February favourites

Well February felt like it lasted about two days compared to January. I am now officially 3/5 of my way through my time in Paris and consequently freaking out. No worries though as I have multiple exciting things planned in the foreseeable future.

February was one of those up and down months, both metaphorically and then physically based on the fact that I went up into the mountains and came back down again. Here are a few of the things that I would consider appropriate to mention in a ‘February favourites’.

1. Free museum day

The first Sunday of every month is free museum day in Paris where, shock horror, you get into all museums for free. To be honest this doesn’t actually affect me too much because 18-26 year olds from the EU get in free anyway (I hate Brexit), but it’s helpful for some of my friends. This month we chose the almighty Louvre and had too much fun coming up with captions for the precious paintings, having our lungs compressed in the queue for the Mona Lisa and nipple spotting.

2. Angelina hot chocolate

If you ever go to Paris you HAVE to get a hot chocolate form Angelina. Don’t ask questions, just do it. My friend described it very well as a liquidised chocolate soufflé, it’s 4.50€ for one but it is entirely worth it. As I accidentally found out, if you can’t finish it all at once and put it in the fridge when you get home it turns into a lovely chocolate pudding. Double the fun.

3. Reading a French book

This month I read my first full french book for fun and I am actually pretty proud of myself. To be fair it was only Harry Potter, but still, I read it in just over a week and didn’t find myself overly confused apart from in the first couple of chapters before I figured out that ‘Poudlard’, which I couldn’t find in any dictionary, was Hogwarts.

4. Skiing in Valmenier 

It was a dream come true pretending to be one of those people who just spontaneously pops to the Alps for a weekend. It has been two years too many since I last smelt the fresh alpine air, so this trip was long overdue. The bus was too long and too warm but when it’s part of a ridiculously cheap all inclusive ski weekend you can’t really complain. We skied above the clouds, drank vin chaud on the side of the mountain, feared for our lives on some dodgy black slopes and managed to get a group of complete beginners to the bottom of an extremely long slope having only inflicted mild emotional trauma upon them. An overall spectacular weekend.

5. Galentines

I don’t care how cliche it is but this February 14th I went on a Galentines date with some gal pals and I had a fantastic time. We saw 50 Shades Freed at the cinema (because what else would we have gone to see) then went out for wine and dessert and it was incredibly sophisticated.

6. 50 Shades Freed

Speaking of 50 Shades Freed; best worst film I have ever seen. The film itself was horrific, the plot was as full of holes as a pair of fishnets and the acting was abysmal, but the experience was epic. As it was Valentines Day, the entire sold out cinema was full to the brim of braless single women screaming at the screen every time Mr Grey took his shirt off and hysterically laughing at the raunchy product placement of a tub of Ben and Jerry’s. There was a strong tone of objectifying men in the air, along with disapproval towards the amount of screen time Anastasia’s boobs got.

7. Lighter Friday evenings

The evenings are finally getting lighter, and this month I have begun utilising my early Friday finishes as much as possible. This has resulted in some very pleasant evenings, including a sunset walk down the Seine to the Notre Dame, seeing the Eiffel Tower in the snow which I never thought I would do in my life, and a dinner consisting of a nutella crepe for main course followed by a giant macaron for dessert.

8. The ultimate yellow jumper

I have worn this yellow jumper an innumerable number of times this month so I felt it deserved to be mentioned. It is one of the comfiest and cosiest clothing items I own, the colour is obviously a lot of fun and I can tell it’s something I will be wearing for many years to come. Mostly because I don’t grow.

ps. Granny I know you will be reading this, thank you very much for buying me the jumper for Christmas

9. Moment app

This is a new find of mine and is a little terrifying. The Moment app shows you how much time you are on your phone every day. Trust me, it’s eye opening, and the first few days I used it I was truly shocked at the percentage of my day I spend looking at my phone screen. You realise how many times you reach for your phone to have a ‘quick scroll’, and then how badly those ‘quick scrolls’ actually add up. I am now so much more conscious of how often I pick up my phone, purely because I fear checking the app at the end of each day.

10. Montmartre

This isn’t a new area for me, I have explored it a fair few times before but what I love about it is that it’s different every time. Every time you go you will undoubtedly stumble upon a new path or piece of street art that you hadn’t previously noticed. There are plenty of cute cafes and restaurants where you can sit on the pavement and watch the world go by, which is slowly becoming one of my favorite things to do with a sunny weekend afternoon.

11. Lille

During the last weekend of February me and a friend took a little weekend trip away to Lille. Or should I say we took a Lille weekend trip. Hilarious. It is no secret that I am obsessed with Paris but it felt good to get a change of scenery. Sadly we felt a tad restricted based on the fact that the temperature didn’t go far above 0 degrees the entire weekend even with clear, sunny blue skies. Despite this we still managed to admire a whole load of pastel colored houses, visit a natural history museum housing some taxidermy animals which looked like they’d been on display for about one hundred years too many and melt a camembert which we have been talking about doing for months.

I hope your February was fabulous and that your March will be marvellous.

Best wishes from Paris x