Zürich between lakes and mountains

Claire was the first person I met when I arrived in Paris – I won’t say how many years ago because, frankly, counting years it's becoming more & more annoying... 

I was in the subway going back home from an acting class when this girl, who was also in the class, came to talk to me.
She thought I was crying, probably sad because I was away from my family... For the record, I just have very sensitive eyes...

Anyway, we exchanged our numbers & she told me she would have called me. I honestly didn't think she would have really called. But she actually did & a couple of days later we went out with other friends to watch "Bridget Jones' diary".

And that was the beginning of a very beautiful friendship.

Regrettably, a couple of years ago she moved to Zurich where she lives happily with her very cute & very blonde family.

So now I can't see her very often, but I can go to Switzerland for the weekend ;)

When I thought of Zurich, I had images of serious men dressed up in black suits, carrying their suitcases on their way to work, of modern bright buildings occupied by all the big banks, coming to my mind.

I couldn't be wronger: Zurich is a cute, small & very clean little city, built around a beautiful lake & surrounded by mountains. 

Nature is everywhere & it's really easy to access. 

Starting from a walk in the mountains on Saturday morning...

Last time I came, the panorama was quite different, but equally beautiful.

Which one do you prefer?

The destination of our walk was a mountain restaurant, where we were supposed to have lunch… Before realizing that none of us had cash, but only credit cards… That the restaurant didn’t accept! 
This is apparently quite common in Swiss mountains; so if you’re in the corner don’t forget your wallet! ;)

We ended up sharing two soups and continue our hike. We arrived to a sort of a bobsleigh slope we wanted to take to get down the mountain, and they luckily accepted credit cards (and sold ice-creams!)

The bobsleigh was super fun!! The ride was quite long and you could really go fast! Mick was driving and I was happily screaming!

On our way home, we continued to marvel at the endless series of green, luxuriant mountains ending in blue beautiful lakes.

On Sunday morning, despite the grey weather, we enjoyed the other natural attraction Zurich has to offer: the lake. 

Now, this wasn't just like going to the countryside and swimming in a lake. Zurich’s lake is more like going to the beach: you have green grasses to lay down and sunbathe, volleyball fields, playgrounds for children, a floating platform to sunbathe in the middle of the water, boats for renting and a toboggan, that we enjoyed very much!

The water was freezing though; it took me like 30 minutes to enter in it, while around me people were easily jumping in the water like if it was the Caribbean sea… But once in it, it really felt good and invigorating. I'd love to have such a swim every morning! I would feel so good!

Unfortunately, after a good lunch and some more talk, it was already the time to take our train back to Paris, where we arrived happy and relaxed! :D

Atomium, Bruxelles

A couple of days ago we went to Liège, Belgium for my brilliant brother in law Ph.D.

I didn't plan on writing a post about this trip, as we went there very quickly, and I thought we would have just gone to the university to listen to his Ph.D. thesis & spent some time with the family.

Which we actually did. But the day after the Ph.D. thesis & the celebration party, we went to Brussels.

I must admit Brussels is not a city I particularly like (what do you think about it?), but we went to a place I've never heard of before & I found quite amusing: the Atomium.

The Atomium is a monument built for the 1958 World's Fair, that represents the cell of an iron crystal, magnified 165 billion times.

It's quite impressive &  its construction was a technical exploit, as you can imagine by looking at the pictures taken during the construction works.

Speaking of that, 6 of the 9 spheres are open to the public; the highest offers a beautiful 360° view over Bruxelles.

In the other ones, you can enjoy a permanent exhibition on the design & the construction of the monument, as well as a temporary exhibition. 

During our visit, the temporary exhibition was "Talk", a sounds & lights experience from the collective of artists Visual System. It was a futuristic exhibition, which I found suited the place really well.

In the central tube, the lift taking the visitors up to the highest sphere was the faster lift never constructed at the time of the World's Fair in 1958.

There is also a sphere for children, where groups of children can spend the night sleeping in circular beds in little spheres & looking at the stars. No need to say, I was very jealous of that!

At least, we were able to play like children outside the Atomium...

Carrying the Atomium's weight on our little shoulders was quite tiring though... So we decided to go to Bruxelles' main square to have a drink in the sun & possibly a chocolate waffle, I mean, we were in Belgium after all, could I possibly leave the country without having had a waffle?! ;p

The place was particularly beautiful shining in the sun...

We sat in a cafe, chatting, admiring the buildings surrounding us & enjoying the last moments spent with the family.

Soon enough, it was time to take the road back home. But not before having had my chocolate waffle!! :D

To sleep or not to sleep on silk pillowcase

It’s been some time now that I’ve been hearing about the beauty & anti-ageing benefits of silk pillowcases.

I was curious to try, but the high price of silk pillowcases combined with my being skeptical about the real results I could expect, always stopped me.

From time to time I kept searching Google though to check new companies selling silk pillowcases & feedbacks.

Eventually, a couple of weeks ago, I ordered 2 silk pillowcases from Lilysilk. 

I chose this company as they had good feedbacks, an interesting & complete FAQ & seemed reliable.

(It’s not the cheaper seller you can find, but I was not looking for the lowest price, I was looking for the lowest price combined with good quality silk & Lilysilk seemed a good choice).

First good surprise, delivery was really fast & the pillowcase arrived in a cute box.

When I opened it, I was amazed by the softness of the fabric & the exquisiteness of the shade of pink (I obviously ordered pink pillowcases!). Honestly, I was not expecting such beautiful items.

Finally the night came & we could get to bed & rest our heads on our beautiful pillowcases.

No need to say, hubby didn’t acknowledge a word of my babbling about the beauty & anti-ageing benefits of silk.

But as soon as he put his head on the pillow, he was conquered by the delicate fabric & decided he won’t sleep on cotton pillowcase anymore.

Actually he now would like to sleep on silk sheets too, but given the price we’ll wait until Christmas! ;)

It’s true that I too can feel a huge difference between my head resting on silk & my body laying on cotton. Cotton now feels so harsh against my skin…

And now the truth about the beauty & anti-ageing promises:

• Silk is a hypoallergenic fabric, very gentle against skin : I don’t know about allergies, but it’s definitely true that silk is a really soft fabric & very pleasant on the skin.

• You won’t wake up in the morning with pillow marks on your face thus preventing wrinkles : Indeed I have no pillow marks on my face when I wake up so I guess this is actually good for the skin thus helping to delay the appearance of wrinkles.

• The fabric being less aggressive on the hair, they break less => I don’t have any hair problem, but every day I was used to find lots of hubby’s hair on the pillow (sorry love for saying this out loud ;p) but since we’re sleeping on silk pillowcase there are no more hair. Not-a-single-one!! Meaning that silk really is gentle on the head and hubby’s not losing hair while sleeping anymore!!

• Silk doesn’t absorb creams, leaving your night cream on your face thus allowing your skin to benefit from all the ingredients all night long : To test this last point, I touched my face in the morning before changing pillowcase and I touched my face after & I must say that my skin feels “moister” & better hydrated since I’m sleeping on silk pillowcase, so I feel confident to say that even this last point is a true beauty benefit! :)

I'm definitely conquered by sleeping on silk pillowcase & ordering more pillowcases in additional colors! The softness of the fabric on the skin would be enough, but in addition to that it's also a beauty remedy! :)

The only negative point is the the fabric being so delicate, I'm hand-washing the pillowcases as I'm afraid of putting them in the machine, even though there's a silk program...

What about you? Have you already slept on silk pillowcase? What do you think?

Sunset & love in Positano

This summer the weather is being super weird... Not only in Paris, where the summer weather eventually arrived only 2 weeks ago, but in Italy as well. Even though in Italy the weather was still hot, there have been many rainy & stormy days.

I go to Positano every year since my childhood & I can't recall another summer with an equal bad weather like this one (I'm so glad we got married last summer!!)... While rain & cold can be quite annoying when you wanna go out & enjoy the sea (luckily we also had sunny days to be fair) the cloudy weather resulted in some of the most beautiful sunsets I saw in the area.

The stormy clouds, the pink sky & the blue sea are a great combo! :)

Another incredible thing that happened this summer is that one night hubby & I were ready to go out for dinner in advance & for once we could take a couple of pictures of us all dressed-up in front of one of those sunsets (honestly, I don't know you, but we never have pics of us when we're nice dressed etc as we're always late ;p). So I particularly enjoy the following photos <3 <3

<3 <3