still counts.

Au revoir.

After 4 months living in basically the same room with this one person, that one person has become pretty important.
Merry Christmas, beautiful banani.
I miss you already.
You made my Paris.

Chaos for Christmas

20th December, Gare du Nord

11 hours of waiting

5 hour journey

Ce n'est qu'une fête à Paris.

After waving lil Annie off at Châtelet with the knowledge i would not see her again for 6 months i marched on home, wiping a delicate tear from my rosy cheek, returning to the cold of Edie alone before i departed for London tomorrow.


One hour later....


Her flight was cancelled.

ANNIE'S BACK AT EDIEEEEE!!!
But that does also mean she won't be going to Vienna until Tuesday and thanks to this little message from cheeky Eurostar;

 "Service Update - Due to infrastructure issues on the French network caused by severe weather conditions, Eurostar is now operating a contingency timetable"

...it seems i too might not be home on time. 

But don't worry.

Santa's magic and he can fix anything!

Come on lil fella, help us out. 

Ive tried to be good this year....but it's hard to recycle in Paris :(

TE BAISER M-O

m-o, artistic representation.

I am so glad i will as of Monday no longer live upstairs from the slut i now call my 'propriétaire'. 
I hate her as she is horrid.


"Daisy, je suis fatiguée et fachée que je suis toujours la victime"
VICTIM!? VICTIM OF WHAT!? WE STILL DONT HAVE HEATING!!


Whatever Marie-Odille. As of Monday you will no longer feel obliged to shout at me again for losing chopsticks you never supplied us with.


BON VOYAGE!
Tu ne va pas me manquer.

LE POULAIN

We saw boobs.

Craving the bitter cold of Paris and the warmth of a Danais cuddle, The Blaiser beam flew her way to Edie for ONE NIGHT ONLY.

A rather tricky meeting at Gare du Nord, after a tramp screamed at me to 'te baiser' (aka fuck off) Bl-aisy were at last reunited and journeyed back to 1 rue d'Edimbourg.

Casually shimmying up to Le Baron in our furs and animal themed bobble hats proved surprisingly sucessful and was only the start of FUN FUN FUN.

3 Barons drinks and 2 Champagnes were the cause of alot of dancing and a rather obscure choice to leave and go to a strip club.

4.30am found us inside The Pink Paradise. Surprisingly we were the only girls in there that weren't wearing thongs and their breasts as attire.

After a rather interesting offer from an elderly gentleman to kindly 'buy' me a lapdance, we decided it was time to leave.

10.30am alarm and neurofen.

After lunch on rue Saint-Antoine we headed to the vintage shops and to le Pain Quotidien for some much needed chocolate. Unfortunately le bombe chocolate AND la tarte chocolat proved a little too much and i now feel SICK.

Ooh and i bought some shoes!

At 4pm lil Blaisey had to catch her train to the airport to head back to Barcelona to pack and head back to London for CHRISTMAAASSS!

A lovely lovely mini Blaise break.

home sweet home

Due to snow storm possibilities.....IM NOW COMING HOME ON MONDAY 20TH DECEMBER!


See you all soon suckas!!

14 days to go....

PARIS SNOW STORM

1 hour later....

Locker likes Paris

After 2 trips to Paris, Philly's got it down.

A few tips and hints for future Paris go-ers and a few of the Locker's faves.

Le Marais

75004

Tea by Thé

2, Place du Palais Royal, 75001

Breakfast in America

4 rue de Malher, 75004

Canal Saint Martin

75010

Freep'Star

8 rue Saint Croix de la Bretonnerie/ 4 rue de la Verrerie 

75008

Christmas lights at Galleries Lafayette

Boulevard Haussmann

75008

And that's how Phil C's it.

Katherine, oh, Katherine!

In a previous post you may remember i ranted about some silly slut whose book i had to read about 'Cooking in a Bedsitter'. This silly slut was Katherine Whitehorn.
She is not a silly slut.
She is my new idol.


'In the play The Shrike, the hero is entertaining his girl to dinner and she says: "What's for dessert?" And there is no dessert; and he tries to commit suicide. This is an extreme view... hand round some chocolates.' Cooking in a Bedsitter.

Born in 1928 in Hendon, Katherine wanted to go into publishing.
She was working for a women's magazine in 1956 when Bert Hardy (a photographer for the Picture Post) asked her to model for him.
She then wrote for The Picture Post, was the Fashion Editor and then Features writer for The Observer and also wrote for Saga Magazine.


'to catch the atmosphere of the Paris collections, you must lock yourself in a hot cupboard with a bottle of spilled scent and a champagne hangover'

She married Gavin Lyall in 1958 and stayed with him until he died in 2003, 
"She fell for Gavin, a pilot turned newspaper air correspondent, and journalist at pretty much the same time, when she started work on the Picture Post following a brief stint in publishing ('I was pretty wet about publishing,' she says. 'It didn't occur to me that I was in the wrong job.') and stuck with them both through thick and thin." Gaurdian 17th August 2008


I love Gavin.
I love Katherine.


I'm sorry i ever doubted you.

Nibble my Berko

23 Rue Rambuteau 75004

Berko.

Macaroons may be every girl's delight but nuttin' beats a good ol' cupcake or a HUGEE slice of cheekecake!

Rows upon rows of cupcakes in every colour and flavour you can imagine. Banoffe, Teddy bear marshmallow, blueberries and cream cheese, carambar....

And the biggest slices of cheesecake you will ever see! Though DO NOT venture to eat a whole one, though you will be tempted. It will only end badly.

Twice have i experienced the trauma after a whole slice of crème brulée cheesecake or Peanut Butter Swirle. I wouldn't advise it. 

Jules Verne

So lil mumma came to visit me yesterday and take back 2 suitcases of my stuff (what the hell am i going to wear now!?) and after some essential Christmas shopping in Printemps and St Germain, we picked up Annie and head off in a taxi through the snow to The Jules Verne restaurant in the Tour Eiffel.



What better way to enjoy the snow than sitting cosy half way up the Tour Eiffel, looking over the Rive Gauche as the snow falls?

Belle Eiffel cocktails, scallops marinated in cauliflower, chicken with grapes and  spiced macaroons, passion fruit tartlets with raspberries and almond financiers for dessert! As well as marshmallows and dark chocolate truffles that we did NOT hesitate to subtely wrap in a napkin and stuff in our bags for later.....Truly the most amazing dinner i think i've ever had.

A forgotten classic...

3 and a half weeks to go...

Although i've only been in Paris for 3 months now, i was away for 2 months before i left England and havn't once popped back to ol' blighty like many others, so i actually havn't been home for almost 5 months :(


Therefore there are a few home comforts that only London can satisfy that im begining to miss....

Covent Garden

Mulled wine

 (i dont actually like it, but i do like the idea)

Starbucks Christmas cups

Mint

http://www.mintvintage.co.uk/index.php

Ice skating @ Somerset House

The Strand

Apostrophe

Twining's Earl Grey decaf

These lil cheeky chappies

Wagamama

Waterloo Bridge

Splenda

This lil lady

Proud- Smash&Grab

...just to name a few.

Can't WAIT to be back home on the 23rd December......but only until 6th Jan and then its off to Santiago!

1.11

It's 1.11am

This is halfway through my third out of 5 articles i have to analyse on le Parti Socialiste en France.


I WILL finish it tonight if it kills me.
I REFUSE to sit alone in my bedroom working for a single day longer.


Come on, Dais.

Birthday Blaise...

After hunching over my lil ol' lappy for far too many hours a weekend trip to Barcelona was just what i needed. So i packed my bags and head off to see lil ol Blaisey for her birthday.

Finally after a 20 minute metro ride, a 2 and a half hour bus journey, a 2 hour delay, a 1 and a half hour plane ride and a 20 minute cab journey... I WAS THERE!!


After eating nothing but Blaise's birthday macaroons all day, Chris' Bolognase was much appreciated on arrival, as was the copious amounts of red wine we all cosnumed.
Several bottles and cheeses later i lost my memory and woke up the next day to find a rather embarassing video of me dancing down the streets of Barcelona, which i had no recolection of, on Kat's camera.
Classy.

Saturday was brunch followed by an amble down to the beach and then possibly the most emotional yet happy 2 hours of my life then followed. 
That's right.
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS.


Five words to describe it;
Why am i a muggle?


Alas 3.30pm on Sunday (after a Spanish hot chocolate and 2 NON GLUTEN FREE SLICES OF CAKE!) i had to catch my bus to the airport to fly home to get the bus, to get the metro, to finally end up back at 1 rue d'Edimbourg.


Luckily lil Annie was at home waiting for me, as was Sex and the City......and once more, the promise of shit loads of work.


Merci tous pour un weekend parfait.

Down with brown.

THAT'S IT!
Ive had enough of Nutella yearnings EVERYTIME i walk past a crêperie and see the huuggeee pots of nutella gently melting next to the warm crêpes, EVERYTIME i walk past the sweet condament section in any supermarket, EVERYTIME i dream of spooning sweet soft Nutella straight from the jar.


Enough is enough.


I'm going to take matters into my own hands.


Question: How do you make yourself no longer want to eat something?
Answer: You eat so much you make yourself feel sick.


I'm now on 500g of Nutella in one day and i can safely say that the above strategy is working.


I am now looking at my pot of nutella with hatred. 
What was once once sweet nutty butty heaven is now just a huge pot o' brown stuff.
What once was a comfort food, now aint so comforting.
What once i craved, i am literally now staring at, moomin spoon in hand, shivvering with the fear that i will have to lick one more spoonful (and obviously because its just friggin cold in our appartment)


I hate you Nutella.
I hate you.


Why are there no jars of you that contain only 100g?
Why do you taste so good with everything? (especially bananas)
WHY WAS I NEVER GIVEN YOU AS A CHILD AND THUS WOULDNT SEE YOU AS SUCH A NOVELTY AND THEREFORE THIS WOULDNT BE AN ISSUE!?


So many questions.....
One answer.


SCREW YOU NUTELLA.


Your reign is over.

I don't want to study!

Once more the prospect of sitting at my computer analysing article after article au sujet de the French left wing and the Partie Sociaiste's chances of winning the 2012 elections seemed daunting....a little tooo daunting!

As luck would have it so did Anni's exposé and thus.....PHOTO DAY WAS BORN!!

lorenalondon.blogspot.com 

An hour of adorning our flat with random scarves draped over chairs and cushions and rugs galore, i then found myself wearing only a chiffon dressing gown in the freezing outdoor air on the balcony.

Clearly arranging the flat wasn't pointless AT ALL.

A few hours and several tea's later lead us to getting all dressed up, walking to Pompon and admiring the christmas lights at Galerie Lafayette and Printems on the way whilst singing along to Wheezer.

15 minutes later.....we were walking back home to hot chocolates in bed with 'How to lose a guy in 10 days'.

We know how to party ;)

Farewell Dirpy

I was only a recent convert, but gone are the days of recording from Youtube.

That's right, Dirpy.com has ended.

Just in time i suppose....i was just about to download Mandy Moore 'Sweet like Candy". Thank god something stopped me.

Who am i kidding? Im totally limewire-ing tht lil baby.

Lenny Knows...

Went to Pompon with Alex last night after work for 'a drink' that turned into around 6 (whisky coke's ofcourse), lots of dancing next to Lenny Kravitz, leaving at 2 and grabbing a crêpe/ chips on the way home and then falling into bed with Alex reading to me in French.


I am now in bed at 1.45pm attempting to read 'Cooking in a Bedsitter' by Katherine Whitehorn for one of my translations i have to do for Kings. 
It is possibly the most pointless book ive ever read. 
Apart from the fact that it consists of 181 pages dedicated only to old-skool 50s housewife dvice on how to cook in, unsurprisingly, a bedsitter (whatever that might be) casually mixed in with just enough derrogative scentences such as "Why brides should be encouraged to produce such abominably dull food i do not know: I can think of few better ways of heading for a speedy divorce", it is also in English. 


KINGS, WHY ARE YOU FORCING ME TO READ A DULL, SEXIST, ENGLISH BOOK WHILE I AM IN FRANCE?


This is all made much worse by the fact that i feel extremely sick.
This is most likely from the concoction of the previously mentioned kick-ass dance moves and one too many whisky's but made much MUCH worse by the half a comté cheese i had this morning for breakfast.
Nice one, Daisy.
Nuttin' quite says 'hangover cure' like a big ol' lump o' cheese.


Something tells me i won't be leaving my internet-free (though shockingly, now heated) room too much today. 


Piece of advice- Whisky, the shimmy and dairy......not such a sexy combo.

It's winter!

This guy's arriving in 2 months...

Everyone is wearing these...

This is the number of layers i am wearing inside my appartment...

What does this all point to.........?

THAT ITS ABOUT TIME OUR LANDLADY TURNED ON THE FRIGGIN HEATING!!!

Watch out Marie-Odille, don't make me'forget' to turn off the lights at night!