For my first post, I thought I would just take myself down memory lane and talk about how I started off 2017. In Paris with my very best friends, staying at one of their houses with her parents and boyfriend.
We'd all been to Paris before and none of us are the tourist type so we didn't do a huge amount of deliberate sightseeing, rushing from one attraction to the next, and instead spent a lot of the time walking through parks and finding places to eat, and playing games in our pyjamas in a beautiful Versailles apartment. Nevertheless you can't walk around Paris in winter without being drawn into some of it's sights.
Of course the Shakespeare and Company Bookshop was on all our 'To-Do' lists. Given that we're all big readers, the chance to visit somewhere with so much bookish history was one we couldn't miss. Taking photographs of the inside is not allowed, so all I've got for this segment is the same basic ass shop front shot that everyone else does. We'll survive I'm sure. The inside is big but crowded with people and high bookshelves, with the ground floor being a commercial bookstore and, up a narrow flight of stairs, another floor full of old books and information about the history of the shop.
People like Hemingway and F Scott Fitzgerald worked there in their youth, in exchange for room and board above the shop and that tradition carries on today, with the staff of the shop still given lodgings in the flats above. We weren't in there long as it was cramped and crowded so we made our purchases and legged it, but it was a wonderful place to visit, and I would love to go back at a quieter time and really take my time exploring and soaking up the 'writerly' atmosphere.
During our trip, Paris was covered in mist we never saw more than half of the Eiffel Tower at any one time! This might have been annoying if we were looking to do more sightseeing, but I felt that it added an atmosphere to Paris that made the trip feel much more personal and exciting, as the spaces we explored felt more secretive and less like were just swarming around with hundreds of other tourists.
It was without a doubt the most enjoyable New Years experience I have ever had. It was also the last time the four of us were all together as my friend who we visited moved straight from Paris to South Africa only a few days after we visited her and has been there since. This last picture is probably my favourite. Abby and her boyfriend at the front, with Tom and Holly behind as we went for a walk along the river Seine during our first full day. I love the stark whiteness of the background with the cosiness and comfort I feel from seeing my friends and it's a memory I will always cherish.
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