Paris ’17, Day 2 – Shopping for Dresses

Saturday was honestly my absolute favourite day, from start to finish. If you think the title of this blogpost cannot possibly sum up this entire day, I can tell you upfront you’re wrong! XD
We woke up on time and needed a bit of time to start doing things. I wasn’t feeling 100% okay yet, so I enjoyed the view for a bit before we got dressed and headed downstairs for breakfast.

I took this artsy picture of our view. It’s stupid, but I like it!
I didn’t eat too much, since I was still feeling a bit nauseous, but sitting outside in the garden was quite refreshing. It wasn’t very hot yet, so I enjoyed the nice temperature and my breakfast.

Breakfast in Paris.
We headed back to our room, gathered our things and went on our way to the Angelic Pretty shop! We were supposed to arrive at 9:30 am, but we were slightly late. I was a bit stressed there would be a line already, but when I ran around the corner into the shop's street there was no one! The shop didn't open until 11 am, but shop girl Pudding opened the door for me and gave me a number. I had number 3! Or actually, I was the second to receive a number, but they had lost no. 1, haha! XD I’ve always wanted to experience standing in line for an Angelic Pretty shop and receive a number, so I could check this off my bucket list now!

No. 3, my lucky number!
I suggested to my mom to have some coffee, but since we just had had breakfast neither of us was really up for it. Instead, we decided to stroll a bit along the Rue de Rivoli and check out the shops there. It was fairly cool in the shade of the buildings, which was nice. One of the first shops that opened had a lovely necklace on display in the shop window, which my mom ended up buying.
By now I was really feeling almost like myself again. We walked along the souvenir shops and naturally somehow ended up with some cute key chains. We always end up with key chains, even if we tell ourselves not to. x)

Checking out the souvenir shops that had just opened up for the day.
We walked by an amazing book store and decided to have a loot. It was hot inside, but they had so many wonderful books! So many beautiful, enticing covers.
A little further down the street, we also found a Ladurée shop that was completely dedicated to tea! All the tea cans and tea sets looked so beautiful. ♥

The colourful and super cute Ladurée tea shop.
Around 10:30 am we returned to the store and sat down on the sidewalk to wait for 11 am. We must have looked a bit strange, just sitting there while waiting. XD We were soon joined by some Lolitas though.

My mom looks so cute, waiting for the store to open. x)
A bit before 11 am I went to stand second in line and finally, a bit after 11 am the door opened. That is when my mission started! Because yes, I was on a mission. I wanted to try and get the Harlequinade special set in pink x sax and I was playing shopping service for a girl from my local community who really wanted the brown Chocolate Rosette special set.
The girl in front of me in line, I and some girls behind me were let in and I jumped towards the dress display. There were two or three brown Chocolate Rosette sets, but I could see only one Harlequinade set in my preferred colourway (no idea whether they also had some in the back). The first girl took a look at it, but seemed to move on, so I said: 'Can I have it?' Once I had the dress in my hands, I did not let go anymore, haha! I also grabbed a brown Chocolate Rosette set. Mission accomplished!
I had almost forgotten the lucky bags though! Luckily, one of the shopping girls said: 'Do you want a lucky bag too?' I was like: 'Yes please!' I took my two dresses and bag to the counter to pay. I didn't really need to check any of the other items in the shop. Once at the counter, I also got myself a British Crown clear file (I love clear files dammit) and to my great happiness I also received a special novelty! Since I was spending over 300 euros thanks to the shopping service dress, I received a wonderful pink Angelic Pretty jewelry box! I was ridiculously excited about it, haha!
In about 20 minutes I was already outside again! I've never shopped so fast at Angelic Pretty in my life. My mom was very happy about it. XD I took some pictures of me with the bags in front of the store and I sent a message to the girl I shopped for I had managed to get her dress.

Missions accomplished! ♥
After that, we went to the sweets store next to the Angelic Pretty shop, where my mom bought a lovely cookie jar.
By now we had gotten a bit hungry, so we decided to go to Japanese bakery Aki. I really wanted to show my mom this wonderful place! We walked in the direction of the bakery, but I couldn't remember which street it was at again. Luckily, we passed Junku, the Japanese book shop. I thought there they would likely know the bakery’s address, so I went inside to ask for directions, when suddenly I wondered... Would they have any Takarazuka Revue magazines? I expected a 'no', and when I asked the shop girl about it she initially didn't understand what I meant. When I repeated, she walked ahead of me and pulled out a Takarazuka Graph magazine! I literally gasped! I had never expected to find this magazine anywhere in Europe! Apparently the shop doesn't always carry it, so I was extremely lucky! Aaah, I still can't believe it!

I’m still so psyched about finding this magazine!
The kind Junku shop staff pointed us in the right direction and soon we found the bakery. They had so many amazing options, my mom and I had a hard time deciding on what to get! Eventually I went for a salmon mayo onigiri, a matcha melon pan and a diet coke while my mom also went for a salmon mayo onigiri and diet coke, but combined with a lemon éclair. We took our food downstairs, sat down and chatted while eating.

Not the best pictures of our food (we were hungry
so we wanted to eat fast), but you get the idea.
The food was so good! ♥ I had been to Aki before, with Marina, but it was new for my mom and she loved it too! I was so happy!
After we had finished our food, we returned to our hotel to get rid of the shopping bags. Seeing my purchases on the bed made me so happy!

Happy with my shopping! ♥
We rested for a short while and then went on our next mission: finding me a final singing exam dress!
In case you didn't know: I'm studying classical singing and in November I will be, hopefully, graduating. For my final exam I will be creating a performance with various repertoire and naturally, I am required to look the part. My mom and I had joked about 'Buying a dress in Paris, doesn't that sound fancy?', but now we actually wanted to try and do so! So we went on our way to Montmartre.
Why Montmartre you might ask? Two reasons. First of all, the Boulevard de Magenta is well-known for being filled with shop after shop of bridal- and party dresses. Secondly: when my mom and I took a bus tour through Montmartre during our previous Paris trip, we drove by a bridal store that had a beautiful dress on display in the window. Even though I only saw it in the flash of a second, I knew I wanted to have a dress like that: royal blue with a sparkly bodice.
Naturally, focusing so much on finding such a specific dress isn't a very good idea. Instead, I decided I wanted a blue dress with sparkles, preferably with a wide skirt. That way, it can be any kind of blue, any kind of sparkles and any kind of shape. I thought that was a good goal.
I had done my utmost best to try and find the store we had seen back then and I thought I had actually found it after tracking down our bus route in Google Maps, so we decided to visit some of the stores I had noted that were located close to it along the Boulevard de Rochechouart and then move on to the Boulevard de Magenta.
We spent some time going and in and out of shops. It quickly became clear that these shops were a bit on the cheaper side. The dresses weren’t necessarily cheap in price, but slightly cheap-looking. You know what I mean? We did find the shop I had seen and they had a lot of dresses, but nothing that really appealed to me. In another shop I encountered a dress I liked very much, however it looked quite worn out already, so we continued our search.
At a certain point we considered heading for the Boulevard de Magenta, but we noticed one more shop I had noted in the distance, so we decided to go there. It was a shop mainly aimed at Muslim women, with beautiful and colourful garments and sparkly jewelry. I bought two gorgeous rings there, however it was not what I was looking for. However, it turned out they had another shop right across the street, for party dresses. I was reluctant to go though. The garments were stunning, however not what I was looking for myself at all. My mom however wanted to go, so we went.

A picture of some beautiful Parisian balconies, to break the big blog text off a bit. ;)
When we entered the store, it was clear they were having a big sale. The shop was filled with women shopping for party garments (and God some of the dresses were just stunning). However, all of them had sleeves and were very different from what I was looking for. I managed to get up the stairs and to the back of the store, where they had more dresses. After looking around for a bit I found the dress I had seen at a different store, the worn out one! Although here it was new and beautiful and actually cheaper! The dress had a beautiful night blue colour and the bodice was covered in sparkly crystals. It reminded me of the Queen of the Night. I decided to try it on. I waited for a while, since the fitting rooms were very full, but a kind girl came up to me and guided me to a room, where she helped me in and out of the dress. Everything went really fast and hectic because of the many customers, but when I walked out of the dressing room and looked at myself in the mirror I felt like time stopped for a moment. The dress was so beautiful… Even on me it looked so beautiful. Normally I am terrible at making decisions, but here my choice was right in front of me. I wanted this dress!
Even better: this dress came with a matching cape! I’m not kidding. It’s a stunning cape in the same material as the skirt and covered in sparkly applications. No idea whether I’ll ever wear it but I love it! I tried the dress in a size smaller, but eventually went for the bigger one because it would be easier to alter. All in all I had made my decision in like ten minutes, an incredible record for me! Even more so, we had found a dress within two hours! I am still amazed at myself. XD
I went to pay and we left the shop. We went to sit on a bench in the small park across from the store to get some rest after the overly crowded store. After that, we strolled around Montmartre for a bit and took some pictures of the Sacré Coeur, but I had gotten so tired that we decided to go back to the hotel.

Beautiful Sacré Coeur.
On our way to the hotel, we picked up two big raspberry macarons at the bakery close to the hotel. We ate them while sitting in the hotel garden, which was really relaxing and nice.
We rested in our room for a bit and then went out again to have some dinner at the Italian restaurant across the street. We had a very cute waiter there, haha!
My mom and I both ordered tagliatelle carbonara and we shared the most divine raspberry tiramisu (it was so good, oh my God).

Our divine dinner. Can I go back to eat this again please?
Back at our hotel room I took a bath (which I rarely do, I prefer showers) and spent the rest of the evening watching Fort Boyard with a French actor I happened to know. Honestly, after such a good day and such a good meal just watching a fun tv show laying on the bed while my mom was reading a book… I truly felt so content at that moment. I remember distinctly thinking: ‘Yes, right now I’m really happy.’
Finally, we went to sleep. It had been an eventful day.
By the way, I’m very sorry, but I won’t be showing you what my final exam dress looks like. Except for very few people, nobody knows what my dress looks like and I want to keep it that way until my actual exam, as to not to jinx it. I’m sorry. x(

Purchases and gifts of the day
Thank you for reading! ~☆~