Well, what a fabulous time we’ve had. I can’t thank you enough for all your amazing comments on my last post, I told Joyce all about you and how much you are all thinking of her, she was moved to tears. It has been an amazing experience to be in Paris with her – I feel very lucky to have been able to be there, showing her the sights that she has longed to see for so many decades. It has brought up many beautiful memories for her – listening to Edith Piaf records, learning old French war songs from her father, and remembering a special voice message left on her answering machine by her boy Chris when he visited Paris some years ago – he called her from one of the bridges one night and described in detail everything he could see and hear, including the boats passing underneath, and the twinkling stars above. She couldn’t quite believe she was standing within the exact same scene he had described, she was awestruck by the beauty all around, and amazed that it was really happening – she was really in Paris. It took a couple of days for the reality of the dream to sink in, and it wasn’t really until the third night that she was quite sure she was in Paris  – I’ll describe that night in further detail in another post…

So, I thought I’d share some of the things we got up to in a series of posts this week. And then after that I’ll show + tell some new places Romain and I explored, and new restaurants added to our favourites list. That means this week will be all about Paris, are you up for that? I hope so…

On Saturday I got the idea to try to make a little book (a glimpse as seen in the first photo of this post)  filled with mementos and a few photographs for aunty joyce to be able to take back home to Sydney to show her friends and family. I had bought a little set of Paris stamps and created the book as we went, presenting it to her on Saturday night – I’ll describe how I made it in an upcoming post but I’ll show you snippets from it in each post so you can follow along with our adventures…

So, day one! We decided to do a bit of a walking tour – with french boy as our fabulous (and very handsome, as aunty joyce kept telling me) guide. We started at the Jardin des Plantes and wandered through the gardens, admiring the incredible flowers in bloom at the moment. We were all quite taken by the purple and blue blossom gardens, they were stunning, I particularly loved the artichoke bush. Then we strolled onto pont sully and further along the Seine, taking in the view of the Notre Dame along the way. For lunch we headed straight to one of Romain and my favourite lunch spots – Café Louis-Philippe. The food, as always was delicious and cooked to perfection. We sat out in the courtyard, drank wine and talked about old times. Then we walked up rue du pont louis-philippe and visited some of the shops. I took Joyce into Mélodies Graphiques and told her about the story of the lovers secret messages in the calligraphy notebook which I wrote about in my book, then we wrote a little secret message of our own in there…

photos from Paris: Made by Hand

Joyce found a fab silk scarf in the neighbouring boutique, it suited her perfectly. The shop owner was rather wonderful, she encouraged Joyce to try on all sorts of feather boas and fancy hats. After that we wandered to the Notre Dame to see it up close and personal, and then Saint Chapelle. Even though the stained glass windows were quite spectacular I found myself mostly fascinated by the ceiling…

and the floor…

And that was that, our first day in Paris together!  It was treacherous at moments with the wheelchair  – a couple of times we got stuck on a cobblestone or two and nearly hoisted Joyce right out onto the street! Laughter got us through those moments though. It’s certainly not a city made for wheelchairs but even so, there is still lots to be able to see and do. Luckily Joyce is still fairly mobile and was able to use the chair as a walking frame every now and then. Saint Chapelle had a lift accessed within the Palais de Justice so that was pretty cool to see the Palais from inside.

Next up, day two…

Once upon a time there was a little girl who heard about a beautiful, enchanting city in a land far far away where people wore berets, ate something called ‘baguette’, and spoke what she immediately decided must be one of the prettiest languages in the world. She learnt about all the ancient stone buildings that stood tall and magnificent along the long, winding river that ran through the middle of the city, and she listened to songs sung in this pretty language. The little girl fell in love with the idea of this magical city, and consequently spent many hours, days, months, and years dreaming about what it might be like to wander its cobblestones streets. Time went by and life went on but still, the idea of this city and the country it was a part of remained in her heart and in her dreams.

That was over 80 years ago, some time around 1930. As we all know too well, life goes on and dreams get put on shelves. For this little girl, wars came and went, lovers stole her heart, children were born, then grandchildren, and then great grandchildren, her body became more fragile but still, she never forgot about her dream and she never lost hope that one day she might see this beautiful city in person – she always dusted the shelf where her dream lay waiting for her.

Today, that little girl is 90 years old. Her name is Joyce and she is my beloved great aunt who, when I was a little girl, taught me how important it was to dream and how important it was to keep dreams alive. When I visited her back home in Sydney this past January, she told me that this year she was determined to get to Paris, the city of her dreams. I told her, “If you go, no matter where I am in the world or what I’m doing, I will be there with you – I will not miss it for the world.”

Yesterday was the day her dream came true.

Together with her daughter Kathy, myself and Romain, the four of us strolled through the jardin des plantes, took in the view of the notre dame along pont sully, had lunch at café Louis-Philipe, wandered along the surrounding streets all the while taking in the sights and scenery. She can’t quite believe it is happening, and I am beyond ecstatic to be here with her and show her some of the Paris that I have come to know and love.  This afternoon we plan to go to Montmatre to see the Sacre Coeur and have an aperitif in a little bar somewhere along the way. It’s not an easy feat with a wheelchair in tow, but so far we have managed. Countless times Aunty Joyce said to me yesterday, “Why has it taken me so long to get here?” and I said, “It doesn’t matter, you are here now, and it just goes to show you, dreams can come true” and she added “yes, and age is just a word”.

I’ll be back to show you some photos of our adventure in Paris some time next week, for now, let’s linger on the realisation that it is never too late to dust off your dreams and fly with them.  Bonne journee mes amis.

xx

…for a very special reason which I plan to reveal demain.  Today, I spent a large amount of time on the metro, it was fabulous people watching. x

a collection of some of my favourite photos from Amsterdam: Made by Hand.

Good morning mes rayons de soleil, I hope you each had a glorious weekend. If it wasn’t so glorious, then perhaps there was something special that lit up your heart at some point, some way, even just for a little moment. I worked for 36 hours straight, with a  few pit stops in between. The highlight of my weekend was a wonderful dinner on Friday night hosted by some new friends at their gorgeous apartment, north side. And then a wander along the Amstel with french boy yesterday afternoon to get some fresh air. Everyone who was anyone it seems, was out on their little boats, zipping about the canals – drinking, laughing, being generally merry  –  it was lovely to watch.

I have another busy week ahead of me although I plan to post about one particular adventure that I will be embarking on mid week. Until then, I’ll just pop in and out of the (blog)house as usual. Oh yes, and I have two bits of news for the moment: one is that dear Cath shared some more glorious photos with you in the guest quarters on Friday, click here to see where she takes us this time.

another collection from Amsterdam: Made by Hand.

And my second bit of news is that on Thursday last week, I spontaneously decided to activate my twitter account. I know, can you believe it?  I said some time ago that I would never ever twitter, but I don’t know, something just sparked inside me on that day during my tea break, it just felt right all of a sudden. So in I plunged and boy, was it fun to be welcomed into the twitter world by fellow bloggers – it’s like a whole other universe over there. The aftermath is that I must admit, I’m having some sort of reservations  about the plunge because I can see it does tend to suck the life out of you and since I’m struggling to maintain status quo as it is, perhaps it’s not the best thing for me right now. But lovely Susannah assured me this morning that I’ll find my comfy spot soon, so I’m going to take her advice and give it some time. So, if you are a twitterer and feel like following my tweets, then here is my twitter link – hope to see you there.

xx

…made by leslie from swarm.  She just finished a new batch and they are all insanely beautiful. I’ve been taking this one with me everywhere, it’s perfect as a ‘stylist on the run’ bag, you can fit so much in it! And I love that it will age the more I use it, so so special.

Anyway, I had to show you guys. This is just one side, the other side is also gorgeous, perhaps I’ll show you that side another day – it’s like having two bags in one. oh yeah.