a quick stopover

With family living in Paris it's somewhere I have been countless times and I have done almost everything I have wanted to do so more than anything my time spent there was just relaxed and enjoying time spent with family. My arrival was timed with the extreme cold that took over Europe and Paris was experiencing daytime temperatures of -10! This was a massive shock as when I left Barcelona it was still 15!
I headed with my aunty into the centre of Paris on a couple of days and we visited the musee d'orsay which is a converted railway station by the river. I hadn't visited this before so it was nice to explore the rooms it had to offer. Unlike the louvre which is mainly paintings, this museum had alot of sculpture and furniture too which I found particularly interesting. They had a large section of art nouvoux furniture which we had recently be looking at during out history and theory lessons so it was amazing to be able to see the real things especially as this was such a dominant style in Paris in its time. Other things that interested me was all the amazing paintings by the impressionists, Monet in particular. They are even more amazing when you see the real thing so I really enjoyed doing this.

As a special exhibit they had inside sone of the larger rooms with paintings in, benches which were hand carve out of glass so they look like you are sitting on a slab of glass. design by Tokujin Yoshioka they are called water blocks. They are a completely different style to the interior of the museum but their simplicity complemented the design and somehow it seemed to work. Their design was amazing but actually sitting on them was what was most impressive. They had been highly polished so that they were perfectly smooth and were incredibly to run your finger over. There was gently groves along it which literally made it look like hard water so it was surreal being able to sit on them. They are an incredible design so I was lucky up have been there when they were.

We had lunch in the recently redesigned cafe which is located on the same floor as the impressionist paintings and so has clearly taken alot of influence from them. it was designed by the campana brothers who are famous brazilian designers and their aim was to transport visitors into a dream like aquatic environment. The two main things that stood out to me were the chairs which took on an abstract form of a waterlilly as a direct influence from monet and the very large lights that hung down from the tall ceiling. They were made up of metallic gold squares of metal that had been riveted together to make what looked like a huge down facing tulip. There was a large number of them randomly haunting throughout the restaurant and the warm yellow lighting they gave off completed the atmosphere. The design was simply but chic and I really like their subtle references to what was around them. Definitely a good example of creative interior design. 

i couldn't go to paris with out a quick visit to Laduree which make the best macaroons in the world! and probably the most expensive but definitely worth it!