Session de rattrapage : Fete des jardins 2013 (on film)

The winter cold has finally hit me this year and I spent the last 2 days in bed drinking hot herbal infusions and OJ... But this gave me time to go through the last batch of very old film rolls I recently scanned and discover these lovely shots. 

Leslie Knope would have loved it in France; I'm not talking about the Camembert and macarons here, but about all the government-sponsored events.

I know everyone loves Fete de la musique and Nuit Blanche, but too me that's just too much noise and drunk people in the street.

What I love is Fete des jardins - a yearly celebration that takes place in all the parks and gardens in Paris and the suburbs.

I might have mentioned it before and it truly is the best thing ever for a nature-hungry urbanite like me.

I discovered it in 2011 strictly by chance when going to the Parc Floral right after coming back from my Romanian summer sojourn.

It takes place around the 20th of September, when the weather is usually nice and warm, with a certain summer vibe lingering.

I haven't been to many other celebratory spots, but after carefully scanning the program this year, Parc Floral still seemed like the best bet. In the end it's a beautiful botanical garden, you get free entrance, maybe some nice music and always free plants.

By now I know the two little games that win you plants, though I must confess it was more fun the previous year.

There's still stuff to discover, like the building your fake garden in sand workshop for kids that I just had to take part in!

My favourite thing this year was actually in the Dahlia expo, which I normally don't pay much attention to, but these darkly leafed hybrids with movie names were an instant crush.

I mean how awesome would it be to receive a bouquet of Star Wars with a dash of Taxi Driver?

If I was ever to create a floral variety, it would be a super scented garden rose in pale pink called The Long Goodbye. Or an almost black freesia called La maman et la putain.

But enough reminiscing for now. I'll be preparing a new batch of vintage items for next week, so keep your eyes peeled!

Session de rattrapage : Bathing beauties

 Ok you guys, I know you're getting sick of my big batch of recently unearthed film photos, so I'm gonna make this a little easier - I'm starting a new post series just for sharing old outfits and other random shit, photos taken on film only, so that you won't feel like I'm wasting your time.

I'm calling this session de rattrapage - it's the French term for when you failed or missed an exam date and need a retake. I find it a more elegant (and slightly guilty) term for catching up.

These photos certainly don't compare to the original Mack Sennett bathing beauties, but they do capture my passion for water and swimming. Maybe it's more beautiful swimmers than bathing beauties (just to be clear the term beautiful is for the photos, not the subject). Which reminds me of this lovely band.

I'm not a very good swimmer by any means, but I just looove being in the water.

This is probably just a lame excuse to show off my uber cool Michael Kors Swimsuit a silly swim cap (going to the pool cultivates good habits like the usefulness of a swim cap).

Lately I started doing a very Parisian/French thing - going to the pool. Aside from the smoking, small portions and copious bike ridding, the secret of slim French women might be going to the pool (and yoga). I mean, nobody here really talks about gym memberships or body building, but they do talk about going to the pool.

It's a really quirky system - every district of the city and the suburbs has a so-called municipal pool. That's right - a place for exercise subsidized by the State.

Sure the rates are decent (5 bucks a go), hours are freaky and don't really work with your schedule, you get kids, jocks and fat old ladies, but for a person who hates sports and exercise (and who's been complaining about looking like a pancake lately while eating her McDonald's), it's a pretty sweet deal. Except when the bitchy old lady from the register tells you she can't give you the discount rate without your actual card despite the fact that you were just there 3 days ago and had your discount card made. I mean, don't these people keep any evidence of people signing up? What if my card gets stolen or lost? You just have to pay the 10euros again in order to get the discounted 3.7euro rate. And of course there's no monthly rate or other discount plan.

Yeah, the joys and wonders of French bureaucracy...

But still, it's good to go and try and swim for an hour in the big boys pool (then sneaking to just float in the kiddy pool when the big one gets overcrowded), coming back stinking of chlorine, starving but happy.

I'm still working on discovering the least crowded hours (quite difficult for a place that only opens 4h/day), but it's a good habit that I'm trying to maintain.

So here are a few shots from last summer of a more happy swimmer in better circumstances (although I wouldn't call killer waves ideal swimming environment).

Do you guys exercise in any way? What do you do to stay in shape?

Oh, I also prolonged the sale for another day, so if you saw something you fancy there's still time to head over to the shop!