Hey London!

This weekend was SO packed full of fun! Amanda's mom and sister came to stay with us this week and we met them in Soho (a city in the West end of London). Our very first stop was the TKTS booth to buy tickets for a play. They round up all the unsold tickets the night before the show, and sell discount tickets to all the plays going on that day. We decided to go and see Wicked since I've never seen it before! I don't know if I was just swooning over the British accents the whole time, but it was the best play I've ever been to in my life.

We had a LOT to see in a short amount of time, so we decided a Big Bus tour would be the best way to go. We felt like the nerdiest tourists of all time, but we saw so many cool things and we found London's most adorable tour guide. We also made time to visit one of London's oldest pubs, Ye Olde Chesire Cheese, for some super authentic fish and chips.

Amanda and I have also been drooling over Primark's website for WEEKS, so we made sure we spent a good chunk of our time shopping their three level palace of clothes. It was big enough we lost each other for a good two hours. Kind of scary when one of you doesn't have a working cell phone! Luckily we bought the entire store and found each other right outside our apartment. Enough talk though... here are a zillion pictures of our super fun weekend!

First breakfast in London... Avocado and lime on toast. 

Westminster Abbey 

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Big Ben

The London Eye

Buckingham Palace

Hyde Park

Tower Bridge

Tower of London

Tower housing the Crown Jewels

Luxembourg Gardens

Amanda and I are a very short walking distance away from the Luxembourg Gardens. We've been here twice so far, and I wish we came here EVERY single day. It's full of benches, flowers, beautiful sculptures and SO many people. Today we got McDonalds (horrible, I know) and sat in the park for almost two hours. We sat and watched people, dogs, ducks and I even fed the pigeons (much to Amanda's distain). When I was looking up places to go in Paris on Pinterest, I found the most insanely gorgeous fountain/pond I've ever seen in my life. I knew out of ALL the places we went, I HAD to find this particular one. Luckily it's right around the corner from us! We also found a tall, British black boy to stand in as my boyfriend in a picture... It was incredibly awkward (for him), but totally worth the picture.

(Note the couple in the background making out. They couldn't even handle themselves for TWO hours. They were still at it when we left. Talk about the city of love! It's like this everywhere.)

Le Petit Rosé

Amanda and I decided when we got here, that we'd always have some fresh flowers in our apartment. Since we live next to almost 20 different flower shops, we've found so many gorgeous, cheap flowers. This week I chose an adorable button rose bush. I decided if we're going to spend money on them, we might as well buy some we can keep alive! I also wore my very first vintage store purchase.. There are SO many gorgeous things in some of these stores. I think it's so romantic and nostalgic thinking of all the young French girls who wandered through the streets of Paris in these exact same clothes. If I could buy EVERYTHING vintage, I would. We also went to the Farmers market again, where Amanda got everything to make us homemade clam chowder. It was AMAZING! I'm posting the link to her blog if any of you want the recipe... http://girlgoestoparis.blogspot.fr/2014/03/recipe-ragout-de-palourdes.html. Anyway, I hope you enjoy our pictures!

Home Sweet Home

For any of you who might be curious about the ADORABLE apartment Amanda and I have acquired for our stay here in Paris.. I'd like to give you a grand tour! I got SO excited when I was looking up our address, because Google maps showed that our apartment was (I thought) in the same building that Ernest Hemingway lived in. Unbeknownst to me... We actually live right ACROSS the street from his building. Still very cool, either way. We are renting from the sweetest, English speaking Frenchman ever. If you are ever planning a stay here in Paris, you should hit up our homeboy Yvan!

Seine-ery & Shopping

So, almost every day we walk across the Seine River at some point during our outings. It's the prettiest river, lined with gorgeous buildings and dozens of different types of bridges. With 37 bridges  total, it makes for A LOT of great photo ops. We took a bunch of pictures as we went out on our very first (real) shopping excursion! We found tons of great stores at Les Forums Des Halles mall and followed it up with a bite to eat at Frenchie To-Go. (Amanda has been DYING to come here for days) I told the guy working the counter to pick something off the menu for me, and he ordered me a pulled pork sandwich. EASILY the best pulled pork I've ever had, and Amanda got the most delicious fish and chips. I would recommend this place to ANYONE in Paris! I guess the normal Frenchie (not to-go) has a FOREVER long wait list to get a reservation... It's easy to see why!

First Week @ Sugar Plum

So, our first week at the bake shop went a lot different than I expected... I was definitely hoping for something MUCH more challenging than what we encountered. I've been working up at Sundance for the past few months, and Sugar Plum makes it look like a cake walk (no bun, i mean, pun intended). At least I made it through the first week with only 3 chef coats! Not having a dryer makes laundry a little more tricky than usual...

Musee d'Orsay

The Musee D'Orsay is a fairly small museum off the banks of the Seine, across the way from the Louvre. Something cool about the building it's located in.. It used to be a railway station! I didn't know that when I went there, but it makes perfect sense. It's just a very long, tall, open building. It's also very famous for it's giant clock(s). We didn't get very many pictures because TECHNICALLY there are no pictures allowed... Of course we followed our trip to the museum with some GIANT buckwheat crepes and gelato... because we just couldn't help ourselves.