paris, I would recommend strawberries (we had some) and champagne (we didn't) or homemade salsa and crisps?  What do you think?

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Happy Birthday, Mike!

Today one of my best friends turns nineteen.  Or, in his words, "It's true!  Tomorrow I will be 1 day older than I am today.  OH MAN."  (he said that yesterday)
But even if he doesn't care, I do!  Yay, Mike!  You're nineteen and old now and I miss you like crazy.
Thank you for, oh, Christ, everything.  For helping me with math and chemistry, for letting me sleep on your shoulder when we used to take the eleven-oh-six train back from Concord, for letting me spend the night at your house when I had the Bio AP the next day and the train wouldn't get me to school on time, for driving me everywhere, for chocolate on my birthday (for coming to my house on my birthday!), for long late-night talks and long middle-of-the-day talks, for basically everything.  You and Sophie are basically my most important non-family people, and I'm sorry that I can't be home to come and ambush you with hugs at MIT for your birthday.  It's okay, though, because I will ambush you with both hugs and presents when I return, I promise.
In the mean time, enjoy your lovely birthday, visit your sister and then come take the train to visit me, and have a wonderful, wonderful day and so many months until I'm home.  In your immortal words, "I really care about you a lot."  <-- (means I love you but you don't have to say it)
Happy Birthday!
Love,
Bronwyn

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Ready for Spring (also, weekend)

Today Paris is overcast and a little chilly - can I just say that this is the kind of weather we have at the end of April and here they get it in mid-March?  How is that fair?  But anyways, in the Jardin du Luxembourg you can see buds on trees - some of them will be mauve-tinged white flowers and some of them will be leaves - and on Saturday we all went to the Bird and Flower Market, which I had never been to and was absolutely amazing.
You can wander the maze-like greenhouses from little shop to shop, looking at their white climbing clematis (I had thought for weeks that they were forcing jasmine, but no - it's clematis, and now I really want some for our balcony) and the ubiquitous topiaries, the birdcages hanging from the ceilings and the plastic pots of tea roses waiting to be put in the ground.  We almost bought some, and then realized that we live above a flower shop and it would take some serious effort to lug a potted clematis bigger than I am home from Ile Saint-Louis to the fourteenth.
At home, my mother takes gardening seriously.  Our front garden is a cacophony of peonies and foxglove and salvia and hollyhocks and delphiniums and roses and clematis and mock orange and a lot of other things I can't name.  There are always the plants I know and love - "Caleb's" rose, the gorgeous old-fashioned one that smells like heaven and is actually just coated in thorns, the mock orange that I spent a while persuading my parents to get, the dogwood we planted a couple years back, the anemones that live in the shade of the Norway maple, the rambling sweet autumn clematis that blooms late in the season.  That's one thing about being in Paris - I miss our garden, and that one week in Boston where all the trees bloom.  If you happen to be there for that week (I would expect it in maybe April or early May) I highly suggest a walk or a bike ride down Marlborough Street in the Back Bay.  You'll see why.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Hello Monday Morning

I'm sorry about not posting much, but all weekend and most of the week I have just been astonished by the devastation in Japan - and so soon after the Christchurch earthquake!  My heart goes out to all those affected...  Here are links to the Red Cross and MSF if you want to help.
Also if you worry about nuclear things (I wasn't alive when 3 Mile Island and Chernobyl happened, so researching them turned out to be scary and rather a surprise) you shouldn't read "On the Beach," okay?  But you should still watch "Dr Strangelove" because it's one of the most interesting films out there.
Speaking of films, my family and I were talking yesterday about how we don't watch enough movies.  Seriously, I've not seen any of the films that were Oscar-nominated this past year and since we got to Paris (about a month and a half ago) I haven't seen any films, either....  So we will start of our film-watching with either "Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain" or "The Seventh Seal."  Which would you recommend?
I hope you have a good upcoming week!

Friday, March 11, 2011

What a week

Sorry I haven't been posting much, guys!
It's just been a hell of a week with school and family and the like... I'll post more soon, promise!
Love,
Bronwyn

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

To Kill A Mockingbird

For her "English class" - the one that I'm vaguely teaching by giving her books to read and writing out the "how to write a great essay" checklist that one of my favourite high school teachers gave his classes - Ursula is reading To Kill A Mockingbird. And, as far as I can tell, she loves it.  It makes me somewhat proud that she'll stay up late reading that rather than her new Theodosia book (more on those later - they're also pretty amazing), that she was so upset that she almost cried at the end of the trial scene, and that she can look at me and say "Atticus is kind of like Daddy, you know?"  Which makes me want to go "yes, yes, yes, Atticus is kind of like Daddy, I absolutely agree," but I digress.
Have you ever read To Kill A Mockingbird?  Did you like it?  I think that at her age - eleven-almost-twelve - she's getting to it at an age where she'll understand it but it will also change the way she thinks.  I remember reading it at her age and feeling like my whole world had opened up.  Did you feel this way when you read it?  Let me know!
On an unrelated note, yesterday was an amazing day.  Not only did we make it to the Chanel show - we also watched the Barcelona-Arsenal game and Barcelona won!

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Chanel

This morning my siblings and I got all dressed up and went over to the Grand Palais for the Chanel show.  We didn't get to go in, but even outside, it's quite a scene!  People (yes, we were doing this too) just stand around and wait to be photographed.  It works surprisingly well.....
Caleb got a picture of Grace Coddington and Ursula and I had our pictures taken.
Have you ever been to a fashion show?  Have you ever stood outside one?  What was it like?

Monday, March 7, 2011

Oh, Monday...

It's been kind of a slow day today (my brother made us an incredible meal last night, and I'm still recovering), but here is my exciting news.
You guys know the website The Sartorialist, right?  Well, my father is on it!  In the background, but still...

He's the chap in jeans with lots of hair (I get the hair thing from him) to the right.  Cool, yes?  Or am I overreacting?
(Photo from the sartorialist.  That's kind of obvious)

Friday, March 4, 2011

Wanderlust: Croatia Edition

I have two weeks in April off, where we actually have to leave Paris, and I really, really want to go to Croatia.  Let's take a look at it, shall we?

The Lonely Planet describes Cres as "perfect for wandering around primeval forests" and "swimming in hidden coves."  Sounds good to me!


Hidden Beaches......


Ruined Villages....

Or how about the quieter inland Plitvice Lakes?  


Looks like Middle Earth, doesn't it?


Cool walks in quiet forests.....

Have you been to Croatia?  Did you like it?  Would you like to go?  If so, where?  Happy weekend!

(pictures from here, here, here, and here)


Thursday, March 3, 2011

Ursula, again

To continue on our Ursula theme from yesterday...
from here.

What self-respecting young lady wouldn't want a circus?  Especially one who knows how to unicycle....

Movies

I have a couple of really silly movies that I absolutely adore, and those I love have often been very accommodating and let me see them more than once in their presence.
I'm not talking about the kind of movie that the whole family wants to watch (Love Actually, Casablanca, Dr Strangelove, Being There, Out of Africa) or well-made but girly movies (the six-hour-long Pride & Prejudice) or even popular geeky movies (the Lord of the Rings extended editions).  I'm talking about movies that no one else likes that I do.

We can start with the one that's least offensive to everyone else, and that's Say Anything.
(via)

I love Say Anything.  I love how the father uses the phrase "to champion mediocrity" as an insult, I love that In Your Eyes is played throughout the film, I love that Lloyd Dobbler says that his father wants him to go into the army but "I can't work for that institution."  I love that Diane Court is afraid of flying.  I love that she gives him a pen when they break up, and then gives the same pen to her father.  Oh, and I love that he serenades her plays a song on the radio outside her bedroom window.

I first want to say that I know one other person (Kuzu!) who likes this movie, but my family, my other best friend, and my ex-boyfriend have all watched this with me, and that takes endurance and true love.  There is one word for this, and it is Stardust.
This happy face on Claire Danes describes my emotion when I watch this film.  (via)

I love that Take That plays the credits song.  I love that they made a Neil Gaiman book into a movie (not Coraline, but still, Coraline was good too).  I love that the story is somewhere between geeky adventures and true love.  I love that Robert deNiro is in this film as a cross-dressing sky pirate.  I have seen this at least three or four times, and I'm not going to stop now.  Because it is excellent, and I don't care what other people say.  They still watch it with me (thank you, family and Mike and WW)

Okay, the last one is Labyrinth, and that's the one that polarizes everyone.  Because seriously, either you love David Bowie as the Goblin King or you don't.
This is one of my favourite scenes.  (via)

It's not even that, though.  You can like David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust or as a cocaine-ridden genius without liking this film.  I will be the first to admit that the film is not very well made or anything.  It's not cinematographically ground-breaking or incredible.  It's David Bowie singing songs and dressed up strangely.  Either you like this or you don't.  It's like dark chocolate - either you like it or you don't.  There isn't a lot of middle ground.  But I still adore this movie.  I saw it when I was about eleven at my friend Miriam's house and fell head-over-heels for the Goblin King and just never stopped.

So... those are the films I'm embarrassed about liking but still adore.  Do you have any movies or books or music like that?

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Ursula

It is now less than a month until my darling sister's birthday!
You remember Ursula, right?  My little sister, the firecracker?  Well, she'll turn twelve on April first (so old!), and since she has to share a room with me and put up with the alarm going off at six-thirty (as a rule, she isn't out of bed until eight-thirty at least), I figured I would post something special about her (as far as I know, she doesn't read this).  Maybe for her birthday?

Ursie wants her ears pierced so badly, and the deal was that she could get them pierced when she was twelve.  She loves turtles, and Anthropologie used to have turtle earrings, but not anymore, so....


How about some firework studs for our own firecracker?

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Alexandra's Mixtape

Here is the lineup from the mixtape I gave Alex, if you would like to see....
I have included justification for each of the songs I put on here....
Thank you for your help, Mike and Daddy!

I Heard It Through The Grapevine - Marvin Gaye
I just like this song.  We listened to it basically on repeat when we went driving through Greece when I was twelve...
Alex - Punch Brothers
Obvious choice, no?  A song about a girl named Alexandra.  Plus it's the Punch Brothers, so it's really good.
Space Oddity - David Bowie
Um, my favourite David Bowie song. And that's saying something.  One day I will write about David Bowie and you will understand.
Southern Cross - Crosby, Stills & Nash
Not my favourite CSN song, but it made sense with all the wanderlust-ey music I was putting in here. 
I'm A Cuckoo - Belle & Sebastian
Also somewhat wanderlust-ey.  Also, I just like it.
We Work The Black Seam - Sting
This is in here entirely because of the line "Your dark satanic mills have made redundant all our mining skills."  It's not every day that pop music references Blake.
I Know You Rider - Grateful Dead
Again, somewhat wanderlust-ey. And it fits between these two...
What Am I To You? - Norah Jones
I like this song, and I needed some melancholic slower songs in here
Graceland - Paul Simon
Again, it's about travel, and that was a vague theme tying this whole mixtape together.
Mercedes Benz - Janis Joplin
I ask you: why not?  Also, when we lived in Rwanda, there was a woman named Cheryl who sang this incredibly well.
Third World Child - Johnny Clegg & Savuka
I like this song, and it ties the other two together a little.
What About Everything? - Carbon Leaf
This was a suggestion of Mike's.  He likes this song too, so if you're going to judge my musical tastes, you have to judge his, too.  Yes, I'm that insecure.
Carolina In My Mind - James Taylor
Again, wanderlust and travel - AND slow and melancholic. 
Spanish Bombs - The Clash
Wanderlust and travel - though I'm not sure anyone goes "hey, I really want to go to Spain" after hearing this song....
Love and Some Verses - Iron & Wine
Slow and melancholic.  Alexandra likes the Weepies, so I figured she would like this.
Asleep - The Smiths
One of my favourite songs in the world.  Also slow and melancholic.  Also something that I just think everyone should know.
Fast Car - Tracy Chapman
Well, I'm going to hazard a guess that you know why this one is here.  It's about just driving and driving and "city lights [laid] out before us."
Amelia - Joni Mitchell
Specifically the line "I slept on pillows of my wanderlust."  Also I adore Amelia Earheart.  
And She Was - Talking Heads.
This seems like a good song to end on.  Alexandra is always happy and excited, and this is a happy (ish) song.  And it ties things together.


So, um, there you go - a mixtape I made Alexandra....
Should I have put other things on there?

Soooo

Today is the start of Fashion Week Fashion Nine Days in Paris!  I'm really excited - I've never really been in a city that has a fashion week/nine days before!  And yes, I know I can't get into anywhere or anything, but I think my darling brother and I might just show up outside the Chanel show.... you know, on the off chance that they have two extra seats or something, or just to see all the beautiful people doing their thing.
Yesterday Alexandra was here and we had an absolutely incredible time!  Thank you, Alex!!  See you in Budapest...
I also wanted to gauge interest in a new project I'm thinking of doing on the blog.  Would you guys be interested in reading about the different arrondissements of Paris?  Perhaps not absolute arrondissements, but little bits of neighbourhoods once a week?  I would maybe start next Tuesday, if you wanted to hear about it... what do you think?
Happy Tuesday!