Ok so this is a bit of catch up...

The weekend just gone was the Journee de la patrimoine here in France. Now I have no idea what this really means in French but what it DOES mean is everything is freeee!!!!

I got to visit two local museums and two touristy venues all for free!

I first visited the Museum of Normandy... all about prehistoric people and lots of roman coins. As you can probably tell I did not find it too interesting... A bit like the time a friend and I spent a total of about half an hour in the Tate Modern before deciding that we didnt get it nor did we wish to get it and that we had much better things to do with our day. Being a bus ride from Oxford street, you can probably guess where we ended up!

(You know that the cafe in M&S Marble Arch do a great Victoria sponge cake and you can pick up a great selection of work wear there too!)

So then onto a museum exhibition which was all about Lace. Now this may seem a tad boring to some but I found this much much much more interesting than the history of Normandy (which coincidentally which happens to be the very topic I am here to study! ...the history, not the lace :( ). It showed the incredibly incricate art of making lace, accompanied by examples of lace dresses, old and new. Including the beautiful Thierry Mugler dress included in my photos.

What really interested me at this exhibition was some of the historical stuff... I mean who knew that in the 1800's they had street style snappers?? If you take a look at my photos posted you will see one picture from the exhibition which (though the writing is probably too small to make out) reads just like a fashion blog of days gone by "Parisien fashion - Madame X, pictured at Rue Y in Paris wearing Z - 1884". Not too far off from the like of the sartorialist (link below) or Grazia street spy!

http://www.thesartorialist.com/

Love it!

Also found a pull out of a "Printemps" (french departmental store) summer 1879 collection!! Truly historical pre-season collections - photo also uploaded!

Did I mention how much I like history...

:)

In the afternoon I went to both the Abbaye aux Dames and the Abbaye aux Hommes (The Women's and the Men's abbeys). These were built by William the Conqueror and his wife Mathilda to appease the church who did not approve of their marriage... If only Romeo and Juliet had thought of that...

The only possible end to a hard day's sightseeing was to have a nice meal and a mini steph-style bottle of rosé of course!

Photos uploaded!

À la prochaine!

x