How to Dress for Paris

One obstacle I always face when I get ready for a trip to Paris is what clothes to pack. You never like to criticize something you love but when it comes to Paris the weather during the summer is as indecisive as me in a shoe store. It can be rainy and cold, windy and chilly, sunny and comfortably warm, or even fairly hot. I have ran into all these climates in a weeks time and as you can imagine it can make packing clothes a nightmare. After 6 visits to Paris I feel like I have mastered appropriate clothing for this city to suite my comfort. I try to not look too touristy when I visit the fashion capital but completely blending in is still quite hard especially when I am constantly caring around my DSLR camera. But none the less my must haves are as follows:

• comfortable closed toed shoes (for the sporadic rainy and cold weather as well as the packed metros and streets..protect your little piggies!)
• skirts and short (for the warmer days)
• pants of your choice for chiller days( Yes, pants are still a must in the middle of the summer, especially June.)
• tights to wear with skirts/dresses
• tops you can layer with! this is the most important because its never fun to walk around when you are too hot or too cold. Tee shirts, blouses and jackets allow you to be stylish as well as comfortable when encountering Paris’ unpredictable weather.
• Sunglasses

Sweet Tooth

Paris is full of Patisseries on every street, their window displays gleaming with sweet pastries. The tarte aux framboise was the first of my sweet treats in paris this time and it was amazing! It took me nearly 20 minutes to finish the tarte; I couldn’t help but to savor every bite. I ate more tartes on this visit to Paris than usual, I’m more of an ice cream girl. But no worries I was sure to get my absolute guilty pleasure-pistashio soft served- as I walked towards the gardens of the Eiffel Tower for a little picnic. Right after finishing my ice cream I unveiled the holy grail of french sweets, les macaroons. I’ll have to say, after tasting a box of seven (and sampling a few from a box of 24 later that day) I am not head over heals for macaroons like most seem to be. It looks like for now I’m still an ice cream kinda girl.

Mama Shelter- Paris

Mama Shelter is a designer hotel-restaurant combo and is the epitome of cool. As soon as you walk off the buzzing streets of Paris and into the lobby you instantly feel a change in atmosphere. The lights are dimly light and your eyes instantly are drawn to the chalk art running across the ceiling and you begin to feel hypnotized. The majority of the tables are furnished with chairs on one side and a long  comfy sofa that you would find at mom’s (except a little more stylish) on the other. Interesting lamps and decor are displayed haphazardly across the open space of the restaurant adding to its effortlessly cool atmosphere. A DJ selects tracks that compliment the mood and large LCD’s  display photos from the Mac Photo Booth.

The occasion of eating at this chic restaurant was for my Uncle’s 50th birthday. We ordered off the menu created by a world renowned chef, it was nothing less than extraordinaire. We dined and chatted for at least two hours and near the end our waiter brought out un baba au rhum which is a delicious cake similar to pound cake topped off with vanilla bean whip cream and coated in rum.I’ve never sung “Happy Birthday” faster in my life I just had to dig into that cake immediately!

As I was snapping a last few photos before we left, I was approached by an employee and was informed that I was not allowed to take photos. For what reason I do not know but luckily I was able to snap the few that I did and hopefully they’ll never see these!