A week in Paris - Day 4

In case you've been wondering why I've been so quiet this past week (besides the impromptu lunch-time congratulations post)...I didn't suffer from a bout of Alzheimers, I suffered from a bout of internetlessness...We're actually still suffering from internetlessness, it's rather annoying.

So this post is brought to you courtesy of my cellphone's ridiculously-slow-but-still-better-than-no-internet wifi hotspot!

Since I posted day 3, I've been dying to share day 4 of Paris with you. Having said that, here is what we got up to on a cold, damp and very windy day in Paris!

We started off at the Panthéon, as you can see it was undergoing some structural maintenance.

Then we made our way to the Cluny Museum, just for a peek - It's super medieval, next time we'll go inside! We then wandered through a very villagey type of cobble stoned market near the Notre Dame, with little bars, coffee shops, bakeries and cheese fondue restaurants.

 

Next stop...Notre Dame! Breathtakingly beautiful and awe inspiring! It was also a good reprieve from the cold! It was way to cold to go up the towers, so next time that's a must for us!

After about an hour at Notre Dame walked to the Bastille, and then we made our way back to Montmartre, in search of dinner, stopping by the Moulin Rouge again, since it was on the way.

After dinner we went in search of dessert, looking for our favourite creperie, for some delicious nutella crepes!

Followed by a leisurely stroll back to the hotel, I think I left a little piece of my heart here in the streets of Montmartre...

Life lately - 23 January 2015

I can't believe in one week January will be pretty much over...already??

AND ...

I know I owe you all some of the awesome photos we took in Paris, but I've been so so busy. And it's not just a case of uploading them ... they are HUGE! So I have to convert the format before I can resize them and then editing and then finally I can upload them! What a mission, not to mention that we took over 500 photos in one week ... I have a mammoth task ahead of me!!

But here's a teaser for now ...

 Our selfie stick was super handy!! Dankie Hanroux!!

So, I thought I would just touch base today and let you all know that we haven't forgotten about you!

First things first ... Paris ... Aaah!! It was amazing! Everything I imagined and more! I love Paris! So much so that I already started planning our next trip before we had even left the city! And Riaan loved it too, which I was super relieved about because we HAVE to go back!!

I promise I will have a few photos up by the end of next week!

We've been in London for 5 days now and we're enjoying it, we haven't really seen much of the city, attractions wise - except for Tower Bridge, the Tower of London and the Shard, which are all right by my office. I can actually see them all from our office, which is pretty awesome!!

We've successfully navigated the subway (thanks to our crash course in Paris - in French nogal!!), and I've taken more trains in the past 5 days than I care to count.

Riaan has been hard at work house hunting and sorting our lives out, and thanks to him we'll be moving into our new apartment tomorrow!! It's a beautiful, modern little one bedroom apartment, and it's walking distance from my office, BONUS!!

So our plans for this weekend involve a move (of a whole 2 suitcases), opening a bank account, a bit of shopping for some household goodies and hopefully some adventuring!!

What will you be getting up to this weekend??

Feel free to follow along on instagram to keep up with our adventures as they happen!

Au revoir - A letter to our family and friends

Au revoir...Until we see each other again...

Tonight as I packed the last of my stuff in my suitcase reality sank in, tomorrow we're off on a new adventure, a new chapter in our lives, not a new life, the same old one -  just in a new place.

But before I can weigh my bag I have to get it closed, it's a just like a scene out of a movie, Riaan and I sitting on top of the bag, trying to zip it closed. I have unpacked and repacked about 4 times, finally after a fair amount off struggle, we manage to zip it up, and I weigh in at 25kgs, too bad I cant fit anything else in my bag.

It has been week of farewells and goodbyes, of tears through smiles, heart warming well wishes and incredible support. We are so truly grateful to everyone that wished us well and helped us out throughout this crazy month of finalising.

To our parents:
Thank you mom and dad for teaching me the value of hard work, and dedication. It paid off, without that I wouldn't be where I am today, you taught me to follow my dreams and grab opportunities when they came. I am so thankful for everything you have done not only for me but for Riaan as well, thank you for standing by us and reassuring us. (If Riaan had a say in this letter he would definitely say dankie Tannie-Ma en Oom-Pa!)
Mamma and Pappa Vos thank you for accepting me as your own child, I am so grateful for all of the love and support you have given Riaan and I throughout the past 9 years. I am lucky to be a part of such a wonderful family. Thank you for always being there for us, and for taking us in for the the past 2 weeks, for all of the Das Boot's and for moaning at us when we're being stupid at 2 in the morning.
We love you all very very much and we are going to miss you. P.s this includes Jason and Hanroux!!

To our families:
Thank you to our everyone in both families for all the love you have shown us and for standing by us in our decisions. You all have a very special place in our hearts. To everyone that came out to say goodbye, thank you, thank you, thank you. My family early in December, Riaan's entire family last Saturday, my dad and grandparents on Wednesday, my mom, brother and other mom on Friday and then all of the aunties this afternoon, we appreciate and love every single one of you.

To our friends:
Thank you for all of the laughs, for the best new years farewell and to all of you for the goodbye visits this week. You guys are seriously the most awesomely dysfunctional group of people ever to have walked the earth. We will miss you all and trust that we will be invited to every party... and we will join, via skype, as long as someone carries us around on the laptop. We love you guys, you are all amazeballs.

I think that's it...I wish I could mention everyone, but because we are blessed with a ton of family and friends, I just can't. Thank you everyone, you are all amazing people.

Au revoir.
We love you all.
...And sorry for all the tears (it sucks!!)

Life lately - 28 December 2014

First things first, **MERRY CHRISTMAS**!!! I really hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, spent time with loved ones, and ate lots of yummy foods!!

We have been so busy this week! It's kinda crazy!
Sadly, we didn't take alot of pictures but we did manage quite a few selfies!! On Monday we had our Fake Christmas (Frismas) party with the besties!
If you're following me on instagram you'll already have had a sneak peak at some photos!

On the 24th we celebrated Christmas with Riaan's family, it's kinda become a new tradition doing this, everyone brings a plate of snacks and Riaan's dad dresses up as Father Christmas. He arrives with a big bag of presents for the children, much to their delight. For about an hour he sits chatting to them and handing out presents, followed by squeals of joy from little kiddies opening presents. I love the sheer happiness on the kiddies faces as Father Christmas calls out their names, it's priceless!!

 

After all the presents had been handed out Father Christmas had to leave to go feed his Reindeer and deliver gifts to all the other children in the world, and after a very merry send-off the children disappeared with their toys, it was play time!! Then it was the adults turn to open their gifts, we do a secret Santa for the adults, it's lots of fun and the gifts are always awesome!!

On Christmas Day we had lunch with Riaan's parents and had a lazy afternoon nap infront of the tv. Dad went on a very spontaneous trip to Durban, they left on Christmas Eve so we didn't see him for Christmas. Later on Christmas day we went to Mom's house for Christmas day fondue, it was delicious and it was definitely one of my favourite Christmases to date! I promise promise promise I'll be sharing the recipe for the cheese fondue in the new year!It's amazeballs!!

We spent boxing day packing the last of our stuff and moving boxes into storage. It also happened to be our three year engagement anniversary!! Damn, time flies!! It's been an awesome 3 years, keeps getting better!

Yesterday we moved whats left of our furniture out of the house,with the help of our awesome friends, despite the imminent rain - it held out just long enough for us to finish the move! This was followed by a very well deserved braai and a few too many drinks!! Today we cleaned the townhouse and the tenants started moving in.

SO! We're officially landlords...

We'll be staying at Riaan's parents for the next 2 weeks until we set of on our adventure! I'm so excited!!!

But right now I have a bunch of paperwork to go through for my new job, I'm so freaking excited for this job, it's going to be awesome!!

Also, I need to buy a new black coat, mine has been retired after 6 years of very loyal wearing - I was starting to look like a weeshuiskind! LOL This may pose a problem though as it's the middle of summer here, so the shops don't really have winter clothes in stock! JOY!!

I know I'm probably saying excited WAAAAY too much, but you guys don't understand, or maybe you do... Whatevs, I'm still excited!