New York New York I have missed you

When my friend Katja called me to tell me she will be visiting New York in November and would love to meet me there. I was like : "what a wonderful idea". I had not since Katja since January. We are good friends that met in London a few years back. Now I live in SF and she is in London. So NYC is an ideal meeting place, about half way between SF & London. I had not been to NYC since 2005, so I was keen to go back to see the Big Apple and catch up with my dear friend Kat.

Our common friend Phung was working for a few months in NYC so he offered to host us for a week in the heart of Manhattan. His flat had great views of the Chrysler Building.  My friend Kat had never been to NYC before so it was fun to play tourist with her.

Even though I had been to NYC a couple of times, there are a few things things I had never done before and I will be concentrating on those.

The first thing was to go to the "Top of the Rock" for amazing views of NYC and Central Park. The top of the Rock is atop the Rockefeller Center. We were lucky that the weather was beautiful sunny and warm on that day.


The second thing was Brooklyn.  I absolutely loved the beautiful Prospect Park, 225 hectares of woodland, meadows and ponds which make for a beautiful autumn walk. The park was peaceful and unmanicured .After strolling in the park, we stopped by the Prospect Park Cafe talked with total strangers while sipping a hot latte. Along the flatbush avenue we stopped at a small vintage shop where I bought a beautiful 60s red patent leather bag.

The third thing was crossing the Brooklyn bridge, from Brooklyn back to Manhattan. The 1883 neo gothic suspension bridge is just a wonder. Even though, the bridge was undergoing some reparation we had some wonderful views of Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Statue of Liberty. A stroll across the bridge will usually take you between 20 and 40 minutes depending on how many stops you take for photos and taking it all in. We crossed at sunset and the colors were just amazing. Beware though: as tourists you have to make sure to stay in the pedestrians line (the right one) as many people commute to and from Brooklyn by bike and are not very patient with tourists taking pictures.

Another first for me was FAO Schwartz, home to the the Piano, in BIG, made famous by Tom Hanks. The legendary toy store on 5th avenue offers countless sweets, chocolate bars of all sizes, stuffed animals. The Dance-on-Piano, a giant musical keyboard mat,  is on the second floor. Don't miss it!

Wedding Planning - France

Even though we are already officially married since July 1st 2011. It all happened at San Francisco beautiful City Hall. My hubby and I have decided to get married in front of our families. After much debate on where to get married. we wanted to go for a destination wedding, we look at various exotic islands in the Caribbean, half way between our families (based in California & France). After assessing costs, we realized that although we dreamt of a destination wedding, this would mean that many people would not be able to afford to come and celebrate with us.
What was more important for us was the fact that we wanted to celebrate with our friends and family which meant we would have to organize two weddings (on top of our City hall wedding). why have one wedding when you can have three????

Beautiful apple trees

Anyway it was all decided : Wedding number 2 will be in France, in the village where i grew up and where my parents were married. Wedding number 3 will be somewhere in California.
The first thing I did was to look at long weekends (we call them Bank holidays back in Europe), so friends and family could make a long weekend out of it. After talking to the priest in La Guerche De Bretagne, the date was picked : May 5th, 2012.
Now to find the venue, I found this lovely venue only 30 mns away from my parents: le Manoir du petit corce.  It has a massive apple trees field which should be in flowers at the time of the wedding. How exciting!

Washington DC - a mini honeymoon trip

Supreme Court

You are going to ask me : why would anyone choose Washington DC as a honeymoon destination?

Paintings on the Rotunda - Capitol

For us it was simple, we only had a few days,  we were due a visit to my hubby's friends who live in DC and I longed to visit the heart of American History. So the decision was easy. We wanted to make the most of the long 4th of July weekend without spending hours in a plane.

My hubby's friends made out trip super special and even labelled our room "honeymoon suite" when we got to their place and even made us a special Honeymoon breakfast.

Many thanks to Jim and Melissa for such a wonderful welcome. The weather is DC was very hot, I loved it, hubby not so much. Most of monuments in DC are outdoors among beautiful parks. The buildings architecture is wonderful too. I learnt so much about the foundation of the USA. One of my highlight was the amazing library of Congress. The inside is just amazing. Make sure to pop in there when you are in DC. It would be a shame to miss it.

Library of Congress 

View from Jefferson's Memorial

The White House 

Our Beautiful City Hall Wedding

I thought it was time to catch up on my blog and write about all the exciting things I have been up to in the last few months. After a few months globetrotting between the US and Europe, I moved permanently to San Francisco last April. It was finally time to settle in San Francisco. My fiance and I found a lovely 2 bedroom-flat in Lower Haight, a nice residential area in SF.

After getting engaged in beautiful Maui island (Hawaii) in November , my fiance and I tied the knot in San Francisco City Hall on July 1st. The ceremony was a small affair, 6 friends (not that we don't have any friends, but SF city Hall limits the number of people you can have with you) and a 20 minutes ceremony.
I don't know if you ever been to SF City Hall, but the place is just magic, and wonderful for pictures. Thanks to my lovely friend Skye ( (Skye photography), we have some amazing photos from that day in the City Hall.

Start of the Year in France

I am starting the new year in Europe. After a great party with my friends in London, it is destination Brittany to catch up with my family. The start was a little shaky, feeling under the weather I started my stay at my parents in bed. A couple of days of rest and some TLC from my parents helped getting me back on track. I needed to be on form for Sunday. My godson Marius and his brothers were coming to visit with their parents. Marius just turned 7. I bought him a nintendo DS Xl and mario Kart for his birthday/Christmas. How amazing to see the excitement in his eyes as he plays all afternoon with his new toy. Marius and his brother Oscar laughed as they distort their faces on the photo application on the nintendo. What a beautiful day, catching with my cousin Sonia and her husband Cedric, and playing with the kids. On Tuesday, it was catch up with my friends Catherine and Yann who are very excited at the prospect of seeing me getting married. and the question yet again asked: when and where are you getting married? a question I dont have an answer for yet.