Les Deux

We've Moved!

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 21:27:00 +1000

We’re no longer at Tumblr, but we’ve got our own new home!

This page should redirect, but if it doesn’t, click here

Teaser

Sun, 01 Aug 2010 22:36:00 +1000

A teaser of the new layout/site launch - coming very soon!

Change is in the Air

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 22:26:00 +1000

Hello lovelies! ♥ Gareth and I just wanted to produce a small echo here to all our dear readers that we are in fact still here :)

Alive and well, we are now two post-Europers suffering from travelling blues, back as full-time students as opposed to hostel-jumpers!

We have good news too! We’re going to continue on with our Les Deux adventures, but altering the angle a bit so we continue to keep it interesting since there will be no more (at least for a while) travelling tales to keep you all culturally entertained. We’re back in Sydney and staying put for the time being.

And for those that faithfully follow us on Facebook, we have some exciting site changes ahead! We’re moving from Tumblr to our new domain with a new slicker layout, so make sure you come back soon. I’m working on finalising the layout at the moment since you know, Gareth is lazy and doesn’t know how to use Wordpress…

And here’s a preview of the beauty of Shanghai… soon to come!

Back through Beijing

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 00:12:48 +1000

It’s always tough to leave somewhere that you’ve called home for an extended period time. Just as it was hard to leave Sydney for the first time (in 2006 for me and 2009 for Hel), it was trying to have to vacate our small international studio in Cergy, France. Luckily, it was not straight back to the reality of university, work and winter. Instead, we had, as originally planned, 10 days in China to discover a totally different culture after our European saturation.

So, it was a rather large touch of sadness that we left Paris on June 25, knowing that we would be back but that the next visit might not come around for quite some time. Our post-exchange blues, however, were definitely softened by our first stop in Beijing!

Beijing’s summer palace

Beijing is what can definitely be qualified as a tourist city. It may lack the glitz and glamour of Shanghai, but it has oodles of tourist attractions and an ease of passage facilitated by the modifications carried out for the Olympic Games.

Ultra-modern tourist spots

Its tourist attractions can broadly be categorized into two groups – temples and other stuff. One of our personal favourites was the so-called ‘Temple of Heaven’, situated in a huge park.

The temple of heaven

The temple itself is quite impressive, but the surrounding area, where Chinese seniors come together to play cards or dance or sing is a real break from the over-commercialised aspects of the city.

Music in the park

Beijing is far from the culinary capital of China – just like Paris in France. Nevertheless, like Paris, it does have a few signature dishes and on top of that list is of course Peking Duck. We sampled one at a popular restaurant - that was definitely a memorable eating experience and light on the wallet too!

Scrumptious peking duck

One slight disappointment was the monsoonal type weather we endured whilst at the Great Wall. With visibility reduced to 50 metres or less, it was perhaps not the day to get that quintessential snaking picture of that most impressive construction – for another visit and another less-touristy part of the Wall!

We're Baaaaack!

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 13:15:18 +1000

Hey everyone!

So we just spent the last fortnight in China, visiting the historical city of Beijing and awesome Shanghai following the most amazing year in France and Paris.

At long last, we touched down to home Sydney soil yesterday morning and are now back in our respective beds. It feels weird being back, more weird than having no Facebook, Youtube or Tumblr access for a full fortnight in China due to the Firewall there. (Which explains our MIA!!)

I guess we’ll experience a whole group of different and complex emotions within the next few days and weeks as we eventually get back into our old rhythm and reality that is Sydney life.

All the memories, moments and friends that we’ve had and made during our year abroad are special and will not be forgotten. It was so hard to say goodbye, or rather see you soon as we do hope that we will get the chance to see a lot of the people in the upcoming few years… since you know, Sydney is the place to be with its beautiful beaches and weather for most of the year.

Since Gareth and I do not live under the same roof anymore, the status of Les Deux is currently a ‘not-quite-sure’, but we shall see after we talk about it. Nonetheless, photos and memories from our China leg will definitely be up, of course!

But for now, I am off the optometrist to see what is going on with my eye :)

xx H

Vintage Horses

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 20:35:00 +1000

I have to admit that I’ve never been a huge fan of vintage stores, what with the smelly old dusty odours and the fact that there is sooo much stuff, it can be a real pain to wade through it all to find that *one* or more (if you’re lucky) special vintage piece. Even luckier if it’s a high designer brand too.

But being in Paris, I figured why not give it a try? Now, amongst my small dips so far into vintage french boutiques, there is one in Toulouse that without a doubt, contains the most beautiful vintage I’ve seen. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to have a proper look, so that’s a must-do for the next time we’re down there. But apart from that one, a few friends were madly raving about a particular one in Bastille so I thought I’d go check it out myself.

Called Come On Eileen, it is located on a random street (so make sure you have a map, as we got ridiculously lost!) and is amazing in terms of stock. You enter the main ground level, but no… don’t go down… because if you do, you should at least warn your boyfriend that it will equate to at least an hour of boredom.. well at least for him! For you it will mean hundreds and thousands of clothes and shoes scattered between and on the staircase leading down to the basement (which has at least 3x more than the ground level) ! Quite a sight to behold… although I guess I wasn’t having a super-lucky day as I didn’t come away with anything apart from one item: a beautiful Italian silk, equestrian-themed Celine neck scarf

The khaki/cream colour mix is a bit hard to match easily with my wardrobe, but if I stick to using a palette of light cream/whites or dark colours to match, it will make a stylish statement piece, what do you guys think?

Come On Eileen
16/18 Rue des Taillandiers 75011
Metro: Bastille

PS. SECOND LAST DAY IN PARIS/FRANCE - it’s allllll coming to an ennndddd :(

Garden of Flowers

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 05:59:52 +1000

Exams are finally over and done with, woo! Gareth and I finished our last exam in Financial Engineering (don’t ask…) yesterday morning, and since then we have been busy with retail therapy! Which means of course… a fashion dose soon on Les Deux!

But before we go on a style tangent, I thought that it was finally time to show you the splendour and the magical inspiration that was Monet’s artworks - his house, Japanese-inspired pond and bridge and of course, the magnificent gardens - all accessible by a 1.5h train+bus ride from Paris to Giverny.

We went with our friend Westie a couple of weeks ago on a Saturday, that was filled with plenty of tourists and other frenchies. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a terribly great day in terms of the weather but we still managed amidst the light rain. Here are some of my favourite flowers and photos from the day! Have a great start to the weekend and go the AUSSIES tomorrow in the World cup! :)

Love from Disney

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 18:58:19 +1000

Once upon a time in a land far far away, there was a place where you could go to visit a pink castle, princesses, many interesting and lovable characters and of course eat toffee apples and go on fun rollercoasters… luckily, this land still exists and Gareth and I went for a day to have some childhood fun!

We’re sorry for the current lack of posts, we’ve been super busy and and its exam week! Expect a comeback by the end of the week lovelies, for now enjoy the Disney magic and have a Happy Monday :)

Sleeping Beauty!

Whose is that Pooh?

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 00:26:20 +1000

After living in Paris for a combined time of almost two years, I, along with some of the other exchange students, finally made it to Disneyland Paris for the first time. Although the weather was ominous at the outset, with a huge shower passing through Paris as we were heading there, in the end we managed to stay dry and have a fantastic time. More on that later, probably from Hel…

In the meantime, one of the specific highlights for me was the History of Animation display. You could see real cells from the cartoons, watch a great montage of special Disney moments and learn about the way in which a character is developed. Top it off with the chance to learn to draw one character in 10 minutes. We managed to catch the last demonstration of the day, Winnie the Pooh! He’s surprisingly easy to draw. Helen and I both had a go. Can you guess which Pooh is whose?!

Matches on Clay

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 01:33:00 +1000

The passing Sunday, we had our first Roland Garros experience along with our friend Fisher. Having spent nearly an hour and a half one evening in February trying to buy these fourth round Suzanne Lenglen tickets (second main court)… it was definitely worth the trouble!

Thankfully, the weather kept up for the most of the day, and it wasn’t until the last match, when we were watching Murray v Berdych did it start pouring and play was halted.

Of the games that we attended, highlights definitely included seeing the Williams sisters playing doubles, who are always a fierce force!

Later on that day, a powerful Soderling steamed past Cilic and of course, we managed to see at least the very competitive start to the Murray v Berdych match.

Soderling

Murray

For more photos, check out the set here on Flickr!

Happy Monday !

Mon, 31 May 2010 08:41:50 +1000

Here’s a sneak peek into our recently very eventful and fantastic weekend!

Have a guess at where we went - one full of flowers, one full of clay…

All will be revealed very soon :)
Have a great start of the week everybody!

Finally, Stockholm!

Mon, 31 May 2010 07:43:00 +1000

A new sidekick has being added to our collection - come check out STOCKHOLM here!

Enjoy :)

PS. Special thanks to CC and E for their accommodation contribution, and of course to our dear Dennis for his pointers ♥

Green fields on Les Champs-Elysées

Sat, 29 May 2010 07:23:00 +1000

Something that the French do really well and quite often is random mass-scale demonstrations regarding some sort of industry or part of their heritage. That’s why there is basically une fête for every possible thing - la fête de la musique, la fête du pain (bread festival)…. So it was no surprise that last weekend, a brilliantly sunny day (and not before time), l’Avenue des Champs-Elysées, the most famous street in the world, would be transferred into a living, breathing forest and farm.

It was all part of the Nature Capitale festival that aimed to sensitize Paris’s population to both the importance of France’s forestry and farming industries as well as the environmental issues that exist today.

It was really quite surreal to see that familiar street transformed virtually overnight into a 2km long botanic garden. Lay down some bark chips, ship in 8000 plants and 4.2 million euros later you’ve got an impressive green space.

Apparently 2 million visitors passed over the avenue in its 3 days. True, it may seem like a bit of a waste of money in these Euro-crisis days. Then again you get the feeling that people are just so happy that spring has finally arrived that they’ll find any excuse to get out in the sun. In any case, definitely a sight to behold!

Doggies

Thu, 27 May 2010 04:25:00 +1000

The sun was shining strongly on Sunday and a couple of friends wanted an excuse to drink by a lake, so instead of traipsing around Paris by myself as I had planned to, I decided to go along and ultimately, enjoyed a very relaxed day on the grass in Cergy.

From the top of the staircase, looking out towards La Defense in the haze

Now for those that don’t know the suburb of Cergy very well, there isn’t really anything ‘beautiful’ to see asides from this certain area called the Axe Majeur, featuring an interestingly designed BRIGHT red bridge, a faraway view of La Defense and something of the type that you would call a ‘mini lake’ surrounded by beautiful greenery.

Two of our German friends have a pair of French Bulldogs, called Carlos and Bala. I’m terrible with names, so it’s not surprising that I can’t remember which one is which (although logic would say that Bala is the white one!)

Being quite warm, both of the dogs were very much feeling the heat whilst we were waiting in the beginning for the rest of the group to arrive. They proceeded in sticking out their (VERY long) tongues and making pig noises. Seriously! Too bad I didn’t take a video of it!

!

Wed, 26 May 2010 09:38:48 +1000

Hello lovelies, just wanted to excuse ourselves of any aesthetic no-no’s that you may see for this (short) moment. I’m currently tweaking a few things concerning the layout dimensions, so that explains for the awkward placements of older photo posts.

Will look squeaky shiny and new in no time :)

Don’t forget to dash to our new presence on Flickr to brighten up your day!

Olive's New Friend

Mon, 24 May 2010 18:14:00 +1000

Okay… so I finally did it. I bought a new camera! Not a proper SLR since I haven’t saved up for one yet but a mini Diana ♥

I’d been lusting after it for a while but wasn’t sure which type I should get and figured well… I’d prefer the ease of developing 35mm back in Sydney and it’s cheaper, so a mini Diana it is!

I’m going to take it for a spin today (hopefully, if I manage to get film on the way in and work out how to use it on the train…) as it’s a magical 28 degrees here in Paris today and the sun is sublime!

Plans for today?

Visit the Champs Elysées for the farming celebrations
Go up the Eiffel Tower, still have not done this and I want some good photos!
Visit the Albert Kahn museum + gardens

PS My Canon SX110’s name is Olive :)
PPS I think I’ll call this new one Daphne, what do you think?

Sprouts Galore

Sat, 22 May 2010 01:01:00 +1000

Hmm…. bean sprouts? Plant sprouts? Any guesses what they are??

That’s right… onions turned bad and sprouting! This is definitely how onions should NOT look like!! :/

Basically, when we were leaving for Budapest + Prague recently and were cleaning out the kitchen, we did indeed forget to look under the sink cupboard… where we normally keep onions, garlic etc. We had a new batch of onions and only discovered this afternoon that…. they were still there….

HAPPY FRIDAY everyone :)

Musings & City Snapshots

Wed, 19 May 2010 19:41:00 +1000

UPDATE:
I got us a Flickr PRO account (*happy dance*) - so for now, come check it out for the first of our City Snapshots!

- - -

How great did the cast of the Sylvia ballet look??? I loved it immensely, particularly as ballet is one of my new passions (though I can’t dance!) that developed during my adolescence. The finesse in which they move their entire body, the elaborate and beautiful costumes, the music that takes you to that same place else… everything is so perfectly crafted to create such magical masterpieces. I would definitely recommend seeing at least one ballet performance for anyone that has not yet done so!

It was also recently that I realised that it goes perfectly hand in hand (my love for ballet) with my adoration for Edgar Degas, the french painter. Who literally blows me away every time I see a painting of his, particularly those featuring his beloved ballerinas or race horses. Being in Paris certainly doesn’t help, since an abundance of his works are on display in various museums and art galleries around town. Breathing this city, combined with the chance to travel to many other exotic European countries, has definitely fed my inspiration monkey for the past couple of months. It has certainly been a long time coming, since the last time I remember the monkey being awake was first year of uni (2007)…. goodness, studying accounting and finance really does do things to you, doesn’t it? ;)

Nevertheless, it feels great to be re-inspired and getting back to my creative roots makes me feel so comfortable and never want to leave this happy place. I’ve always wanted to make a life out of my creativity. In the past few months, it has definitely weighed on my mind a bit more but actually putting it into action is the hard part. Where do I start? I don’t even know for sure what it is that I am best at and what I should start off with… too many creative passions + not enough time + indecisiveness = makes not a good recipe!

Throughout my many creative musings however, I’ve come up with several ideas that I’ve been excited about… perhaps start an accessories line (I’ve got a couple of sample pieces in my head, yay!) or start sewing again and make a few limited pieces to see how that goes… save up for a new DSL camera and get more into photography… further develop my website-building and programming skills. So many possibilities, can you feel the creative rush alongside the frustration?? At least I am in the process on developing a new website idea with a friend these days… taking some time but we shall see how it goes :) And what about everything else? Well, when I finally get my butt back to Sydney, time will tell, and who knows what will happen! But you will certainly find out here!

Well I leave you guys to it for today, no doubt you’ve heard enough of me talking for a while. A rather busy day for me today, with dozens of uni projects to finish by the end of the week and homework pieces, the pile’s too high!! So here’s some inspirational art by Degas:

Swaying Dancer, Edgar Degas

Budapest and Ballet

Wed, 19 May 2010 08:49:00 +1000

So Budapest was wet…really wet…and windy and cold. We managed to walk into a 3-day non-stop storm which left us drenched on the first night and wind-beaten on the next two. Still, we were happy to have the chance to enjoy this eastern European city.

Going to see Slyvia

One of the highlights was surely going to the ballet on Sunday night. Not only were the tickets cheap as anything - the equivalent of 12 euro for good quality balcony seats, but the show overall was of a high standard. We saw Sylvia which is famous for having an average libretto but a great score. So as expected the music was exceptional. You’ll probably recognise some of Doelib’s genius without even knowing it.

We really enjoyed the costumes and stage design. Unfortunately no pics of the actual performance, for obvious reasons. But the rich colours and clever lighting immersed the audience in the fantasy world of the Nymph of Diane. The Cupid character was also exceedingly well portrayed.

The wonderfully frocked cast taking an in-sync bow

This was my second ballet, the first being the rather more sombre Romeo and Juliet, brilliantly performed in Riga. I have to say that just like opera, the comedic style is great entertainment but fails to move you like a dramatic La Boheme or La Traviata .

The main ensemble

A final note on the actual theatre itself. We’d heard it was one of the most beautiful and it did not disappoint in the least. You definitely felt transported to the days where opera was opera and there were no clunky tourists behind you taking flash photos in the middle of the performance.

Lovely interior of the main foyer

The amazing balconies of the Budapest Opera

A spectacular roof

Definitely a great way to spend a soaked evening in Budapest!

Prague Part 2: Detail & Design

Sun, 16 May 2010 08:46:58 +1000

Guess what guys, we are now in Budapest! Having woken up VERY early this morning to get a 6hr bus ride from Prague, we thought to have escaped the dreary Prague weather but are now confronted with downpour - Budapest style :(

But before we talk about Budapest, Prague is still worth talking about, particularly its architecture, buildings and design. A sight to behold in person, the streets are literally a colour wonderland, it’s amazing… if only Sydney suburban streets were as decorated!

In the Old Town, surrounded by good weather and fresh colours

View of Prague from the top of the hill at Prague Castle

We spent most of one day visiting the grounds of Prague Castle. Taking the ‘Short Tour’, we gained access to the Old Royal Palace, St Vitus Cathedral and St George’s Basilica (as well as the Royal Gardens which were free of course). If you ever get the chance to visit the Castle, we would highly recommend taking the ‘Short Tour’ as most of the time, the extra things you get to see with the Long Tour are closed during the year, AND do NOT get persuaded by those pesky ticket sellers to purchase an Audioguide here (which in this case, would have cost more than the ticket itself) !! It is highly unnecessary and there IS substantial information within the buildings themselves, regardless of what they repeatedly claim.

Sorry guys, just needed to rant here as I hate it when tourists like myself get ripped off, particularly when they get lied to! And in this case, listening to what the general consensus was on the TripAdvisor forum for the Palace was a good decision… luckily I managed to persuaded Gareth to listen to me for once! (/rant)

Exquisite colours and design on a chair in the Old Palace

St Vitus Cathedral was very beautiful with its gothic features and colourful stained glasswork interiors. Definitely my preferred church/cathedral amongst those that we visited in Prague… as you can probably see why by the photos below:

So at the end of the day, was Prague worth all the hype?
We think so! We enjoyed our time immensely here with all the beautiful sights and learning about the history of the city. Our hostel was also lovely too, with free breakfast that we didn’t expect delivered to us every evening the day before and minutes from the city centre. But more on all of this later, when we release a City Sidekick for Prague soon :)