Holidays: Chapter V

One day during my holidays in France, I went and had a very nice walk in the Pyrenees with my sister and my aunt. Her husband, who is also my godfather, joined us afterwards and we had a veeeery nice lunch. Here are a few pictures of a perfect day. And of my beautiful Pyrenees.






One surprising thing when you're up there is that there are some lamas wandering around freely. They were introduced some years ago and now they reproduce themselves as you can see on the picture above. The baby had such amazing hair, it looked so soft. You almost felt like touching him. Although it was quite clear that the mum wouldn't have appreciated that!

Some well deserved foie gras as a starter of a fabulous lunch in the sun at "Louisette's".

Thanks G for a wonderful day!

Farewell Logo for MJ

I was not a biiiig fan of Michael Jackson although I liked his music a lot. I think I am like many of us, hadn't listened to his music for a very long time and gladly re-discovered some of his great work. I didn't want to write anything about him and I found quite annoying all these people writing "Miss MJ" and this kind of silly stuff on Facebook or blogs...

Nevertheless, I found this image this morning and can't stop thinking that it's brilliant. What do you think?

Farewell Logo for Michael Jackson

Source: http://mylescreative.co.za/2009/08/26/farewell-logo-for-michael-jackson/

Super Victoria

Victoria de Suède est l'héritière du trône et une descendante de Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, originaire de Pau. Elle a rencontré son prince charmant il y a longtemps déjà mais au printemps dernier, elle a enfin obtenu le droit d'épouser son Daniel (reportage Point de Vue ici).

Ce n'est pas des histoires de coeur de Victoria dont je voulais vous parler aujourd'hui mais de ses tenues vestimentaires. En tant que princesse héritière, elle est sous les projecteurs des photographes depuis sa plus tendre enfance. Et on avait plutôt tendance à dire d'elle qu'elle s'habillait de facon un peu sévère et un peu mémère parfois. Surtout comparé à sa jeune soeur Madeleine qui est plus "fashion".

Mais ces derniers temps, Victoria a changé et s'habille de facon plus jeune, plus féminine, plus tendance et ca lui réussit bien. Lorsque je suis tombée sur les photos ci-dessous j'ai été bluffée! Je suis ou j'essaie de suivre la mode, je lis Elle en francais et suédois, je suis des blogs mais souvent il s'agit de la mode de la rue, du streetstyle qui est en pleine croissance et on ne parle que de ca. J'aime bien le coté naturel du streetstyle et le fait que cela fasse plus "vrai" que les pages glacées des magazines mais parfois ca tourne au n'importe quoi et je vois rarement des femmes élégantes (sauf peut-être chez Garance Doré et Scott Schuman / The Sartorialist).




Et justement sur cette photo je trouve que Victoria déborde d'élégance. Elle a trouvé son style et il lui va tres bien. Victoria, tu es superbe!




Cliquez sur les photos pour les agrandir. Et notamment sur celle du sac à main, vous verrez sa bague de fiancailles.

I (heart) H&M III

Vous savez sûrement que je suis une cliente fidèle d'H&M (ici et ici entre autres). Et bien H&M me le rend bien. Déjà l'an dernier, j'avais recu de l'argent en achetant une paire de chaussures neuves (ici). Explications.

Ici en Suède, H&M a un programme de fidélisation avec une carte qui permet de cumuler des points. Assez classique me direz-vous. Mais efficace! Chaque fois que je dépense 2000 couronnes (200€), je recois un chèque de 50 SEK (5€). Parallèlement à ca, je recois une newsletter et des mailings avec des promos spéciales et réservées aux membres du H&M Club. 20% de réduc sur les manteaux une semaine, 10% sur la lingerie, 10% supplémentaires sur les soldes...

Mais le top du top c'est le guldbonus, autrement dit "le bonus en or". Ils calculent combien vous avez dépensé en une année et envoient un chèque supplémentaire. Ci-contre vous pouvez voir les échelons. J'ai recu cette semaine un de ces chèques d'une valeur de 200 SEK car j'ai dépensé 8750 SEK!!!! 875€ chez H&M en un an c'est énorme!! Telle fût ma réaction au départ et puis j'ai refléchi à ce que j'avais pu acheter... Et je me suis souvenu. Que je passe ma carte quand je suis avec des amis qui n'en ont pas. Comme mes frenchies par exemple.

Ouf! Je n'ai donc pas été SI déraisonnable que ca. Juste un peu. Mais c'est pas grave vu qu'H&M me le rend bien. ;-)

Holidays: Chapter IV

Chapter IV is Paris but it's a very short one. I was there 1½ day only. Had sushi with Anne-Aurore and Dimitri and then I joined Helene and Stephane for a drink and then we went to see a photography exhibition. As in the good old days. =) In the evening, I had dinner with my newly wed cousin Guillaume and his wifey Alice and listened to them telling about their honeymoon in Greece.

The day after (Monday), I went to buy my 30-year old present from my mum. I loooooooooooooooove it!!! (Mine is like on the picture but doesn't have a blue screen but a white one though). After that I had lunch with my ex roomate Lucile. After that a bit of shopping and soon it was time to go to the train station and grab a train. 5½ short (not) hours later I arrived in Pau. But that's chapter V...

Holidays: mum

By the way, I don't know if you noticed but in the previous post you could see my mum. I circled her now. I know she looks very small!!! That's because of my bad camera, I had to stand quite far from her and the church in order to capture most of the building. And also because this same building, namely Cathédrale de Fourviere, is huuuuge!


My very good friends and newly weds Julie & Frank (see chapter I) were in Lyon and Bourgogne last week-end to celebrate Julie's 30 year old Bday (Happy happy Bday again Julie-Chou!!!!Wished I had been there with you... ) and I saw Frank's pics. Goooood I want a good camera now! Might fix one of these by Xmas.

Holidays: Chapter III

Chapter III is Lyon. I had never been in Lyon and people keep telling how beautiful this city is. And how good the food is and how it is the capital of food in France. In other words, the capital of the world for food as the French cuisine is the best in the world, hahaha! Chauvinist me? Nah... ;-)

So I asked my mum if she wanted to come with me and she agreed. Nice mummy! We spend 2,5 days there and I really liked the city. Beautiful town!

We walked around quite a lot, did some shopping and ate a lot of very good food and drank a lot of very good wine. And I was with my mum so it was even better! :)

Holidays: Chapter II

Finally! Chapter II is Reims where I studied for 4 years between 1999 and 2003 although I was not much there the last 2 years as I was also in Paris and in Halmstad, Sweden. Some of my family live there so I spend a week there. I went to my business school and took part in the jury for the oral examinations. It's really interesting, I loved it!

We also went to the Moët & Chandon "caves de champagne". One of my uncle is working there and he had arranged a private session for me, my aunt & uncle (another one), two of their kids and me. It was really great and of course Moët & Chandon champagne is really good! We drank some rosé, my favourite!!

After that we went to Reims and visited the cathédrale and the St Remi church. I had actually never been in the St Remi church!!!

This September, it will be 10 years since I entered Reims Management School. Time goes so fast... 10 years since I met Alexandra, Anne-Aurore, Mélanie, Julie, Philippe, Céline and many more.

If you wonder what it is on the picture on the right, it's a chandelier made with champagne glasses!! It's hanging from the ceiling at Moët & Chandon. Go and see it!

Shopping

Quelle est la différence entre H&M et Zara? Le prix! Hier j'ai dépensé exactement 550 SEK (environ 55€) dans chaque magasin.
Chez Zara j'ai eu: un gros pull / cardigan en laine noir.
Chez H&M j'ai eu: une robe en coton violet avec des grosses fleurs (Sophie, celle qu'on avait vu a Barcelone, je l'ai prise finalement), un sac à main marron en toile et simili-cuir et une ceinture gris-taupe.

Avant que Zara n'arrive à Göteborg, j'achetais beaucoup de fringues chez H&M, maintenant je trouve que le suédois est un peu trop basique... mais bon sur ces mêmes basiques donc je me "focusse" sur ca. Et je traverse la rue pour aller chez l'espagnol acheter quelques pièces qui ont plus de caractère.

Et au final, je dépense toujours trop, hahaha!

Way out West

I know I haven't put up more pictures but I was out a lot this week-end and now Fanny and Virginie are here and I try to spend more time with them than in front of my computer choosing pics and making some collage. But I will do it don't worry.

The girls are staying two weeks and I am really happy about that. Even better is the fast that Fanny is cooking and Virginie cleaning the dishes almost every day so it feels like holidays in my own home, I don't do anything!

One of the main reason for their visit here (beside a swedish course and hopefully see me) is the Way out West festival. It's in Slottskogen which is approx. 10-15 min walk from my place. That is the perfect festival: in town so that you can go home and sleep in your own bed instead of camping under a tent now showering and peeing behind a tree for 3 days...

This is only the 3rd edition of the festival but it's already a very good one. Look who was playing on only one of the three stages the first year:
Erykah Badu
Kanye West
Laleh
Manu Chao
Moneybrother
Salem Al Fakir
Shout Out Louds
The Ark
The Hellacopters
The Hives

Impressive no?

This year's program looks very interesting too, I don't know everything but just the fact that I'm going to see Robyn and that she will have many guests is making me really excited and impatient!

(Click on the image to make it bigger)

Mad Men

Mad Men is the name of a quite recent TV-shwo that I discovered two months ago approximatively. No these men are not crazy they work on Madison Avenue (Mad, Madison... got it?). The plot is about a group of people working as I said on Madison Avenue in 1963. It's quite funny to see their clothes, to see that they were smoking (all the time!) inside, that the men are executive and the women secretaries answering the phone and writing on typing machines, etc.

Now you can transport yourself back to the 60's and choose a new (virtual life). Here is what I would have looked like: feminine, chic and independant. And then, the size of my butt would actually be the rule rather than the exception! ;-)

Source: madmenyourself.com

Holidays: Chapter I

First week-end of my holidays. Julie and Frank's wedding. Julie is French and Frank, Norwegian and they got married in Tours where Julie comes from. There were around 60 Norwegians so there was a good mix of guests and it was really cool. Nice weather, nice people, great place, good food, lots to drink, good music and some of my dear dear friends. What else can you actually ask for?


I am not publishing any pics of the bride and groom as I haven't had the chance to ask for their authorisation... Jou & Lou, do you mind? ;)

Holidays: the program

First of all, let me show where I was during these holidays before I have been travelling quite a lot within France.

I arrived in France on the 3rd of July in the evening and stayed overnight in Paris before I headed to Tours for Julie & Frank's wedding. On the 6th, between Tours and Reims, I also slept overnight in Paris. But it's short to be mentionned in the list (woke up at 6 and had a train at 7:30 in both cases... short nights!).

1. Tours, 4-5 July
   
2. Reims + Epernay, 6-12 July with and intermede
3. Lyon, 8-10 July
   
4. Paris, 12-13 July
   
5. Artigueloutan (my hometwon / village near Pau), 13-25 July with some escapades
6. St Jean de Luz, 19-21 July
7. Barcelona, 22-24 July
8. Paris again, 25-26 July

And back to Sweden. Pretty exhausting uh? But so much woooorth it!

3

3 ans le 3 août. Qui ca? La prunelle de mes yeux, the most beautiful thing in the world, la 8e merveille du monde, den sööööötaste bebisen i världen, the thing that sometimes makes me regret moving to Sweden and counting the days I have left until I see him again, min lilla prinsen, celui qui a transformé mon frère en un mec bien.

Clément!!

1 an et quelque...

2 ans et quelque...

2 ans et ½

C'est fou ce qu'il grandit!!! Bon anniversaire mon filleul préféré!