Promenade de Paris

A little intermission between my Paris posts (there are four more to come, I hope you’re not bored yet), because I wanted to show you something that makes me really happy! On Tuesday, July 24th, my package from my shopping service chibi_tenshi arrived! After tracking my package for several days (Japan post is sooo much faster than in my own country) the postman finally delivered my long-awaited dress to me! I was just about to run some errands, so I was glad I didn’t leave one minute earlier! Of course I just had to unpack my package immediately, while my mom took pictures of my super excited face. When I pulled the dress out of the plastic, I couldn’t help but smile so big! The dress was amazing, even prettier than I remembered! I ran upstairs to dress up Dolly (my mannequin) and then left to run the errands after all. Of course, when I got back it was picture time!

The whole dress and the head bow. The little white bow is detachable!

A close up of the gorgeous print!

And a close up of the head bow. I love the little pink bows on the sides!
I am so incredibly happy to own this dress! It feels like we were meant to be together, haha! I can’t wait to wear it!
I also took some pictures of the set I have won at the Angelic Pretty Tea Party! I am super in love with my French Doll dress!

The whole dress. The red belt is removable!

A close up. I love the Eiffeltower brooch!

And the barrette bow and socks. I love that they both say ‘Bonjour’!
What I really like about this dress is that it’s totally my style, but I probably would never have bought it. Now I got it as a gift! *_* I will cherish this dress forever!
I feel incredibly lucky for getting two beautiful, French-themed dresses that are so incredibly my style within such a short amount of time! So do you like my new dresses? Did you recently obtain a Dream Dress yourself? Let me know! ^^

Paris, Day 4 – Angelic Pretty Tea Party

On Sunday morning, we woke up early again, because it was the day of the Angelic Pretty Tea Party! You might remember from last year’s post that the Tea Party took place in the Ritz Hotel, one of Paris’ most famous hotels. This year, the Tea Party took place in Le Meurice, another one of Paris’ most famous hotels! I admit that I had never heard of it before, but the French Lolitas were quite ecstatic about it! The theme of the Party was ‘An afternoon with Madame de Pompadour’ and both Emilie and I were very happy about it, since the theme perfectly fit the dresses we had in mind!
Since the Tea Party would start at 2 pm, we had plenty of time to get ready. Emilie suggested to visit Montmartre in the morning and it sounded like a great idea to me. We got dressed and planned to buy some things at the bakery near the hotel, take them to Montmartre and eat them there. But when we left the hotel and walked up to the bakery, it was closed! Which made sense, since it was a Sunday. Ahem. -_-We decided to proceed to Montmartre and get something to eat for breakfast there. We took the metro to Abbesses and walked through the deserted streets of Montmartre. It was strange to be there almost all alone, while this place is usually filled with people. We arrived at the foot of the Montmartre hill with Sacré Coeur on top. It was already quite warm (we hoped we would be okay in our dresses later that day) and the white church looked beautiful in the sun.

Sacré Coeur looked so beautiful in the sunlight!
As it was still early in the morning, not many shops were open. This resulted into us getting a very healthy breakfast: a warm waffle with nutella and a can of juice (well, ice tea for me, I had a sore throat). We sat down on a bench next to the carousel and ate our breakfast. There were no annoying string men (read my last year’s post if you want to know what I’m talking about) and the only people were groups of tourists doing an early tour with a guide. There were also some homeless guys, who had slept on the second floor of the carousel (which is quite smart in my opinion) and who were looking for their stuff in the bushes.
We finished our waffles, took some pictures around the carousel and then walked up to the Funiculaire, the special little tramline that takes you up the steep hill. We arrived upstairs and Emilie showed me the location where the Angelic Pretty Tea Party was held a couple of years ago. I remembered the pictures and the location was really amazing!
The view over Paris was wonderful. Everything is better with sunshine and that definitely counts for Paris as well.

The view down from the hill.
We followed the road and I showed Emilie a spot where you could see the Eiffeltower (with a little effort).
I had told Emilie I didn’t really feel like going into Sacré Coeur. I had been there before and I didn’t feel the need to see the big art work with the angry Jesus on it again. But since we had loads of time and Emilie had never been there before, we decided to go in after all. The entrance to the church is free, but two very smart collectors were standing on both sides of the doors with a little basket, making people feel like they had to at least give something. It worked well and we gave some money as well.
The church was way bigger than I remembered and much more impressive (I was glad we had gone inside after all)! We enjoyed the beautiful sculptures and were annoyed by people taking pictures, ignoring the signs asking you not to. Emilie agreed with me that the big Jesus portrait looked indeed very angry. Somehow we got to a point that we should join the ‘Angry Jesus’-religion and that we should pray to both win a prize at the Angelic Pretty Tea Party (we were really not serious about this all, don’t worry. XD). We left the church again and since we still had plenty of time, we decided to walk up to Place du Tertre, the famous square with all the painters. We walked up the steep street and were quickly asked by someone if we wanted to have our portraits painted. ^^ We politely declined and walked on. I was surprised (and also not really) by the fact that even here we found a Starbucks. It looked quite cute and the exterior of the building fit the buildings around it quite well. We looked at some stores (I discovered the most adorable cat postcards) and Emilie bought a little mirror with a Mucha painting on the back for her mom.
It was really relaxing to just walk through the little streets and look at the goods you could buy at the shops. After a while, it was time for us to go back to the hotel and finally get dressed. We went back to Sacré Coeur and took the Funiculaire down. There was one string man who of course had to talk to me, but I managed to get rid of him. We took the metro back to the hotel, but when we arrived there we discovered our room and bed hadn’t been made yet. We wanted to prevent a situation where the maid (or guy) came in while we were getting ready, so we asked downstairs if it was possible to have our room cleaned so we could shower and stuff. I hope they didn’t think we were too annoying. ^^’ After waiting for a while, our room was done and we could start getting ready.
We both pulled out our dresses and lay them down on the bed: Eternal Rose Bouquet in ivory for Emilie, Lady Rose in pink for me. I was very excited to finally wear this dress. After I had bought it in Japan I kept it especially for the Angelic Pretty Tea Party! We both freshened up and got started. My hair style, a really big bump, took significantly less time than on Friday, luckily, and soon the matching pink canotier, lavender bow with dangling diamonds and pink and mint flowers were placed on my head. It felt weird to feel the canotier against my ear, but I soon got used to it. I looked quite interesting: bloomers, shirt and a big, elaborate hair style. XD I helped Emilie with her hair style and she helped me zip up my dress (which zipped up a lot easier than my Baby dress). Then I put on my socks, shoes, accessories, petticoat, etc. We were both finished perfectly on time, so we also took some pictures.

Some hotel room pictures! Do you like our outfits?
While Emilie took pictures of me, I started to feel really hot and a little nauseous (my mind was like: ‘Oh God, please don’t get sick now!), but after some water I felt better. We got our things and left the hotel room.
Downstairs, before we could leave the hotel, the reception lady wanted to take a look at us and she said we looked so beautiful. ^^ Apparently we were not that annoying after all.
We walked to the station (drawing more attention than last Friday) and took the metro to Concorde (again), where we transferred to line 1. We got out at the next station, Tuileries, and walked up the stairs. We got out at Rue de Rivoli, a very crowded and touristic street. While we were waiting for the traffic lights to become green, a man holding his little daughter’s hand asked me: ‘Are you a princess?’ I was so overwhelmed by the fact I got called a princess I said: ‘Oh uhm… I don’t know. Maybe?’ Brilliant respond on my part. XD
We crossed the street and went left. Rue de Rivoli is next to the Louvre and everything looks fancy! I was hoping we were going the right way. After a little walk, we passed ice cream shop ‘Angelina’ and Emilie said Le Meurice should be next to it. It was! The brolita we had met the day before, Simone, was just going inside (he wore Day Dream Carnival and had a beautiful Rococo-like hair style with feathers), so we followed him.
Le Meurice looked indeed incredibly fancy and expensive. The room where the Tea Party was held was in the back, so we walked straight into the receiving hall next to it.

Even the sign announcing the Tea Party looked fancy!
There were already some girls, like Hoa and Vera! Hoa looked beautiful in her white Lady Rose (twinsies!) and big hat filled with flowers. Vera wore Fancy Box in a beautiful coordinate. Both looked amazing! ♥
Emilie and I took some pictures. Coincidentally, we were standing next to the table where Dominique and Madame Cocotte were doing something, when Dominique invited us to pick a pin with a number. As we were the first, we could choose any number we wanted! I immediately picked number 3, my favourite number, while Emilie chose number 8. Then, we were invited inside the Pompadour room, where Madame Pretty, Asuka and the Yokohama shop girl welcomed us. I can tell you: the room was stunning! Modeled after Château de Versailles, it had mirrors and chandeliers everywhere, a big painting of Madame de Pompadour herself and little tables scattered around. There was a long table with two men, waiting to serve us drinks and another table filled with prizes!

The Tea Party room was like a tiny version of Versailles!
Emilie and I chose a table at the back of the room, close to the prize table. We were soon joined by Vera and a Russian Lolita named Alice, who wore the famous ‘Gossiping Cats’ print! Emilie and I left our things at the table and walked around, taking pictures of everything, starting at the prizes table (hey, no harm in being curious right? ^^). The most amazing prizes were selected and so many! There were small prizes, like a pair of socks or a tote bag, bigger prizes like a Lyrical Bunny bag or a t-shirt + badges set and of course the really big prizes: a complete set with either a skirt or a jumperskirt, matching socks and a matching bow or barrette. Everything looked amazing!

The prizes table~! *_*
I especially loved the second prize: a lovely set of the polka dotted French dress I had seen in the shop in black, with matching socks that had ‘Bonjour!’ embroidered on them and a matching barrette bow. There was also a Milky Planet set in sax and the big, ‘best-of-them-all prize’ was a Dreamy Baby Room set. The best dressed winner would win a beautiful watch and there was also a special prize: a drawing made by Maki for her favourite outfit. So many prizes! *_*
More girls were entering and Emilie and I took some pictures of each other. We also took pictures with Madame Pretty. ^^

With Madame Pretty! She really loved pink and red outfits!
I was really frustrated by my camera: every picture I took was blurry and I didn’t want to end up with nothing useful. Just then, always wonderfully matching twins Vief and Annso came in (wearing Star Night Theater ♥). Vief heard me talking, took my camera, changed some settings and saved my day~!
I noticed Maki still hadn’t shown up. For a moment I thought she had gotten sick or something, but then Asuka’s voice sounded through the room and we all gathered around her and the translator. She welcomed us and told us the program for the day: chatting, taking pictures, cake, lottery, outfit contest, etc. She also told us there would be a small fashion show and behind us a door opened and Maki appeared, followed by four girls. They were all wearing the newest Angelic Pretty lines: Musée du Chocolat and Melty Royal Chocolate! Maki and the French Lolitas looked stunning! They all posed for us and Maki and Asuka told us some things about the new lines.

Musée du Chocolat on the left, Melty Royal Chocolate on the right. ^^
I could tell Musée du Chocolat would get popular: not many Lolitas can resist a chocolate print! ;) After the little fashion show, we could walk around to talk and take pictures. Several waiters walked around with plates of small appetizers, which were so freaking good! I have no idea what I ate actually, but everything was amazing and so fancy!
We took some pictures with Libellule (in Melty Chocolate), Marie (in Wonder Story) and Cecile (in Sweetie Chandelier). They all looked amazing! It was really nice to talk to them, they are such sweet girls!

Emilie and Libellule. They both looked so wonderful!
We finally got the chance to take pictures with Maki! I was so in love with her awesome hair style! Musée du Chocolat looked wonderful on her as well!

With Maki! ♥
We took a lot of pictures with other girls and finally Emilie took her Angelic Pretty mook out of her bag, to have it signed by both Maki and Asuka. Emilie’s picture is used for the ‘European Lolitas’ page! ^^ First she asked Maki and showed her her picture. Maki was really enthusiastic and gladly signed!

Maki signing Emilie’s mook. I love this picture!
We asked Asuka a little later (somehow she didn’t seem to know about the mook? Interesting. XD). Emilie and I walked around a lot and took pictures with people. It was a lot of fun to look at everyone’s outfits. I had a hard time choosing my favourite coordinate! ^^’

Lady Rose twins!
We also took a picture with the Yokohama shop girl, who wore Freshly Picked Strawberries (red looks really great on her)!. She took pictures of everyone solo. I wonder if there will be a page about the Tea Party in Kera Magazine again..?

I loved the outfit of the Yokohama shop girl so much!
Emilie’s friends Lou, BloodyQueen and Tro-tro appeared and we talked with them for a while. We also took pictures of course! Tro-tro and Bloody both wore a mermaid-inspired outfit, so pretty! Lou looked adorable as always too! ♥

Mermaid Princesses Tro-tro and Bloody!
We also took instant pictures with Maki and Asuka! Maki pointed at my hair and said we had the same hair style! ^^
After a while, we were told there would be cake! Two beautiful cakes were served: one white cake with red letters that spelled ‘Angelic’ and stars and one dark chocolate cake with red letters that spelled ‘Pretty’ and flowers. It was amazing to see how everyone jumped on the cakes to take pictures, including Asuka and the Yokohama shop girl! XD

The two amazing cakes!
Emilie and I both chose chocolate (of course) and got it served with warm vanilla sauce. *_* We also got some delicious juice.
We went back to our table to enjoy our cake and drinks. The chocolate cake was so incredibly divine… I still have dreams about it! Vera had chosen the white cake (strawberry). I tried a piece and it was good, but the chocolate one won easily! Vera agreed with me, haha!
Then it was time for the lottery! Maki would draw numbers from a box and if they called out your number, you won something! Maki and Asuka wished us luck and the lottery started.

Maki looking adorable while drawing numbers.
First were the pairs of socks and our table mate Alice won a lovely lavender pair! Then were the tote bags and Vera won one! She later told us she had been planning to buy the exact tote bag she had won! Lucky her~! Then were the Lyrical Bunny bags and Vief won one! It’s not really her style (very pink), but still! Then were the t-shirt sets and Annso and Libellule won a set! They were both very happy. ^^

Lucky winners!
Every time someone won something, Asuka handed them an Angelic Pretty bag. Sometimes she had to run after someone, because they forgot their bag, haha! XD
After a while, Emilie and I still had a chance to win one of the big prizes. The third prize, the skirt set, was won by a lovely girl in red. Then, the second prize was up: the beautiful French dress set. I looked calm from the outside, but from the inside I went: ‘Number three! Three! Trois! Trois! Please, number three!!!’
‘Numéro trois! Three!’ the translator said. The noise I made was probably not human, but I couldn’t believe it! The set I wanted, so, so, SO badly was won by me! I must have looked like I was about to cry (I always show emotions really well), but I was so happy! Asuka handed me the beautiful set and I posed for the cameras. When she helped me put the set into a bag, I told her I was so happy and she and Maki smiled. :’)
I returned to my seat, completely dazed, but I didn’t have much time to recover. The next set was up, the Milky Planet dress, and despite the fact I didn’t have a chance for that one anymore, I wanted to see who won it. ‘Numéro huit! Eight!’ the translator said and I jumped up and grabbed my camera. Emilie was number 8, she won the Milky Planet set! We were both so lucky!!! *o*
A lovely girl I hadn’t met before won the Dreamy Baby Room set and then the lottery was over. Alice, Vera, Emilie and I took a picture together with our prizes. We were one lucky table!

Our lucky table and my super happy face!
Emilie and I admired each other’s prizes, repeating how we couldn’t believe how lucky we both were! We joked about how Angry Jesus must have loved us and how it helped us that we visited the Sacré Coeur after all. XD
We took some more pictures and then it was time for the outfit contest! After a drumroll, the winner was announced: it was the lovely Simone! He posed for pictures and received the beautiful watch as a prize. Then Maki’s favourite was announced: it was Hoa (aka Harlyharlekin)! She received Maki’s beautiful drawing.

The amazing winners posing for the cameras!
We had some more time to walk around. I took some ‘bustle pictures’ with Bloody and Cecile. We were all wearing a dress with a bustle back, so we decided we were the ‘bustle back club’! ^^

I present to you: the Bustle Back Club. Members: Bloody, Cecile and Rosalynn.
Emilie and I also asked Maki and Asuka to sign our instant pictures. I am so happy with mine! ♥ I love instant pictures and the ones I got during these days are so special!

Maki and Asuka signing our instant pictures!
The Tea Party was coming to an end, but first we took a group picture! Because our group wasn’t that big, the picture came out really nice! I took the picture from the Angelic Pretty site. They made a really nice, big post about it!

Our wonderful group! ♥
Then the Tea Party was over. Maki and Asuka thanked us for coming and told us what our Tea Party gift would be: a little bag in three colours (sax, pink and black, we could choose) and a badge. While everyone slowly left the room, we thanked Dominique and Madame Cocotte for all their hard work and I could give Dominique my gift: a can of ‘stroopwafels’, a Dutch delicacy. We also took a picture together. ^^

With Dominique!
Emilie and I left the room and we both chose a gift: Emilie chose black, I chose pink. I realized I still didn’t have a picture with Asuka alone, so this was my chance!

With Asuka! ♥
I also gave Maki and Asuka my gifts: a bag of Old Dutch peppermint candies, with a little thank you card attached to them. They were so happy with them, I am so glad! ♥ ^^

Lovely Asuka and Maki with my candies! I am so glad they liked them!
We thanked the staff again and went to take some pictures with Vief and Annso (some didn’t turn out so great, oh well) and then finally left Le Meurice (after explaining Lolita fashion to a lovely lady). We decided to take some pictures in Jardin des Tuileries, since the hotel was just across from it. We said goodbye to Hoa and Ada and entered the big park. Not long after, people started asking us for pictures. We were quite popular and just couldn’t say no, especially to children. The only annoying people were the people who didn’t ask for a picture, but just snapped some. What’s the use of having pictures of strange people posing with Lolitas who aren’t even looking at you? Oh well.
Despite our popularity (XD), we managed to take some pictures with the ferris wheel as a background. I had a lot of problems with the sun reflecting in my eyes, but luckily the sun disappeared behind the clouds for a moment (Annso and Vief wore matching sunglasses, smart and cute)!

I love how different our outfits are!
We took some more pictures (and also posed a lot), but we started to feel quite hot and went on our way to the nearest metro station. Inside, we said goodbye to Vief and Annso and then took the metro back to the hotel. It was really hot inside the metro. I tried to cool us both down with my fan, but it didn’t help so much. Luckily I had a bottle of water with me, which helped a little.
We arrived back at the hotel and changed into cooler clothes. We just couldn’t stop talking about the amazing Tea Party and how incredibly lucky we had been! We also took some pictures of our prizes.

Number 1 and number 2~!
We talked a lot and Emilie packed her things, since she would leave the next day. We were still full from the Tea Party, so we didn’t have dinner. After Emilie was done packing, we read a bit and then went to sleep. It had been a magical day!

Cookies for everyone who read this far! *_* This post took sooo much time! I hope you enjoyed it!

Pictures are either taken by Emilie or by me.

Paris, Day 3 – Angelic Pretty Shop Event and Crêpes

On Saturday morning, we woke up quite early again. On this day there would be a special event at the Angelic Pretty shop, with novelty items and a visit from designers Maki and Asuka! Dominique had told us to not come before 11.30 am, so we could sleep for a longer time. But Paris, with its strange magic, made us wake up super early again, despite the fact we had been so tired.
We got dressed in easy clothes, went to get breakfast at the bakery and ate everything on our beds. The weather looked promising again, yay~! After some talking and just hanging around, we got dressed in our casual outfits. We both wore outfits incorporating Angelic Pretty items: Emilie wore her special Angelic Pretty Paris chocolate t-shirt and Melty Chocolate barrette bow, while I wore my red with polka dots cutsew OP and Paris badge I had received at the Tea Party last year. I also wore the two items I had purchased in order to get my ticket for this year’s Tea Party: my cute Heart Square bag in sax (which I adooore) and my sweet Whip Show Case ring. Unfortunately, neither of them matched my Tea Party outfit, so this was a perfect opportunity to wear them. ^^ I also attached a pair of cherries to my dress, but I lost one of them quite soon sadly.
Emilie and I left the hotel around 9:15 am and wanted to take some outfit pictures, when I suddenly discovered I had forgotten to put my memory card back into my camera! I am so glad I discovered it on time. I had also almost forgotten my passport, ahem.
We went on our way to the Angelic Pretty shop. Emilie and I were wondering about the new items. AP Paris had posted on their Facebook there were some exclusive new items and Emilie suspected Angelic Pretty’s newest print to be there: Promenade de Paris. I was really hoping it would be there, since it looked like a very promising print to me, but I didn’t really want to hope too hard. We took the metro (again, to Concorde and then line 8) and arrived at Ledru Rollin. It was lovely walking in the streets! The sun was shining, but the trees provided enough shade. Suddenly, a weird guy passed us by and mumbled something incomprehensible. Even Emilie, who speaks French, had no idea what he was talking about!
We walked into Rue Keller and saw someone waving at us. It was Vief! She looked amazing in her lavender Sugary Carnival skirt! We were really happy to see her again. We also asked if Annso was there and immediately she appeared, of course in a perfect twin outfit with Vief. These girls are so amazing! ♥

Annso and Vief, double perfection!
Talking to them is really great too, because we speak the same language. We switched a lot between English and Dutch, haha. :3
I looked at the shop windows and my heart skipped a beat: Emilie was right! Promenade de Paris was there, on one of the mannequins! It was the lavender x pink One Piece and I instantly fell in love! *_* A real ‘coup de foudre’, as the French say it. The print had Eiffeltowers with a bow, a Lolita with an AP shopping bag walking a dog, a patisserie, a candy store, a little AP shop and more on it! Everything I love about Paris! The other two mannequins were wearing Dream Sky, which made Emilie very happy. :3

Angelic Pretty’s shop windows.
While waiting, we also met a lovely Brolita from Italy dressed in Rose Toilette and another sweet girl in a lovely, simple outfit.
Finally, Dominique appeared! I apologised for being too early after all, even though he said not to come too early x). Luckily, it was no problem and he took a picture of the ‘first customers of the Saturday morning’ (as was written later on Facebook)! ^^
We were allowed inside and looked around in the store. There was a lot of new jewelry from the Melty Moon series and we took a look at the re-release of Milky Planet. They had the bright blue One Piece on display. We thought it was quite flashy. ^^’ There was also a lovely dark blue dress with white polka dots and a red bow belt, so French! I loved it!

Some shots of the Angelic Pretty shop.
I walked up to the pink closet filled with dresses to take a look at the other dresses of Promenade de Paris. There was a skirt and two different colours of the Round Jumperskirt, but as they had no shirring it was not an option for me. Luckily, there was also one Halterneck Jumperskirt that had full shirring in the back! It was the lavender x pink version and it was so pretty! I just had to try it on! Dominique told us that having Promenade de Paris in store was very exclusive, since it wasn’t out in Japan yet. I would be the first in the world the try it on! Well except for models in a photoshoot maybe. ;) Let’s say I am the first customer then! =D
Dominique took the dress away for me and I tried it on in the adorable dressing room. I put the dress on over my cutsew OP (I wanted to keep the dress clean and new no matter what), but when I looked in the mirror I was sold. I walked out of the dressing room, where Emilie, Vief and Annso were waiting (and checking the store of course). They were really positive about it, which pushed me even more to buying the dress. Emilie told me this dress was made for me: everything is Paris! When I also tried on the matching head bow, there was no way back. Yet, something made me doubt… The lavender x pink version was gorgeous, there was no doubt about that, but when I had seen some (very small) photoshoot pictures, I really liked the sax x pink version. Unfortunately, there was no example of the sax version, so I had no idea what it looked like. The dress cost a lot of money and if it turned out not to be my favourite colour, I would regret it so much! I walked around, not knowing what to do (I am so terribly indecisive).
Then, I heard some commotion and I looked up: Maki and Asuka had arrived! It was as if someone put a spotlight on them and the angels started singing: Maki was wearing Promenade de Paris, in sax! She was my saving angel! I quickly jumped back into the dressing room (I was still wearing the jumperskirt over my red dress) and took it off again. Emilie and I went to greet Maki, Asuka, Madame Pretty (or Honda-san, as her actual name is) and a lovely AP Shopgirl called Yumiko.
I took a good look at Maki’s beautiful outfit. She wore Promenade de Paris in sax with a pink beret and cardigan. I cannot tell you how glad I am she wore this dress, because it was official: sax was my dream colour for this dress! To be honest, whenever I really cannot decide, I need my mom to help me. XD I called her and asked her opinion about the case and she was so sweet. In the end, I decided to get the dress through a shopping service with Emilie’s help! So that day I bought nothing, to keep my money for my new Dream Dress. *_*
Emilie and I took pictures with Madame Pretty, who was sweet as ever. We also took some lovely pictures with Maki and of course instant pictures!

With Madame Pretty! We matched. ^^
Maki asked Emilie where she was from and when Emilie told her she lives in Switzerland, Maki was all happy and told her she wanted to try Swiss chocolate sometime. Coincidence: Emilie had brought some Swiss chocolates for Maki and Asuka as a gift, so this was the perfect moment to give it! Maki was so happy! ♥ We also took pictures with Asuka and Yumiko. I matched really well with both of them! ^^ Asuka was wearing Freshly Picked Strawberries with a lovely red cardigan and bag, while Yumiko wore Drained Cherry in white with a pretty red bolero. ^^ Dominique told dus Yumiko is a staff member at AP Yokohama and that she was rewarded with a trip to Paris for begin such a great employee. Such a wonderful reward! *_*

Yumiko, Maki and Asuka. They all looked so pretty~!
In the meantime, Emilie had made a big purchase: she bought the Dream Sky One Piece in lavender! She had loved Dream Sky for a long time, so this was the perfect opportunity for her to buy it! As a novelty, she received a Lyrical Bunny candle. ^^ Both Annso and Vief had bought Dream Sky too, for some more epic twinning! ♥
The store was getting fuller now and I talked a little with some lovely German girls. They weren’t coming to the Angelic Pretty Tea Party unfortunately, but I would see them pretty soon after all. ;)
I took some lovely solo pictures of Maki, Asuka and Yumiko, said goodbye and then we left the store. Emilie was talking to some French girls outside, while I talked a little more with Dominique. He is so kind. ♥
Finally, Emilie and I went on our way to Princess Crêpe to finally have the crêpe we had been looking forward to for weeks~! We took the metro to Saint Paul and I followed Emilie while taking pictures of the beautiful buildings.

In Paris, you don’t look in front of you, you have to look up~!
We quickly walked into the right street and entered the adorable crêperie. We both ordered a drink and a ‘Princess Crêpe’ and took some pictures around the shop (after asking of course). ^^ Even though I had been there last year and nothing had changed, I took pictures of every corner. Princess Crêpe is just too cute! ^^

I really like these pictures of us!
Soon we received our delicious crêpes and after the shop girl took a picture for us, we could finally eat. ♥ It was so good~! I believe I had ice cream, whipped cream, fruit and chocolate cake. *_* After we finished, also we took some pictures outside.

I love the cute, eye-catching window of Princess Crêpe! It’s impossible to miss!
Then we went back to the hotel. It took a while before we arrived and it was quite hot, so we were glad to be back. We took my laptop downstairs (for better wifi) and Emilie helped me to write an email to a shopping service. I think I could have done it myself, but I prefered to have an expert next to me. ;) When I was done, we went back upstairs again where Emilie made love to her new dress. XD

Emilie’s beautiful new Dream Sky One Piece! I love the polka dots lace.
We rested for a while and then went on our way again to do a little sight seeing, so we went to the Arc de Triomphe (one of my favourite buildings ever)!
It took a while before we could take nice pictures. Initially we waited for a bus to move, but it just stayed there (even after the little grandmas that moved at a glacial pace left the bus. Yes, that was a ‘The Devil wears Prada’ reference. XD), so we crossed the street. There, we took some great pictures!

Jump~! I love the red bus in the distance.
We walked down the entire Champs-Elysées, passing fancy restaurants, Ladurée (where people were waiting in a big line), Häagen-Dazs (with a very funny poster featuring a smiling Bradley Cooper), Louis Vuitton, a cinema, Abercrombie & Fitch and many more shops. We realised we were more tired than we thought, so we returned to the hotel. We decided to have pizza again, but poor Emilie was so tired I offered to get the pizzas on my own. I went to the Italian restaurant and ordered (in French!) two pizzas. One of the older waiters must have liked me, because he kept smiling at me and saying ‘Bella! Bella!’ to his co-workers. XD I didn’t have to wait long and we had some delicious pizzas in our hotel room. We talked, cleaned a bit and put down the things we needed for the next day.

Our instant pictures. I am so grateful Emilie took pictures of me too! ♥
After a while, Emilie fell asleep, but I read for a while. I also didn’t feel very well (which gave me a bit of a scare, since I didn’t want to miss the next day for the world!), so I took an extra shower. That really helped. Then I went to sleep as well. It had been a wonderful day!

Pictures are either taken by Emilie or by me.

Paris, Day 2 – Baby, the Stars Shine Bright Tea Party

On Friday morning Emilie and I woke up really early, because today was the Baby, the Stars Shine Bright Tea Party! After talking a little in bed, we got up and got dressed to get breakfast at the bakery only 20 meters away from the hotel. I chose a chocolate viennoise, a brioche sucrée and an orange juice and Emilie chose some similar things. We went back to the hotel and ate our delicious breakfast on our beds. The weather looked wonderful from our French balcony, but it also looked like it was going to be hot (which was not very convenient for Lolita of course). Oh well, nothing to do about that. ^^
We finished our breakfast and then put down the things we would need for our outfits on the bed. My outfit was based on my Pas de deux in the blue moon Odette jumperskirt, the dress I had bought at Baby on my previous trip to Paris. Since the dress has a Swan Lake ballet theme, I tried to put some ballet-like details into my outfit, like a black feather head piece and a little ballerina clip. In the end I didn’t look that ballerina-ish, but I loved my outfit a lot, so it was perfectly fine. ^^
Emilie had decided on an Alice and the Pirates outfit for the first time she went to a Baby, the Stars Shine Bright Tea Party! She would wear her beautiful long Elizabeth Bride of the Death jumperskirt in ivory with a wonderful hand made sash.
We started to get ready. Our room had a ridiculous amount of mirrors (six mirrors for two persons!), but in this case it was quite convenient, since we didn’t get into each other’s way. It was a lot of fun getting dressed with another Lolita, since we could help each other wherever needed and we could chat too. I took ages to get my hair into two ponytails and then braids (damn my awful perfectionism, Emilie must have thought I was crazy!), but she could help me zip my dress up and I could help her too. Finally, we were done! And so incredibly on time! We got our things together and went on our way to the Baby shop!
We walked up to the metro station and waited for a while until the metro would arrive. I must say people didn’t stare that much at us this time, but that was probably because we weren’t wearing bright pink. ^^ We took the metro to Concorde, where we transfered to line 8 and got out at Ledru Rollin. I was quite excited, because it had been so much fun to go to the Baby shop before the Tea Party last year. There were a lot of people and I met Sydney and Yumi. It was so great! Emilie and I walked up to the store and we joked about how it would be funny if we were the first ones to arrive. We approached the store and discovered to our great surprise that we were the first ones to arrive! The shop was completely empty, except for shop girl Claire! Emilie and I laughed and just started to browse the shop a bit again. Emilie looked at a cardigan she had fallen in love with. If I had been rich, I would have bought it for her, haha. :3 We also had the perfect opportunity to take outfit pictures before the Tea Party now!

My ‘Tea Party Ballerina’ outfit. What do you think? :3
Emilie and I know eachother’s cameras pretty well by now, which is a very good thing. ^^ In this way, we can take great outfit pictures!

Emilie in her beautiful Elizabeth dress! Don’t you just love her outfit?
We also asked Claire to take some instant pictures of us! Emilie has an amazing instant camera that she used a lot during our days in Paris (lucky me, huhu :3). Instant pictures are really in these days, I love them!
Just as Emilie was taking pictures of the details in my hair, some people were coming in! I couldn’t see who they were, but just as Emilie was finished, I heard a familiar voice saying my name. It was my friend Cat, who was also coming to the Tea Party! She had entered the shop, together with a girl wearing a lovely Baby outfit with a hat and basket covered in colourful flowers. She had made them herself! So lovely.
We left the shop for a while and took some pictures outside as well.
Then I saw lovely Yumi walking up to us! I was so happy to see her again! She looked absolutely stunning in her navy blue Baby dress. I was so excited to see her, I had to hug her twice! XD Soon she was joined by her friend Karima, who I had only met once last year. I was so happy to see her again too. Both girls would come to the Tea Party, yay! ♥

Yumi, Karima and me. ♥ Beautiful girls, inside and out.
We took some more pictures outside, when suddenly I saw someone walking up to us from the corner of my eye. It was Constance, one of the Lolitas I had met last year. I was so glad to see her, since she wasn’t coming to the Tea Party!
We took some more pictures (so many pictures~!) and the Baby shop closed. Eventually the group split up and Emilie, Constance and I went to McDonald’s to get something to drink. I had a delicious raspberry frappé. It was so good! ^^
We sat down for a while and just talked. It was so nice to just chat with Emilie and Constance. After a while, we decided it was time to go to the Marriott Hotel where the Tea Party would take place. Even though she wasn’t going, Constance decided to join us on our way to the hotel. We took the metro to Richelieu Drouot and apparently took the perfect exit, since we could see the hotel on the other side of the street. We crossed the street and arrived at the front door at the same time as some other lovely Lolitas.

Hotel Marriott, the hotel that changed its name five days before the Tea Party, haha!
Soon we were joined by many people and I was really happy girls recognised me and came up to say hi, like Lou, Sam and Lili! I would have felt so stupid if I had said hi to someone and they’d be like: ‘Who are you?’ XD We also talked a lot with Vera, a lovely German Lolita who looked beautiful in her black and pink outfit with bonnet. She would also come to the Angelic Pretty Tea Party! We had actually already met her at the AP Party last year, but we hadn’t talked so much back then. But now we did! ^^
Within the blink of an eye the group became really big and in the distance I saw Mila, a lovely French Lolita I had met via Facebook. We were looking forward to meeting each other and she quickly came up to me. I was so happy to finally meet her! ♥ She looked absolutely stunning in her pink dress with princess cape and hand made Baby logo scepter (!). I immediately knew she would win the best dressed contest for Baby, I just knew it! The girls automatically formed a circle and we had a lovely group conversation. I am very much impressed by the English skills of the French Lolitas! I was too shy to speak French myself, ahem. ^^’
Then finally Sawada-san, Baby Paris’ owner, walked out of the hotel and invited us in. Unfortunately, Emilie and I didn’t have a chance to say goodbye to Constance anymore (again, so sorry dear!), but we were the first ones inside thanks to the fact we were standing close to the entrance. We followed Sawada-san to the Vendôme room. Just around the corner of the doors, a table was set up. Behind it was Claire, in a beautiful white kodona/ouji-style (I never know the real difference) outfit that I completely fell in love with. She looked so stunning! I must have awkwardly gawked at her accidentally, whoops! ^^’
Emilie and I got our names checked on the list, got a pin with our number and a voting card and received a bag with our Tea Party gift! We quickly chose a table: the one in the middle of the room, close to the food table (I swear: the fact the table was in the middle of the room was the reason, not the food) and we sat down to check our gift. To our surprise we didn’t get one gift, but two! First, a lovely gold necklace with the Baby logo attached to it (I was sooo happy, because I was hoping for a necklace) and a cute hair bow set. There were different colours of bows, both for Baby and Alice and the Pirates. I got a lovely set of white x pink bows, while Emilie traded her black AatP bows for a yellow Baby set with someone.

My Tea Party gifts! I love them so much! *_*
Quickly, some girls walked up to our table and asked us if they could join us. We had a lovely table: Emilie, Lou, Lili, a lovely girl whose name I can’t remember unfortunately, a very talented drawer, Yumi, Karima, Vera and me of course. We had the cool table, huhu (I am joking. :3)! While people were getting seated, Emilie and I walked around the room a bit. The food table had macarons and glasses with fruit on the food table. There was a beautiful pink dress with matching bonnet on display on one side of the room. On the other side was a dark green dress with a clock print on the bottom. Later Claire told us she was supposed to wear the green dress, but the white ouji outfit didn’t fit on the dressing form, so she got to wear it!
Finally, after a while, everyone got seated and we were welcomed. We were thanked for coming and were invited to have some food and champagne. ^^

The food table.
Since our table was close to the food table, we all managed to get some nice things. I had three macarons, some grape fruit parts and a little glass of pineapple juice. Now, this is one part about the Tea Party that was a little less fun. Many people, including Emilie and me, were expecting a lot of food. It has always been like that on Baby Tea Parties: pastries and then another big cake. So all the guests usually don’t eat much before the Party. This year, the macarons and the fruit was all we got. And even that wasn’t enough for all the 90+ guests. I felt quite bad for having three macarons, but I was under the impression there would be enough and more! I talked to Claire about it later and she told me she and Sawada-san were not happy with the hotel staff at all, because this was not what they had arranged. Oh well.
After our food, Emilie and I just walked around and took loads of pictures of each other with other people (we also checked the hotel bathroom. Fancy hotels have fancy bathrooms). We were really each other’s photographers! ^^ I met a lot of amazing new people, like Marie Tuonetar and Ludwig von Szwaja, who both looked stunning as usual. *_* I had seen them on pictures before on Facebook, so I was really happy to meet them in real life.

Maybe I’m a bit silly, but I am so happy with this picture~! ♥ I was blushing here, ahem.
I also met Camille and Yoki, two girls who read my blog! I was so happy and honoured when I met them! ♥ They both looked amazing as well!

With Camille and Yoki. Both looked so cute! I loved Camille’s hat and Yoki’s bunny ears!
Finally, Emilie and I could take some pictures with Mila. She and her scepter were quite popular, hihi. ^^

Emilie, Mila and me~! I love how extra pink Mila looks next to us. We look like princesses!
I apologize for the picture spam (but then again, what would a Tea Party post be without pictures?), but we took quite a lot at this moment. I also took a picture with Claire!

Excuse me while I go breath into a paper bag from the awesomeness that is Claire’s outfit…
Then it was time for the lottery! When your number was drawn, you got a prize. I wasn’t lucky again this time unfortunately, but Emilie won a prize! She got a lovely Alice and the Pirates set: a blouse, a bustier and a necklace. Unfortunately, the items were not really her style, so she will probably sell them. Except for the necklace, which she traded with another prize winner for another necklace that is more her style. ^^
After the lottery, Emilie and I left the room to take some pictures in the hall (there was a lot of loud music. Lovely pop-like classical music, which I like a lot, but very loud). We got joined by Vera and took tome lovely pictures!

With Vera, who looked gorgeous in her black x pink outfit! ♥
We also talked a bit with Hoa, aka Harlyharlekin, who we had met at last year’s Tea Parties already. I always love to talk to her. She is an amazing Lolita and a very kind person. ♥

Emilie and Hoa~!
I also talked with Angélique, a lovely girl who I had met at the Party last year. She is so nice and funny! ♥ She wore the Millefeuille jumperskirt I have too, but in navy. She looked awesome!
We went back into the room, where I quickly handed in my voting form (I am always so indecisive). We took some pictures with Pom Pommandarine, a French Lolita who was dressed in a beautiful French-themed coord. She had even made a croissant bag!

With Pom! Her outfit was amazing! Every detail was perfect!
Then, it was time to announce the winners. After a drumroll, the girl for the AatP prize was announced: it was Lucie, who wore an amazing black outfit with peacock feathers (later I was joking with her about how she had to kill the bird herself, haha). Then, after another drumroll, the Baby winner got announced: it was Mila! I knew it! :3 It’s funny, both the girls I predicted won!
After the contest, Claire announced we could have our pictures taken by the photographer, so Emilie and I jumped at the chance!

A lovely little group picture of different styles!
We took more pictures with other people, while staying close to the air vents. It was so hot in the room! Where is the airconditioning when you need it? XD

Compliment to myself: I really love this picture! ♥
Adorable Mila~!
I kept looking around me. Everyone looked so amazing. It’s incredible how creative people are in Lolita! There were girls in Sweet, Gothic, Classic, some more simple, some more elaborate, but all equally beautiful!

Marie Tuonetar and Mila. ♥
When everyone had had their picture taken, we took a big group picture (although we were with too many people, so you can’t see everyone unfortunately).

Unfortunately, Emilie is not visible, but can you find me?
Then, the Tea Party came to an end. We asked Sawada-san for a picture (which is like a tradition, haha) and thanked him and Claire for the wonderful Party.

Obligatory picture with Sawada-san~!
We left the hotel and talked for a minute to some girls still standing outside (we were the last to leave of course. XD). Finally we left and walked back to the metro. While we were walking, I looked left and saw the Sacré Coeur in the distance, beautifully illuminated by the sun.
We took the metro back to our hotel and were happy to finally throw all our clothes off: we were so hot! Nevertheless it had been a superfun day filled with lovely encounters.
After we regained a normal temperature again, we went to get pizza from the Italian restaurant across the street (pizza with ham, cheese, egg and crème fraîche, so good!) and two pastries from the bakery. We were quite hungry after the Tea Party, haha! XD We had a lovely dinner and then went to sleep. It had been a wonderful day!

Pictures are either taken by Emilie or by me.