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The Wooden Spoon

Last Saturday, Clare, myself and my little sister Meave decided it was the perfect day to take a trip to one of our favourite places to spend time - a small town/village called Killaloe. They have the most perfect little bakery there called The Wooden Spoon (wonderful name) that does the most amazing food, pastries, desserts and coffee/hot chocolate (my second favourite place to get hot chocolate - after Angelina's in Paris!).

It was quite packed when we went so we got some hot chocolate and cakes to take away and we sat down by the lake to eat them. It was slightly chilly but still really sunny - my favourite type of weather. Between us we got Carrot Cake, Lemon Polenta Cake and Coffee Cake to share, and they tasted DIVINE. If you ever find yourself in Killaloe, please ask a local to direct you to The Wooden Spoon bakery - you won't be disappointed. They also do really tasty savoury food, but this particular day our mood was: CAKE.

I decided to put a little thought into my outfit for the occasion, rather than being lazy and throwing on some black leggings and an over-sized jumper (my usual go-to attire).

T-shirt - Massimo Dutti (stolen from my Mom)

Skirt - Vintage (a shop called Unicorn in Oxford, UK)

Leather Jacket - Forever 21

Bag - Michael Kors

Boots - TK Maxx

I hope you enjoyed this post,

Thank you for reading!

Síofra

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Flashback Friday: Paris When it Sizzles - Part 3

This is the final installment of the Paris When It Sizzles series - which was never meant to be a series but I had WAY too much to write about and way too many photos to include to fit all in one post!

Day 4:

Our final day was dedicated wholly to the palace of Versailles. We woke up early, grabbed some pastries on the way from a gorgeous bakery right opposite our hotel called "Oh Mon Cake!", had a quick look at all the amazing skincare in French pharmacies (woooah) and hopped on the train to Versailles! On board the train there was the sweetest, smiliest, loveliest old man playing a piano accordion.

Upon arriving at Versailles, the town alone was teaming with people. When we got to the palace itself, we joined the end of a gianormous queue (in the sweltering heat - we used the umbrella to shield ourselves from sunstroke). We somehow managed to pass the time and got into the palace itself, decided against the audio tour (those things take a lot of patience to listen to). We strolled around the beautiful rooms and grande halls - my favourite parts were the most amazing old-fashioned French interior designs and the decor in every single room, and the Hall of Mirrors.

After we had seen all we wanted to see indoors, we tried to find our way back out but got lost - finding ANOTHER Angelina's café! The excitement was immense as we sat down for our second helping of the world's most amazing hot chocolate. SO GOOD. When we eventually did find our way out, we also found a Ladurée Macaron shop on the way.

When we eventually got out to the gardens, they were absolutely breathtaking - and so vast! We queued up to get on this little tram that takes you around the gardens (beware of that word 'around' - it was literally around, not through!) and although the queue took almost 2 hours, by the time the tram came we were just so relieved to be able to sit down! It was quite a bumpy ride and the heat and exhaustion made us quite giddy, which resulted in us giggling and bouncing along with the bumpy road at the back of the tram. Although it didn't go through the gardens themselves, it did take us around pretty much the whole of the Versailles property - showing us other various buildings and churches on the grounds.

After our giddy tram adventure, we decided to head back to the train station as there was one more place we knew we wanted to see before we left Paris the next morning. We fell asleep on the train back from Versailles and woke up just as it was pulling into the station. We whipped out our trusty map once more and found where we were headed - Paris' Left Bank, the Latin Quarter specifically, home of the infamous Shakespeare & Co. bookstore. The original haunt, not too dissimilar to the regular customers at Les Deux Magots, was known as a gathering place for writers such as Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound and James Joyce (who used it as his office) in the 1920's, - the original store is mentioned in Hemingway's 'A Moveable Feast." However, unfortunately the original store closed in the 1940's and never re-opened, thus giving way to the opening of the current Shakespeare & Co. (opened in 1951 - originally named Le Mistral, later re-named) that stands there today.

George Whitman, who opened this second bookstore, created it as a bookstore but also as a reading library, where people could come to buy and sell books or simply just sit and read. He himself branded it, 'a socialist utopia masquerading as a bookstore.' It is a wonderful and welcoming place with an amazingly olde-worldy vibe - definitely a must see if you are interested in books, literature and the wonderful writers the original store loaned itself to. Truly an amazing place.

We strolled around for another few hours, stopping for a bite to eat and soaking in every last piece of Paris that we could before we would be torn away from it the next morning.

It was an amazing trip - I would go back there in a heartbeat! If you are ever considering taking a trip to Paris, absolutely do it, you will fall in love with the city. I hope you enjoyed these installments of our trip to Paris - I really enjoyed writing them and sharing our experiences.

Thank you again to GG for sharing some of her photos so they could be added too.

Thank you for reading!

Síofra

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Flashback Friday: Paris When It Sizzles - Part 2

And so the Parisian adventures continued...

Day 3:

Another action-packed day commenced with a failed attempt at a visit to the Louvre, - we left the hotel in the PELTING rain and crossed the road to the Louvre, only to be met with a 2km long queue just to get tickets, and another 1km long queue to actually get in to the museum itself! Deciding to abandon that plan on the basis that we had already been there on our previous trip to Paris and it wasn't worth wasting four hours of the day just queuing.

"Have you seen the size of this flipping queue" - GG's face says it all really!

Our next Port of Call was le Musée D'Orsay, - on route to which I stepped with one foot into a GIANT puddle and so was soaked to my ankles on one side of my body. Perfect for when you're about to go and stand in a 2 hour long queue to walk squelching around a museum! As the queue was sooo long we made our own fun playing different celebrity games (we are beyond cool). At one point, a couple thought they could pull the wool over our eyes and just stepped right into the queue in front of us - after we'd already been queuing for an hour and a half! It was beyond rude but we decided to make light of the situation, 'rise above' it if you will and just silently gave out about the man, attaching various things to his hood (he didn't notice).

This duck umbrella saw all the sights of Paris with us - the trip of a lifetime for Bert! (Yes, we named him)

(This guy in red would be the man who skipped us in the queue... hence the clip attached to his hood, which came out of my hair)

(Bert is quite a badass when it comes to confrontation..)

When we finally made it into the museum it was totally worth the wait. They had some of the most amazing exhibitions from all the most wonderful artists, painters and sculptors you can think of. I think my favourite was the Van Gogh exhibition room - he produced so many amazing pieces (unfortunately no photos were allowed inside the museum, but it was nice at the same time to just enjoy the art without flashes going off left, right and centre!)

The next (very excting) stop on our schedule was an old café called Les Deux Magots. This café is located in the Saint Germain-des-Prés area of Paris, a café which was once the rendez-vous area for literary and intellectual bodies alike, with famous writers frequenting there to sit and write - among them Ernest Hemingway and James Joyce. It was so surreal and inspiring to sit in there and think that they once sat there too, with dedications and pieces of their work covering the walls. We had some lunch there, took it all in (took lots of photos) and left in a sort of daze - not quite sure if what we had just experienced had registered. It was an amazing, amazing place - I would absolutely recommend a trip there if you are ever in Paris.

Next up - Le Tour Eiffel. I don't know just what it is about this iron structure that makes it so captivating and draws millions of people to it every year - it just has something special and is the essence of the centre of Paris. The only downside to going to Paris during peak season is that there are mile-long queues EVERYWHERE. GG and I had already gone to the top of the Eiffel Tower when we had visited with our family so we weren't too upset when we discovered the gigantic queue to get into the cramped lift to shoot 301 metres in the air. Although, the view from the top is probably the best view of Paris you can get - particularly at night when the city is completely lit up.

After getting some ice-cream and sitting down on the grass just under the tower for a while, people-watching and taking in the Parisian way of life, we decided to move on to our next destination of choice - we had so much we wanted to see in the time we had left! Our attempt to get the metro to the George Pompidou Centre failed miserably as a lovely French man directed us to the next metro station which was 'a hundred metres that way' - after walking for about a kilometre we just had to jump into a taxi to get there - that man can clearly not call distance estimation his strong point!

The George Pompidou Centre is a contemporary museum - which looks very modern on the outside, as well as containing multiple unique and wonderful exhibitions inside. At the lull of the day - right at the point where we were delirious - some of the artwork did seem a smidge confusing, for example 3 blank white canvases hung beside eachother on the wall (see photos below). Other exhibitions had the most weird and wonderful things - I'm so glad we made the time to go there as it was definitely a unique museum experience - not the typical museum atmosphere or exhibitions at all! Also quick tip: Entry to most of the museums in Paris is either free of highly discounted if you are under the age of 25!

(This was artwork painted onto a mirror - not an actual woman bending down in front of us!)

A quick Starbucks re-charge followed (there happened to be one RIGHT outside the Pompidou Centre) as we sat down and I had an argument with the map while trying to figure out how we were going to get to the Arc de Triomphe, as it was now nearing 7 o clock and we wanted to get there soon.

During map fight:

After: (so calm and collected...)

We arrived at the Arc de Triomphe at that time of day when it's not quite dusk but the evening is drawing in. Not dark but not fully light either. It took us quite a while to figure out how to actually get to it as it's situated in the centre of a giant 10 lane roundabout - one you would absolutely get smushed on if you tried to cross. After about ten minutes of staring at it and taking photos from where we were standing, we realised there was an underground walkway which went the entire way under the roundabout and brought you right up under the Arc itself. The tomb of the unknown soldier is also there, right under the Arc - a lovely tribute to a brave soldier, with candles and flowers always all around it.

Our final stop of the day was back at our new favourite restaurant in the Montmartre area - "Le Petit Thai". They recognised us and were happy that we had returned two nights in a row! It's the most gorgeously decorated place with ivy, rose petals and fairy lights everywhere. We returned to our hotel late that night - absolutely exhausted but totally satisfied at how much of our beautiful Paris we had got to see that day.