Wednesday, September 26, 2012

And I was like Baby Baby Baby Oh!


People are all about Paris in the spring (unless they’re Woody Allen, then it’s all about Paris, in the 20s, in the rain. Which is fine by me.) But Paris in autumn is where it’s at. Coming out of the metro into air that’s fresher than it probably ever is in Paris, you just wish you could devour the city with your eyes. My friend Elise from South London pointed out that “Paris just seems like it knows it’s beautiful, and tries a bit too hard.” And there’s absolute truth in that. But there’s the rub – Paris knows it’s beautiful.   Er, because it’s beautiful.
It’s funny that as I write this I’m not in Paris anymore – it’s off to Chartres for a few.  But I’m coming back in December with my best mate and I’m stoked. It’s going to be nippy noodles for sure, but all nice and moody and grey and gorgeous.  (& mmm, Christmas.)
Paris, it’s been good times, and it’s early days yet. You are, how do the French not say it, le bomb. As the few creepers that stalk your streets whisper in my ear, so I will declare you: “la bebe”.  And I was like baby baby baby oh! Paris…it’s been said more than enough. Like, hey, girl, you’re a classy city, but your ego’s liable to get too big for your own good if one more person tells you they love you. But I just can’t help it. Something about your river and your people and hey hey hey, your bread.
Hey, Paris?
Je t’aime.
 Love, Tabby

 

Robyn Robyn Robyn.

Best.
 

Friday, September 21, 2012

God bless Monoprix.

Writing from McDonalds on my iPod because our "borrowed" wifi at the hotel has gone mental on us. So expect this to be short. Basically...Paris is so amazing. I took today really easy because yesterday was v exhausting - and we were at the Louvre til nine thirty! And it's INCREDIBLE- but so surreal, and I almost died over the Davids and Delacroixs (and Mona is every bit as beguiling as people say - it just took seeing her in the flesh to really fall in love with her.) But exhausting for sure. Last night I was so knackered it was only a question of finding any flat surface at all to sleep on, so I figured it would do me well to relax today. Read: bath, crossword, magazine, & baguette & pain chocolat aux amandes by the little island\trail in the middle of the Seine by our hotel.
C'est la vie...la fab fab fab vie.
Write more later?
Peut-etre.
Lovin this gorgey-porgey place though.
xxx and all that jazz,
Tabby

Also God bless Monoprix. Green & navy bowtie blouse, red leather (which I didn't know...and now I feel much more justified in their price) old lady loafers that are just the coolest. Also Monoprix has a sweet graphic designer working for them, it's official. Clearly the rest of the interwebs thinks so too, check out this picture:    

 

Saturday, September 15, 2012

At the end of the day, Paris is a mass of really pretty lights.

I don't imagine I'll get a lot of time to write after tonight - it's just that tonight everyone is major jet-lagged, so add that to our "not going out alone" rule and you have me chilling here with David Sedaris, Gorillaz, and a baguette. Er, yummm. The sun's falling behind a hill clustered with white buildings and trees and France's bitty Statue of Liberty is just outside, holding up her torch to a Paris I can't quite see for massive apartment buildings. Add the dark ribbon of the Seine rolling past my window, a boat loaded up with tourists, and the lights slowly coming on across the city and you have something remarkably like bliss.

Our hotel/apartment (little suites with baby kitchens that are perfectly equipped to make mint herbal tea) is ten minutes walk from the Eiffel Tower. From the other side of the hotel you actually get an aewsome view of it - so a bit depressing that our room happens to be on the wrong side, but then again, the Eiffel Tower, so obviously glorious, is only just a fair competitor for the completely endearing Little Lady Liberty.
 
(Classy crazy zoomed in picture of classy Miss Libertay.)
 

And catching a glimpse of Le Sacre Coeur, set up on the hill, gorgeous and exotic and Parisian as anything, as we shuttled/bussed/metroed/walked into the city was totally one of those perfectly framed, breathless movie moments found in such enduring classics as Passport to Paris or that other well-acclaimed Olsen film noir, Winning London.

And the energy of this city is gorgeous, said with only a bit of throaty enthusiastic sarcasm. We've got a Monoprix on the corner, mais oui, and it was only after buying an armful of groceries that I realized that they don't just give you shopping bags. And the cashier I asked for one really was pissed, especially when, after begging her for one in half broken French, half desparate English, I produced what I thought was a five cent Euro coin, but what was instead a pound coin that had been floating around in my bag. And it was stressful as anything, because, I dunno whether you've noticed, but I feel like French stores move fast. I feel like I had better know exactly what I'm getting and exactly how much to hand over and God HELP me if I hesitate. The point of that? I love that there's this whole city moving around me that doesn't give a crap that I made a fool of myself for a second at the Monoprix. Not like most cities, or towns, or even villages would give a crap, but for some reason it's like, yeah, that kind of stressed me out. Being embarassed does that to you. But who cares? Because the Seine is chillin outside my window, and I get to have croissants fourrés (although I just googled that so I could use the accent on the e, and found a recipe for it using curry. Que??) for breakfast every morning because, hello, chocolate and croissants? Heaven. And I get to make new friends in one of, if not the, most gorgeous cities (y) in the world and I get to live ten minutes from the Eiffel Tower for a week and a half and I get to watch the sun set over Paris and leave the sky the same warm, drowsy hue as the rest of the city lights. Paris, je t'aime.
 
 (Paris is bloody hard to shoot zoomed in, out a window, at night. So we make it intentionally blurry and call it style.)

There! That's better. I dig the different shades in each strip of the picture. Way to go, Paris. Well done.
 
xxx
Tabby



Thursday, September 13, 2012

Adieu darlings!

This is the last day at home before I go, kids!
Next time I talk to ya'll, I'll probably be in Paris. Anyone else weirded out/madly excited/OUT OF THEIR FREAKING MIND about that? Anyone...? Just me...?
Okay, just me.
I am slam-bang absolutely totally madly thrilled about this, with just a little lump in my throat called "mypuppiesandmyfamiliaandautumnhere".  But I think I wouldn't be normal if I didn't. But you just know if I'm homesick on the road, I'll miss the road like crazy when I'm home. Enjoy where you're at, bloom where you're planted, etc., etc., we have got to come up with a better metaphor than that, is the moral, I suppose.
Mes petites amies...let me leave you with a word of advice before I head off.

LISTEN TO GORILLAZ "PLASTIC BEACH". I think ma favorite album evA.

Wise advice, my friends, wise advice.
From the heart.

(And I googleimaged "best tour eiffel pictures" to give you the best possible parting picture. And, mebs due to the confusing amalgamation of languages, Google gave me this. And with that exact look of weird excitement on my face I say, adieu.)
 
 

SEE YOU IN PARIS, KIDS!
 
xxx and all that jazz,
Tabby
 
 
 
Oh, and ps, I probably won't be on here a great deal...but follow me on Instagram - enthusiasmandanthologies - I can guarantee I will be on that far too much. S'laters!


Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Aaaand we love her.



Aaaand we love her.
Goodnight for reals, now.
Unless I find another Lea Seydoux video, of course. Then you, my dear readers, are stuck with me til dawn.
xxx
 

And more.


Mia Freaking Wasikowska.

 

Chloe Freaking Sevigny.

All these Miu Miu videos are just killing me. So bloody good. And, really, the clothes. That's the eternal moral of the story, non?

And for your entertainment: A purposefully (originally so? Er..yeeeah.) skewed sketch of a Mia Waskiowska Miu Miu print ad.
 
 
 

And the adorable Hailee Steinfeld, looking, some of the time, appropriately gleeful. (Because, riddle me this: Who would not be delighted at being surrounded by MIU MIU SHOE TREES???)

Sleep tight
and dream of Miu Miu.
xxx and all that jazz,
Tabby

Beauty Incarnate, Anyone?

Oh good lord.
This is so beautiful. Also anything that has Miu Miu (how great is their recent Chloe Sevigny ad?), Patricia Clarkson, Aubrey Plaza, Zola Jesus, AND the insanely lovely Gemma Arterton? I am sold and a half.
Found on Hanneli Mustaparta's gorgeous blog.
 

xxx and all that jazz,
Tabby

As of five minutes ago, eight days until takeoff!

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Roadtripping

Just got back Friday from a roadtrip through, you know, thrilling places.
(Kansas.)
But also Colorado, Kentucky, Tennesse, lovely places like that.
Also who knew how big antiquing is in rural Tennessee? Child, it's BIG.
Pictures? Mais oui.
Book Cliffs, Colorado

Kansas. They have good sunsets, and...that's all, folks.
 
Rural Tennesse. Right outside Memphis. Green and gorgeous and absolutely devoured by kudzu, which is sad and eerie while being compellingly beautiful. I never got a chance to take pictures of it, but here's some from the World Wide Web - you'll see what I mean. It feels very post-apocalyptic, if that makes any sense. Like in a thousand years from now, the South will be rediscovered and it will be completely covered in kudzu.
And I can't seem to find a National Geographic article on kudzu...for the love, why not? That would make such a great story, not to mention the PICTURES. National Geographic photographer = dream job, anyone?
It makes creepy images, like this girl here.


It eats houses. For a midnight snack.
(Although the fantasty land bit is right - a very creepy fantasy land.)


Mostly, it just kills and covers everything in its path! Cheers!
 
But totally eerily fascinating, right?
 

Graceland.


What's better than Elvis? Two of him.

 

Antiquing in Collierville.

Ditto.

Leaving Piperton.

Nashville, seen through the Nashville filter. #meta, anyone?

Riding a puffin plane back to Utah.

Ten days to takeoff, mes petites amies! Picture post in a few.
And to make sure you have a lovely evening, The Man Repeller:
 


xxx and all that jazz,
Tabby