Last week I was in Paris for a long weekend as my boyfriend's sisters Santa Claus gave us Disneyland tickets for Christmas. I'd been to the ones in Florida and California before but not the French resort and I love any excuse to visit Paris.
We went straight from the Eurostar to Hotel de la Sorbonne, our wicked little boutique hotel called just opposite the 17th century university in the Latin Quarter. I'd never really explored this area of Paris before and I loved it; quiet and not overrun with tourists but still in the heart of Saint Germain with all the (dangerous) shops on its doorstep...
The rooms are stylish and high spec after the hotel's recent renovation, decorated with luxurious colourful fabrics, patterned wallpapers and minimal furniture. Heartily recommended next time you're in Paris.
We went to the nearby Pantheon, the beautiful building which was once a church but is now a secular mausoleum where notable French citizens like Victor Hugo and Marie Curie are interred.
Diderot
I wore this Cobalt Blue Baukjen Dress for the first time, with my much-loved neon Furla bag and ASOS wedged trainers. Looking a bit glum, but we had just been around a necropolis...
We had lunch at the striking, Philippe Starck-designed Le Paradis du Fruit Roots, which is a new concept from the French chain Le Paradis du Fruits which is undergoing a renovation to celebrate its 30th anniversary.
The restaurant prides itself on using healthy, natural ingredients and the decor complements that, with wooden panels lending the space an outdoorsy wood cabin feel, high contrast photographs of juicy fruit on the walls and aluminum tree trunks throughout.
Chef Fabrice Monot adds an injection of the fusion spirit into the new menu with crispy salmon sushi balls and Japanese style salads, which I couldn't finish as the portions are pretty huge. The gazpacho soup was delicious and the fruit juices were perfect. Please open a branch in London.
After lunch we walked around and I fell in love with and resisted two Maje dresses in the beautiful department store Galeries Lafayette.
one of the biggest (and nicest) seafood platters I've ever had
For dinner we had some amazing oysters, lobster and crab at Le Bar à Huitres and a couple of drinks at various brasseries and wine bars before calling it a night ready for an early start with Mickey et al (I learnt the hard way that theme parks with a hangover is not an option). I'll post more tomorrow, I need to get out in the sunshine...
