Paris Photo Diary: A Parisian Birthday.

If you've seen all of my insta-spam {sorry!} from the past week, then you'll know that I recently spent the weekend in Paris. This year was my 25th birthday and while it may not seem like a 'big birthday' to most, I'm a firm believer in celebrating every birthday in a big way. I normally throw a party, but with that comes a lot of work, preparation...and cleaning, and this year I just didn't have the time. So instead, me and the girls decided to make a weekend of it and head to Paris on the early morning Eurostar. Paris is one of my favourite cities, so it seemed like the ideal weekend! So, here's an overview of what we got up to on my actual birthday, and some of my favourite snaps from the day...

As I said, we headed out early and after a quick dash to the hotel {we stayed in Hotel Pastel} we were ready to start the weekend...already buzzing from the early morning bucks fizz. After dropping our bags off, we headed down to the Champs-Élysées to pick up some of our favourite macarons from Ladurée ready for our picnic lunch. After a little stroll and a few near death experiences trying to get a photo with the Arc de Triomphe, we headed to the Palais Royal for a well deserved coffee stop at Café Kitsuné. It was a great opportunity to take in our surroundings, test out our polaroid camera and enjoy some necessary shade {it was 30 degrees in Paris while we were there!}.

Next we headed to the Les Deux Plateaux {the black and white candy-esque pillars}, an art installation in the central courtyard of the Palais Royal. This is one of my favourite spots in Paris, it's so fun {especially in the sunshine} and it's also a great opportunity to get some fun photos. 

After finishing up at the Palais Royal, we skipped across the road to the Louvre for a few more tourist snaps....see below an example of how bad we really were at it...

By this point we were feeling pretty peckish, we had been awake since 3am after all...The original plan was to head to a local shop and pick up some more traditional french food, however our hunger got the better of us {we were hangry} so we popped into McDonald's for some french fries {french enough, right?!}. We set up camp in the Jardin des Tuileries and had our McDonald's with some champagne and our Ladurée macarons - it may not sound like the classy lunch we'd intended but it was perfect just the way it was. 

After a quick go on the swings and a walk round the gardens, we headed back to the hotel to check in for the night and get glammed up for our dinner reservations. A bottle of champagne {and a lot of hairspray} later, we headed out to Monsieur Bleu, right on the bank of the Seine, for dinner. As it was a warm night, we dined on the restaurants terrace - the atmosphere was incredible, as was the food, so I'd thoroughly recommend heading there for a special dinner if you're visiting. The raspberry martinis are also to die for...

After dinner we headed down to the bridge across the Seine just outside the restaurant to admire the twinkling lights of the eiffel tower at midnight, and squeeze a few more laughs into the day. It was the perfect end to the perfect day, and I couldn't have wished for a better birthday. Part two will be up shortly...

xo Becky