Tilly Mint's Trip to Paris

Several months ago I surprised my husband by booking a weekend to Paris, not for the normal romantic getaway but to see the final stage of The Tour de France! I wanted it to be a surprise, but couldn’t keep it secret for long! We watched the stages of the race over the 3 weeks, with Wiggins hanging on to the yellow jersey, both not quite believing we were going to (hopefully) see a very momentous final stage!

So off we set last Friday, arriving late afternoon with enough time to explore the city in the evening. Our hotel was ideally situated bout 10 mins walk from the champs élysées (much planning had gone into finding the right hotel!). On the Saturday we used the hop on hop off service of the Big Red Bus company to explore further afield.

We of course had to see the Eiffel Tower

The arch de Triomphe

The opera house

And Notre Dame

We had been recommended a restaurant called Gros Minot, and after a bit of a walk we found it

It was certainly worth it, fantastically quirky inside with gorgeous food and wine, what more could you ask for?!

I had spent a bit of time before going away researching some haberdashery shops to visit. I found one in particular that sounded interesting – L’Entrée des Fournisseurs

It really didn’t disappoint, to my husbands dismay once I was inside I was lost forever! So many gorgeous ribbons and bias binding

Buttons, so many gorgeous buttons!

And if that wasn’t enough, lots of liberty fabric

However, I was very well restrained, only buying a cute little pin cushion to remind me of the trip, satisfied in the knowledge that they have an online shop!

Soon it was time to go to sleep for our early start of 6am to get to the champs élysées for 8am to ensure a front row spot to see the race. In total we spent 12 hours standing in the same spot (yes you did read that right!) but it was totally worth it. I can’t even begin to describe the atmosphere, utterly and totally the best experience and well worth the 12 hours! We chatted to the people around us, all of different nationalities and there to support their team. Before the race there was a caravan – a parade of all sorts of different vehicles decorated superbly to promote different brands, here are some of my favourites

Now I’m not going to bore you with lots of photos from the race, just a select few!

I still can’t quite believe we were there to see the first British win of the Tour de France. Fingers crossed now for team GB in the Olympics!

Now it wouldn’t be a holiday without the mention of cake. I had been eyeing up all the lovely patisseries throughout the holiday as I wanted to bring some macaroons back, but had resisted as I knew they wouldn’t survive the heat. However I was delighted to find Laduree had a branch at the airport! If you haven’t been to one of their branches you really must, just the decoration of the shop was devine never mind the taste of the macaroons!

Being restrained I just got a box of 6 macaroons choosing mint, lemon, rose petal, coffee, pistachio and salted caramel.

This was my first taste of a macaroon and I was in heaven! My most favourite was the rose petal, such delicate flavours just melting in your mouth! I think I’d like to try making my own and will have to hunt out some recipes!

So there we have it, the most fantastic and memorable holiday. Thank you for letting me share it with you!

Sarah x

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