Paris ‘15, Day 1 – Travelling and Shopping

Hi everyone! I am back from my second trip to Paris this year. I attended several Japan-related events! ^^ I’ve had an amazing time and I can’t wait to tell you all about it! This time I managed to take a lot of pictures and take a lot of videos, so I hope you will like my videos as well! ♥ Here we go~!

On Thursday July 2nd, my friend Iris and I woke up really early. Our bus to Paris would leave at 6:30 am from Amsterdam, so we got our last things together and my parents drove us to the parking lot from where the bus would leave. The night before had been super stressful for me: I had to finish the items I would wear at the Angelic Pretty Tea Party very last minute, something I will never do again! >_< It was terrible and so stressful… At least my items came out really beautiful, but you will have to wait for the Angelic Pretty Tea Party post to see them. ^^
We arrived on time and immediately spotted our bus in the early morning sun. I had just told Iris that it was very unlikely for us to get a good seat for her motion sickness, when the driver told us we were the only passengers until Brussels together with one girl! We had the bus all to ourselves, can you believe it!? So naturally, we chose seats right in the front of the bus.

Our (almost) private bus!
I talked a bit with my parents, we hugged and then it was time to go. Finally, our journey had started!
The drive started out pretty relaxed. We had a lovely view and since it was so early, there wasn’t much traffic. Our driver however probably didn’t notice his microphone was turned on, so we could enjoy the music on the radio with him, which was nice (his regular coughing and sniffing a bit less XD).

On the road at last! This is my favourite bag at the moment.
Belgium however was quite crowded. We ended up in traffic jams once in a while, but never really serious. Finally, we made it to Brussels, where we drove past beautiful churches, houses and temples at first, but ended up in the terribly ugly centre of the city.

One of the very few amazing things we passed in Brussels.
At the train station, a really big group of people needed to get on the bus. Some seemed to have some problems with their tickets, but finally everyone got in (except for one weird guy who seemed to want to get on the bus without a ticket..? Eventually he gave up. Weirdo).

Obligatory bus selfie with Iris. ☆ So fabulous!
Unfortunately, our bus experience went a bit downhill from here. We had switched bus driver and apparently, this driver needed to drive the bus to the head office, where we would switch driver again. To get there, we took a horrific route through the suburbs of the city. I felt really uncomfortable, I can’t really explain it. Everything was ugly, creepy and seemed to be on the brink of collapsing any moment. This is our European capital city? Yikes.
We finally arrived at the head office, where our driver casually started chatting with our new driver (which annoyed me greatly. We were behind on schedule already). Meanwhile, Iris had gone to the toilet but returned with a horrified expression on her face. Apparently, the toilet hadn’t been drained and cleaned. I’ll spare you the details. When she went on to tell the driver, he looked at her with an ‘Oh God, here comes another one’-expression. I’ve had good experiences with this company, but this was very disappointing. This driver was also a total prick. We asked for the air conditioning to be turned up twice and I doubt he ever did.
Thanks to the non-cleaned toilet we had to make a rest stop twice instead of once. Iris tried to cheer me up by picking me a beautiful little flower and it actually helped! ^^

Iris’s little flower was so cute, it deserves a spot on my blog.
The double rest stop plus more traffic resulted into us arriving an hour late in Paris. But finally, we made it! I was so happy when I could finally see the Sacré Coeur and Eiffeltower in the distance

Paris in the distance.
So, there is one thing I should address, which is going to be a recurring theme in my Paris blog posts this time. While we were in Paris, there was a terrible heat wave! Or ‘canicule’, as the French say (I learn new words every time XD). Europe was under the heat wave’s spell everywhere, but unfortunately Paris was one of the worst places… We were hot pretty much 98% of the time. So when we got out of the bus and its air conditioning, the heat slapped us in the face! Iris quickly got redressed and then, our terrible journey of dragging our suitcases through the metro began. God, it was so hot… But finally, we made it to Gare de l‘Est where we waited for my friend Marina to pick us up. Marina and I haven’t known each other for very long, but we soon became really great friends! She is an absolute darling and offered me to stay at her place during the summer events. So kind and sweet and just… ugh! ;_; ♥ I dropped my stuff at Marina’s place, got redressed, briefly met her adorable cat Kuma and we quickly went on to Iris’s hotel to drop off her stuff as well. Then, it was finally time to go and visit the Angelic Pretty pop up store! ♥

The Angelic Pretty and Putumayo store front! ♥
I was so happy to be back at the pop up store! I had already seen pictures of friends camping at the door on the opening day, so I was happy to finally be there myself. The Angelic Pretty staff had brought a lot of very wanted dresses, like Castle Mirage, Misty Sky, Marine Kingdom and Dream Marine.

The store seen through the window.
The pop up store had opened on Tuesday and since it was Thursday now, a lot of items were already gone. How I wish I could have gotten a lucky pack. I love lucky packs… But anyway, there were still a lot of dresses and some accessories left.

Some detail shots of the Angelic Pretty pop up store.
I still found a really cute pair of socks and a set of post cards, so I was happy. ^^ I also got my Tea Party ticket! It was heart-shaped and so super cute!

Isn’t this the cutest invitation to a party you’ve ever seen!?
I also wrote something in the Angelic Pretty guestbook. At the shop, we met up with Roxane, Marina’s friend. I had already met her during La Vie en Rose, but during this trip I got the chance to talk a lot with her. ^^ She is so sweet and fun to talk to!

My page in the guestbook.
Apologies for my awful hand writing. XD
There was also a Putumayo part again in the shop, but to say it bluntly: I wasn’t very interested in that this time. Sorry Putumayo. ;_; The shop looked really cute though, so I will allow them a picture in this blogpost. ^^

The Putumayo part of the store.
I was a little sad Maki and Asuka weren’t at the store that day, but also a bit relieved: I didn’t look very cute, especially next to Marina and Roxane! Finally, we left the shop again.

In front of the pop up store with adorable Roxane and Marina. ♥
It was already around 6:30 pm already by now, but Roxane really wanted to visit the Baby, the Stars Shine Bright shop before it would close, so we went on our way. Unfortunately, the app that showed us the route had miscalculated, so it was a lot further than we thought. Iris and I were completely dead when we arrived at the shop. x)

I love ‘Lolitas in the Wild’ pictures like this. ^^
Being at the Baby Paris shop always makes my heart skip a beat. I will never forget the first time I arrived there, how I cried (in case you want to read about it, you can find the blog post here). Sometimes I still can’t believe such a store exist, or even Lolita fashion exists…

The beautiful Baby store front. ☆
I went inside and browsed the store for a bit. Everything looked beautiful as usual and I was happy to walk around for a bit, look at all the beautiful dresses and chat with shop girl Claire again. ♥

Some detail shots of the Baby, the Stars Shine Bright shop.
Around 7 pm I suggested to go eat at the nearest McDonald’s, which we did. I was so happy we could sit and eat! We were so hot and tired… McDonald’s never tasted so good, haha!
Even though I was very tired, I decided to take Iris to Trocadéro to see the Eiffeltower. It was her first time in Paris, so she just had to see something super Parisian. The Eiffeltower looked absolutely gorgeous in the setting sun.

The Eiffeltower never ceases to impress me…
We sat down for a short while and then I went back to Marina’s house, where I took a delightful cold shower and went to bed. It had been an eventful day and the next one would be just as exciting (and hot)~!

Purchases of the day
And to end this post with, here is the video I made about the first day of my four day trip! I always like how videos give you an idea of what spaces really look like, so this video gives you a bit of ‘moving’ insight in my travelling and of course: the shops. ^^ I hope you like this video! More to come~!



Thank you for reading! ~☆~