Magic Sunday

I'm a huge Harry Potter's fan! I'm also secretly convinced that I'm a witch, it's just that Hogwarts did not still send me my acceptance letter, it must be because I relocated so many times and they're having a hard time to find me (which is frankly quite annoying for wizards)... But I'm sure it must not be long now!

So when I saw there was a big Harry Potter exhibition in Paris I knew I had to pay it a visit!

Last grey and rainy Sunday seemed to be the perfect day! So I took my hubby-who-never-read-or-watched-a-single-episode-of-the-saga and we headed to la Cité du Cinema (the city of cinema) in Saint Denis, just outside Paris.

When you enter the first room, you're welcomed to Hogwarts and the sorting hat tells you to which house you belong to. Ok, to be honest there are too many people so just a couple of them can test the hat. I may have lifted my hand to volunteer, but they chose 3 children... But I'm not easy to discourage, so when the entire crowd was heading to the second room, I manage to wear the sorting hat and he confirmed I'm a Gryffondor. 

Then you'll find the Hogwarts Express, but you can't go in.

And after that you have several rooms with lots of objects from the movies and a lot of clothes too.

Actually, I was a bit disappointed as I thought everything would have been more interactive, whereas you get to see a lot of props, that is funny, and  a lot of costumes, that is less funny as let's be honest they're not like Princess Sissi amazing dresses they're more like H&M basic trousers and t-shirts... 

And there is nothing to visit or to try... Or some explication about the shooting...

Even the great hall, it's just the bigger room of the exhibition, but it's not decorated like the real one.

The Hagrid house was funny to see though and all in all I was happy to visit the exhibition and had a nice time.

But I'm not sure whether I suggest you to go. Also I think it's quite expensive for what it is, I had a discount on the tickets, but probably if I've had to pay the full price I wouldn't be that happy.

Have you been there? What did you think?

Anyway, if you wanna have a virtual tour of the Harry Potter exhibition here some more snaps for you!

Let's start with the Gryffondor tower, shall we? Do you have the password for the Fat Lady to let you in?

Now that we settled in, we can join the others in the great hall...

Where lots of colorful candies are waiting for us :) 

Before going to Hagrid's to say hello to our big friend!

And to rest a bit on his big chair ;)

But be careful while going to Hagrid's: the forest is populated by weird or dangerous creatures...

Even though not all the weirdos are dangerous ;)

Let's not forget that we still have to go to classes too, after it's a school here...

And we need to learn as much enchantments as possible to fight the dark forces...

...To eventually find the seven horcruxs!

Insalata di riso

Summer is here!! The weather is super hot, everyone is complaining because of the heat, but I am super happy! I like the heat, I like when in the morning I just have to slip into a little dress and I'm ready to go, I like not to have to dry my hairs after the swimming pool, I also like to take a walk at 3ish pm, you know when you walk down the streets and the concrete sends back the heat (I know I'm kinda weird)... But what I don't like is to cook. So I have to keep it simple and fresh.

And that's when it comes the insalata di riso !

My mum used to make it when I was a child and I remember coming back to school and be very happy when opening the fridge I found the black and white big bowl I knew would contain insalata di riso.

The problem with rice salads is that usually people - or restaurants - put so many things in it, it becomes a rice nonsense...

What I like to put in it, is just a lots of tomatoes (but real, good tomatoes please!), tuna and hard-boiled eggs.

Here what you'll need for a big bowl - you can serve around 6 people or just like me, make a bigger quantity and then keep it in the fridge for the following days (4/5 days in the fridge it's ok).

- 500 g rice

- 5 (more or less depending on their size) beautiful tomatoes

- 3 cans of tunas

- 4 eggs

- Olive oil

- Balsamic vinegar

- Pepper

Cook the rice and keep it a little firm, like if it's written to cook it for 10 minutes, cook it just for 9.

In the same time boil the eggs - 10 minutes and not one more for perfectly hard-boiled eggs! - and cut the tomatoes.

Put the tomatoes in a nice salad bowl, add the rice once it's cooked and the tuna (smash the tuna with a fork before adding it). Season with olive oil (be generous with the olive oil it will prevent the rice to become sticky), balsamic vinegar and pepper.

Once the eggs are done, cut them in small pieces and add to the rice salad.

Mix everything and put in the fridge to cool down.

Enjoy your insalata di riso! :)

Les Granges d'Haillancourt

Last week-end we went on a romantic gateway in the countryside. :) We went to this tiny, charming hotel called Les Granges d'Haillancourt, just near Paris. And I must say the most I visit places around Paris the most I'm amazed at how beautiful the nature and the little villages are. There are more and more places that I want to visit nearby, and that's just perfect as summer is (supposedly) coming so I can plan plenty of Sunday getaways! I don't know why people don't like Paris, one should be a bit curious and explore the Ile de France, there's really a lot to see, even if one doesn't have a car... Anyway back to last week-end. I found this small hotel on a travel website and it looked really nice so I decided to give it a try and offered a lovely week-end to my love for his birthday.

Actually the beginning of the week-end was kinda of gloomy as we headed to Beauvais to visit the Cathedral but it was closed (but Beauvais is a really nice village! Houses are lovely and there are plenty of restaurants and shops. There is even Galeries Lafayette! I wasn't expecting that, as the only thing I knew in Beauvais was the horrible airport, so I was a bit biased...) and we ended up eating our picnic in the car as the weather was really bad...

But after that, everything else went perfectly well!

At the beginning of the afternoon we went horse-riding, it was too good! Meet our horses Noemi and Amona. 

We had so much fun!

After that we went to our hotel and spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the swimming pool, jacuzzi and hammam.

^He can't help but check his work email even on week-end!! 

Les Granges d'Haillancourt is a beautiful mansion in a tiny village, with only 7 big rooms all decorated in different colors. There's a big garden where you can sit, relax and sunbathe (if there's the sun *grumpy emoticon here*) and there's a covered swimming pool, Jacuzzi and hammam open 24 hours. That's a big bonus. Plus breakfast is very good and generous. The place is a really little gem for a week-end not to far.

There's no restaurant in the evening though, so we went nearby to "Le clos des vignes".

The place is super nice and romantic. Actually is another little hotel, with garden and swimming pool as well, plus there's is a little restaurant under glass roof. Look how nice is it.

Unfortunately the meal wasn't that good, it wasn't bad neither, but still. My main dish was really too salty and the dessert was clearly from a notorious supermarket of frozen food... But at least food was nicely presented..

And the place was really nice and the wine we had very, very good so all in all we had a very good evening.

On Sunday, after an enormous breakfast (I literally tried everything sweet and everything salty...), we went to a village nearby as we heard there was a garage sale. Mick was super excited as he found this old, rusty table he can turn into a new, beautiful table for the living room...
( 2 weeks later update : the table is in the cellar and he didn't touch it once... ;p )

After that we went to another little village with a big lake, L'Isle Adam, and we wandered around. 

^ This is when I asked my boyfriend to take a pic of me on the bridge... Honestly one can hardly see me! But the bridge is veeeeryyyy visible! ;))

We went back to the garage sale as we wanted to have lunch there: we saw earlier in the morning they were cooking sausages on a big bbq ;)

And they also had mouthwatering cakes... Honestly, why going to fancy restaurants? ;)

Full and happy, we headed again to Beauvais and this time we could visit the huge Cathedral (that it's actually more impressive from the outside than the inside) before going back home.