Between the Sheets...

Mai Tai for two at Maison F.

How did you end up in Paris?

It's a question I am asked, and in return find myself asking, on a regular basis since I moved to Paris.

My personal answer is: "Mostly, for a man." When I have the time, I'm always happy to provide the more detailed answer to that question, but essentially I moved to Paris for a relationship with JB.

We have had our moments. I’m always interested when friends share their observations of our relationship. One of my closest friends told me after a recent trip to see him in the UK that when he said good-bye and watched us get into our taxi, he thought to himself “now there’s a couple that makes sense”. My first reaction was to be incredibly flattered, his opinion means a lot to me and it is nice to know that how I feel about my relationship with JB translates well to other people. But, like any other couple, JB and I have our moments. If a relationship looks good on the outside, I believe in most cases that’s because there’s not just love and respect between the couple, there’s also a strong sense of teamwork going on( because everyone has their own s**t to sort through). Or, you know, they should think about a career in acting.

All this to say I had a lovely time meeting Lorelei this week (at Maison F). We ended up having an enlightening conversation, not only about what brought us to Paris, but also our dating history. She brought my attention to this Telegraph article summarising a poll recently carried out (by OnePoll.com) to identify the world’s worst and best lovers.

If that’s true about German men, what is their excuse? For the record, JB is half German and I can confirm that he showers on a daily basis. For those of you attracted to a man who is not short of body hair, keep your ears open for a Russian accent and your luck may just be in! Apparently for both Lorelei and I, we made the right move coming to Europe and leaving our respective countries, both of which come under the category of “worst lovers”. Thank you Lorelei, for inspiring this blog post.

Bon weekend,
Lou xxx

Spring has sprung

This weekend, Spring officially landed. The clocks went forward and the weather was sunny (a little too humid at times, which my hair doesn't appreciate, but I'll take what I can get!)

Post-yoga brunch with Ineke at Le Jockey.

My weekend was pretty busy, and full of good stuff - just not enough time with JB. On Saturday, Ineke and I bought a 10 day open pass for Be Yoga, a lovely, calm yoga studio situated in a quiet passageway not far from Montparnasse. We tested an Ashtanga class (dynamic but wow what a great stretch for the body) and a Jivamukti class on Sunday (wonderful for working on posture and opening up the body). Having recently experienced a bout of panic attacks, I have quickly noticed the overall difference when I'm making the effort to take deeper breaths and stay focused.

stereopublic

I heard about this app from Flora and quickly downloaded it. The concept behind the creation is for people to mark quiet spaces on an interactive map. Apparently I am a lone ranger in Paris but I noticed there are a lot of people using it in the UK. I'll see how I get on with it and whether it becomes a regular fixture, but for now I'm enjoying the daily inspirational quote. It can be quite tricky, especially when you live in a big city, to take a step back and see the bigger picture so I'm trying to spend some time on this at the moment.

Gelato in Paris

On Sunday afternoon I met up with a group of bloggers, all of whom had agreed to test Daisy's new treasure hunts. Starting at the Jardin du Luxembourg and finishing in St. Michel, I spent a few enjoyable hours bonding with Lisa (from Ella Coquine) and learning so much about Paris. I was really happy to be a part of this experiment, to meet Daisy, and to be reminded of how open and friendly the expat bloggers in Paris are. A cheeky little GROM gelato with Lauren and Danielle on the way home rounded off the perfect weekend (not counting snuggles with JB when I got home of course).

I hope you all had a nice weekend, and spent some time doing fun things with fun people. If not, there's always this weekend.
Lou xxxxx

You make me feel good

Brunch with Lauren this weekend was at the recently opened Paperboy, in the 11th arrondissement of Paris. Service with a smile, delicious food and drinks and a very clean space with comfy chairs. It gets the thumbs up from us and I will happily go back with anyone and everyone to try out the rest of the menu. This time I got a banana and pineapple juice with the quinoa and sweet potato burger. FYI they open around midday.

Papier Tigre is a very pretty stationery shop, situated on rue des Filles du Calvaire. Lauren introduced it to me, and it's very dangerous for my bank account, but a great find! I think this little tiger is very cute and would look good in a little person's bedroom.

On Sunday morning, Ineke and I hauled ourselves out of bed ridiculously early to visit the Salon du Fitness at Porte de Versailles. Mostly for Tara Stiles, but we also tried out a great Pilates class as well as a Strala style Cool class led by Fabrice (who helped us both do our first headstand). It was really amazing to experience Tara's easy, friendly approach to yoga once again. It took me back to New York and the Strala yoga studio. Everyone in the class was having a ball and both Ineke and I managed a handstand (assisted but hey, baby steps). Needless to say that today our arms and abs are killing us, but it was all worth it and the experience reignited my motivation and desire to practice yoga every darn day.

I went to Rome last weekend, did I tell you? I'll definitely be sharing some snapshots of my time there, but suffice to say we both loved our weekend there and had so much fun discovering the city.

Lou
xxx

On the 7th day, God created brunch

My flowers from JB

It goes without saying that I always look forward to my weekends. More often than not that is because my plans revolve around sleeping in and catching up on reading/blogs/TV shows. Other times I have plans to meet up with friends and I'm excited to try out a new café or just be in Paris at 10:30 am when the city is generally a little more peaceful than commuting hours during the week.

My weekend started on Friday afternoon when I received good news about a job interview I'd had recently. Good news, as in, I got the job. As soon as I got off the phone with my future boss, I received an email from the mailmen informing me of a special delivery - flowers from JB. What.a.cutie. He unknowingly helped me discover my new favourite flower, the anemone (the red flower that's not a rose on the photo above). A brief search on the interweb has taught me that anemone translates as "daughter of the wind" and can be cultivated in several bright colours, as well as the classic white.

Brunch on Saturday was with Rachel at the fabulous Holybelly, which never disappoints. We arrived around 11am, were lucky enough to get a table straightaway and had a nice catch up over our eggs & sides (her scrambled, me poached) with an apple juice to share and coffee to finish it all off. The vibe is always very relaxed at Holybelly, and one of the things I love about the place in addition to the great coffee, healthy servings of food and happy playlists, is how Nico and the Holybelly team care about the details. It adds a really personal touch which definitely keeps me coming back again and again.

My flat "Walter" White coffee. Loved the name and the love heart milk work impressed me no end.

On Sunday I got to brunch all over again, lucky me! This time with regular brunch buddy, Lauren at Clint.
Clint is a very photographic space with lots of light flowing in and cute plants on your table. The brunch plates are fairly small and so are the prices (EUR 5,50 for pancakes , EUR 7 for granola and EUR 7,50 for eggs Benedict/Norwegain). If you're famished there's the burger at EUR 15 (veggie/cheese/bacon+cheese) but Lauren and I were happy with our eggs.
*Side note* Leading on from the cute plants on the table, I found this knitted cactus pattern and think it is adorable.

Lauren's shy but very cute dog Daisy joined us on Sunday.

I finished my weekend off eating homemade crêpes (Nutella if you're asking) with the Frenchies, which was bliss. I intend for the coming weekend to be calmer before the excitement of my birthday next week : )

Tell me, what do you have planned for this weekend?

Lou
xx

P.s. I had tea and cake Saturday afternoon with the girls at Lockwood, but I'm saving this for a separate post.

Buvette

Last night was ladies night. We all headed to Pigalle, in the 9th arrondissement of Paris (you know, the Moulin Rouge and neon signs for stores mostly containing the word "sex") to try out Buvette. I'd actually wanted to go to the New York Buvette when we were there last summer, but JB wasn't in the mood for French food so that was the end of that.

Buvette is pretty small, like most places in Paris. We were a table of 7, so it was pretty cosy and we occupied the biggest corner of the restaurant. I'd only had an orange for lunch, so I was a little disappointed by the food portions as they were very small. Our food:wine ratio meant that we all left a little tipsy and I'll openly admit that I had to have 2 of the hachis parmentier, the French equivalent of shepherds pie. However, I was pleasantly surprised when we got the bill and it only came to 41 euros per head because we had a fair bit to drink and Buvette is not a cheap night out. 

The service was friendly and efficient. The place was nicely busy and buzzing. The menus were cute. I really enjoyed my Bois de Rose cocktail (elderflower liquor, Apérol, gin, lemon juice and champagne) and I think that one advantage Buvette will have over many other Parisian eateries is that it's open non stop from 10am to midnight. It's also opened on Sunday (but closed on Monday). However they don't take reservations (meh) so it's probably best to arrive around 7pm if you're more than two people.

I expect Buvette is doing very well with the expat crowd. Personally, I'm glad that I finally got to experience it and had a lovely time there with my friends but due to the small food portions and robust wine prices I don't think I'll be hurrying back. I  am interested to check out the vibe during the day and see what the coffee is like. 

Buvette
28 rue Henry Monnier
75009 Paris
Métro Pigalle
01 44 63 41 71

Lou
xxx

P.S. Thanks to Veronica for the photos. My iPhone 4 camera has officially lost it when it comes to dimly lit areas.