Paris

I was in Paris earlier this week the main aim being to see the Monet exhibition. As I had been down in London to see the ballet I was able to go direct to Paris for the first time on the Eurostar train - I loved it! Here is the train at the Gare du Nord.

After checking in at the hotel I went to the Grand Palais and took up my place in the queue to enter the exhibition!  I waited 2 hours and was caught up in a mini French Revolution - the people in the queue were mainly French and they got fed up waiting because the queue was not being properly managed.  Very few from our queue were allowed in as the security men seemed to favour those with timed tickets and groups but as one lady said we were paying too!  Anyway after much shouting the boss of the Grand Palais appeared and then they started to let us in as well! 

The exhibition was worth the wait and there were many beautiful Monets to see - my favourite was the picture seen here in part on the poster for the show, it was on loan from the State Hermitage St Petersburg, Russia and was truly beautiful.

Another painting that I liked was Champs de Tulipes - a picture of a Dutch tulip field and the still life pictures of flowers and fruits.
Picture: art-reproductions.net

Photo:www.ociaw.com

Monets are easy on the eye and I enjoyed the show very much.

Also on in a neighbouring part of the Grand Palais was the Bulgari jewellery exhibition so on Monday I went to see that as well.














What I had not expected to see was the Elizabeth Taylor Collection of Bulgari jewels- they were magnificent!  Here is her fabulous emerald and diamond necklace.
Photo: Bulgari/nytimes.com




Photo: not known


There was also a case full of "en tremblant" diamond brooches which were amazing - tremblant meaning they tremble - and if you looked closely you could see the tiny springs upon which the gems were mounted so that they moved with the wearer's movement!  Here is one of the many stunning diamond brooches which were on display.
Photo: Not known


There were far too many people to enjoy the show really as there was a lot of pushing and shoving in the queues plus it was very hot in the rooms due to the spotlights, however I managed to extricate myself from the queues and skirted the edges so I was able to see everything without my space being quite so invaded LOL!

During my brief visit to Paris I went to see the new Hermes boutique at Rue de Sevres on the Left Bank and the new boutique is spectacular and is housed in the old swimming pool from the neighbouring Hotel Lutecia - just look at the photos:-

The new boutique includes an in house cafe and a florist - guess it is a sort of posh "one-stop-shop"!  Here is the outside showing the florists (not the best of photos!).

I called by Hermes FSH as well and they have decked their windows out for Spring with lots of flowers and butterflies!

There was quite a confection in the main display - patisserie was by Pierre Herme.

Scarf Necklace - How To

Over on TPF I recently wore my Gloria Soli as a necklace which I plaited. 














Since then the lovely ladies on TPF have asked me for instructions on how to do the plait/braid.  It is a bit difficult to show but I hope you get the idea - if you can plait/braid normally then you should be OK with a scarf -you may need to practice it a little bit until it looks right. 

Remember you need 3 tails to plait with so they are made up of the 2 tails of the scarf PLUS the bit of the scarf that goes around the back of your neck so you kind of plait onto that piece as you will see in the pictures.

1. Fold scarf in the "Basic Fold"

2. Then the easiest way to do this is to put the scarf around your neck and make a single knot tight enough that you can then pull the scarf off over your head so you can plait it more easily - if you can manage to do it with the scarf on you then that is even better and you will get a longer length of plait, but you may need to be a contortionist to do that or have a friend plait it for you.  Try to get the tails of equal length.













3. Get your 3 "tails" and start to plait/braid:-

Note how you use the round bit that goes around the neck as the 3rd tail to plait with.

4. Pull the tails tight and carry on plaiting/braiding......

5. Until you run out of tails.

6. Tidy the ends of the tails by tying a tiny knot on what will be the underside of the necklace and tuck any length into the plait folds if you need to.  You can just make out the knot here at the bottom on the left.

7. The finished article - you should now be able to slip this back over your head to make your scarf necklace - unless you are really clever and managed to plait it while the scarf was round your neck!  I have not got that knack yet!!

Hope that helps!  Good Luck dear Scarfies!

New Scarves

I have recently managed to acquire 2 scarves that I have been hunting for a while.  First up is Glora Soli in a most colourful colourway:-

Here worn cowboy style.  This scarf has a lovely contrast hem too!

And draped over the shoulder and fastened with a scarf ring.










My second find is Faubourg By Night in Noir/Gris.

The design is that of a brilliant cut diamond and the facets then reflect elements of the building 24 Faubourg St Honore - by night.  The Hermès Caleche features around the edge of the "diamond" as well and you can just make that out at the bottom of the photo.

Here it is worn cowboy style and tied with a scarf ring.  Again this scarf has a contrast hem, which a lot of

Hermès scarf fans like!

Here worn in my favourite Friendship Knot (instructions here)


















I am looking forward to seeing what 2011 brings and hope you have a Happy New year too!

Happy Christmas!

Happy Christmas! 

Merry Christmas!

I would like to wish all the followers and readers of My Little Scarf Blog a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Peaceful New Year. 
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Some shopping and snow at last!

We finally got some "proper" snow!  But that has not stopped me getting to the shops for 1 must have item and a new little something from Hermes!

What could be in the bag?



The Dior Minaudiere Palette



I was  really lucky to get the palette as it is nearly sold out everywhere but a friend helped me to find it and I was able to snap it up!  Thank you to my friend!

Colour 001 Grey Golds

Next stop was Hermes and I found to my amazement that they had some early stock of the Spring Summer 2011 scarves - I am trying to stick to 70cms now and I found this beautiful pink Ferronnerie 70cm vintage soie which was top of my wish list so I snapped that up too!

Ferronnerie in Rose Bonbon



Just quickly trying it on "a la cowboy"!
















The box for the scarf was wrapped with some special festive Bolduc ribbon.

Then I went home to enjoy the snow - but maybe my neighbour's chicken was having more fun?!!

Winter Wonderland!

The UK suffered some severe frosts and snow in the last 10 days, sadly for me, we escaped the snow being coastal.  However, on Monday and Tuesday we had a hoar frost!  The scenery looked spectacular and like everything had been dusted with glittering icing sugar - it took your breath away it looked so magical.  I managed a few photos of the scenery and ice crystals that formed on the plants.

A little grey squirrel was just having his lunch here - you can just make him out as a tiny black dot above the copyright symbol on the bottom left of my photo above.

Some iced up berries!



Here you can really see the sparkling glistening

frost on a branch.







See how the frost coated the grasses and seed heads.



The fingers of ice frozen to the branches were amazing.



I took some close ups of some leaves as well and you can even see the frozen drips of rain on them.

I like how the frost highlights the pattern of the leaf's veins - just beautiful!



Still dreaming of a White Christmas just like the ones I used to know........

New Plissé

I was very lucky on ebay the other day!  I managed to scoop this lovely orange plissé called Breitling - I love aeroplanes as you know so this was perfect for me.

It is cold at the moment so here I tried it with a fur collar:-

Then a butterfly knot on its own without tying a single knot first.



















And then single knot with butterlfy.  I used my Bolduc scarf ring for the butterfly knot.

I really like this shade of orange as well it is a "proper" orange and looks good against dark colours.

A Special Treat

A couple of weeks ago my sister and I went up to London for a special treat...




we had lunch at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay - and it was a thoroughly enjoyable lunch, everything from the service to the food was tip top and the atmosphere was really lovely - very relaxed no airs and graces so it was a very "comfortable" experience.  I could not resist taking pics of the dishes as they were works of art - no apologies if this blog leaves you feeling hungry!

As it was a cold day we were firstly given an amuse bouche of duck soup and mini confit of duck: 

Then came our starter - we both chose a quail and wild mushroom pithivier which was out of this world delicious!  Next to the pithivier was confit of quail and a beautiful winter salad of endive, walnut, apple and celeriac.

I had roasted fillet halibut for my main which came with a bourguinon sauce with pommes boulangère.

My sister had ‘Saltimbocca’ with English Rose veal, sage, Parma ham, linguine and capers.



The desserts were TDF! I did not like the desserts offered on the menu so the Maitre d' asked if I liked chocolate, which I do, so he said he would surprise me! Some surprise!  This was a tower of chocolate filled with praline and a crispy base with milk ice cream and raspberry sauce - but isn't the presentation pretty? very art nouveau inspired I think.

My sister had a selection sorbets - not just any old sorbets these were very special flavours - cider apple and spearmint to name two, but her favourite was the chocolate - this was served on a block of ice sitting on a black absorbant towel - what next?!  Even our dining neighbours took a photo!

To finish we were served some truffles....

and then strawberry ice cream chocolates served in liquid nitrogen for quite a finale!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

To top it all off we were also given a little bag of the truffles to take home :-) before being taken into the kitchen to see where it all happens!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
We had a great time and I can highly recommend Restaurant Gordon Ramsay!