fuji instax mini

 this morning i woke up really early due to our guest - jack, anabela's cat.

he's hyperactive, to say the least...!

and as i saw a glimpse of a blue sky, i put some clothes on and out the door i went.

tó gave me a fuji instax mini camera this christmas and so far i had only tried it inside. so it seemed like the perfect oportunity to test it outside on a bright day...

i live only 15min walking from bois de vincennes, and it is just the perfect place to spend the morning - as it is quite big you can walk for kilometers and kilometers without a lot of people around and it has several lakes, so it's granted you'll find some lovely ducks :)

so here are the photos i took this morning

so far i'm in love with this camera. it is a nice alternative to the classic polaroid cameras (although i still would love to have one) it is extremely easy to use and really light.

i will try to take it with me on a daily basis :)

le mont-saint-michel

it's been a real long time since i last wrote here, so i think i should start by explaining what has been going on lately...

since october i had been extremely unhappy at work... i felt like i was going nowhere as i was disappointed at the lack of interest / organization of my boss and i basically though i was wasting my best years there... so mid-november i started sending portfolios and after two weeks i got an interview and a new job!

on top of that me an tó also worked on an arhcitecture competition for denmark at the same time...

so all the weekends were filled with more screens and autocad.

so you can imagine how glad i am to be on christmas vacations!

this year to avoid all the moving around between mom, dad and friends, i chose to stay here and rest  and have my mom come for christmas instead :)


whilst wishing you're having a great time tduring the holidays, i leave you some photos i took while on the trip to le mont-saint-michel. 

on the way to le mont-saint-michel

on the way to le mont-saint-michel we passed by beautiful sceneries, even though it was impossibel to stop the car and take a photograph for most of the times. but everytime we could, we would.

i though the inumerous amount of pastel cows in the middle of vibrant green filds of grass were so adorable.

we passed by chatêau de carrouges (photos 2 to 5) and it was gloomy but beautiful. i though it was sweet to have a groups of cows in one of the bedroom window views :)

and then on the manoir de la saucerie, the strange mismatched sctructure that had fascinated me while searching online. 

tó was really excited to draw it, but it proved to be more difficult than anticipated ... i think however that the photos show a bit of its character :)

.

wow . 

i have just realized i haven't posted anything since before going on holidays to portugal.

since the beggining of august a lot has happened. we came back in my car, as i wanted, and we had a lovely road trip, even if it was a little tight on time. thanks to our gps we went through the loveliest little villages in the region of aquitaine ( i must admit i was a bit sad to cross the pirineus at night...)

we took advantage fo the car and we went to visit le mont-saint-michel - finally!!!

on the way there we stopped at chateau de carrouges, la tour de bonvouloir and le manoir de la saucerie, wish was just the cherry on the ckae, really.

and most recentle we have welcomed our dear friend (and fellow architect) joana. she's now also working and living in paris and i'm  happy that our little family here is growing.

but for now, here are the adorable little kitties i had the pleasure of seeing and touching at my aunt's house :)

parc de bagatelle

a coupe of weeks ago anabela decided it was time for us to go to parc de bagatelle. she had been there once before and knew i would love it.

so we did, and so i loved.

it was fantastic to be able to have a nice picnic in a beautiful parc that wasn't crowded. and right after we sat dows on the grass to eat the peacocks came to greet us - it really felt like i was back at porto at - the gardens of the cristal palace - but in a huge scale.

 and after there were the stunning gardens, mostly of roseries, of every color you can imagine, like flocks of color in the green grass.

and then there were the lovely structures - the pagodas and the metalic shelters... so delicate...

at the end we didn't get to see all of the garden, so a second visit is mandatory!

also, my mom told me that there are new born kitties at my aunts! it's almost a tradition - every summer and christmas that happens and i get to touch the most fragile cute kitties :)

maison louis carré

this was the first (and the only, unfortunately) alvar aalto building i've ever visited.

the trip to get there was full of little treasures. 

it was a charming place. it was really interesting and  a delight to see and 'live' the beautiful and cozy place, i that seen so many times in photos.

i've also booked the flight back home for the holidays. 

the idea of going to the north of europe has been taunting me for quite a while, but i guess i miss family and friends to much to not go home instead.

i'm hoping to return to paris in my car.

and i'm hoping that will be the begining of road trips in france and central europe :)

fontainebleau

when we went to fontainebleau (and it tooks us more than a year to finally go there!), i knew i was taking a lot of photos of the same structure in the lake. i just thought it was so beautiful... with the perfect setting of the lake, the trees behind and the sweet little row boats around.

but i didn't realize it was almost all i shot.

i think it's interesting to see how many different views and tones you can get from the same thing :)

a photographic memory from rouen

this weekend has been quite the excursion

on saturday we finally went to chateau fontainebleau and walked in it's gardens for hours and hours... it really is that beautiful!

and today we went to visit an alvar aalto house - maison louis carré- just outside of paris.

it envolved a train ride and then 8km of walking just ot get there... but it was certainly worth it! 

it was the first time i've ever seen one of his works in person, and it left us (me and tó) wanting to visit his works in the north of europe this summer.

in the meantime, here are som photos from rouen:

p.s. - that white cat on the window was literally the first thing we sawn when arriving to the city center and it was a nice welcome gift :)