Mooning With My Honey, And Other Stories

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Friends, family, clients and all of those that fall into multiple categories,

It has been a hell of a couple of weeks over here. As you probably have noticed from me posting a pile of photos to social media, the Mr and I just got back from our honeymoon. Just as in, last night so forgive me if all of this sounds like the rambling of a jet-lagged woman, because, well, it is.

First up on the exciting news front- I have just signed on the dotted line to share a studio space with some incredible other artists starting in a couple of weeks, which I am THRILLED about even though sleepy, (seriously what time does my body even think it is?) and will have all of the glorious details about that later on this week including some really killer “welcome to the neighborhood” promos to get everyone in the mood to come visit me for photos and just generally as a big thank you to everyone for their support and a little way to get everyone what they to kick off 2019 with their best face (shrug?) forward! More deets later after several more sleeps.

In the meantime, since I think of you all as friends (yes even if we have just had one tiny shoot years ago!) I wanted to share some of the images from our trip, because sharing is caring. The Mr and I had never been to Europe at all, either as a duo or a singlet so we thought we would take the opportunity to have a cold weather, Christmas-y honeymoon! Our first stop was London, where we stayed at the Apex Hotel, which sent us up the most incredible plate of sweets and upgraded our room when they found out we were on our honeymoon. It was just about the nicest way to recover from a long flight! I would definitely recommend them if you are in the area!

London, as we fast learned, is a walking town, so a lot of what we found was by chance or necessity (bathrooms, pints, and feet resting breaks) or from watching an awesomely cheesy youtube show called “What’s Good” but if anyone is interested in the specifics of any place shoot me a message! Here are some good things.

Pints + Pies (my favorite was a classic mushroom), Raclette from Borough Market (not pictured: the grilled cheese sandwich I consumed gleefully or the donuts from Bread Ahead), metal head bar “The Cro Bar” where I uncontrollably burst into laughter when a drunk kid yelled “I fucking LOVE Soundgarden” (I mean we all do I guess but..chill Bruh) , SO much mulled wine and Christmas markets, and the incredible Black Daal from Dishoom (pictured after we attacked it) that looks nowhere near as utterly, unreasonably good as it was.

We got tea from the “Secret Tea Room” in Soho which is up a narrow set of stairs from inside a pub, that was so secret that even inside the pub we were wondering if we were in the right spot, and explored the British Museum, which was beautiful but pretty weird to see all the huge pieces of tombs, mummies and art that had been “excavated”.

English breakfast room service, then off to Paris!

Musee d’Orsay had a collection of Picasso’s blue and rose period, hot chocolate from famous literary cafe Les Deux Magots was beyond opulent and a peek of the Eiffel Tower hiding. Also the best falafel/shawarma place in Paris that I wish I could eat at every single day and a dumpling spot called Ravioli Nord Est that had a line well out the door. We definitely ate some pate, escargot and divine duck confit but it was really cool tasting the differences in the flavors of some of our favorite types of food in LA.

We were fortunately right next door to a really lovely little boulangerie which made the best bread and breakfasty snacks, but was so small it didn’t come up on yelp or a map. I really wanted to just go here every day because it was so perfect and no one made fun of how many heart eyes I made at bread. The sandwiches here are ham and cheese with veg and salmon and cream cheese. Also pictured was a chocolate bread that I am really not sure of it’s name but if you know it tell me because I am in literal love with it. Also those tiny little beautiful donuty puff things were Chouquettes and I am also in love with them. Don’t make me choose. While we are at it here were some macarons we ate too because when in France don’t stop eating until you explode.

Of course we had to go to that famous tower thing. It goes pretty high up. No photos do it any justice but you can see an incredible distance. Also I learned that the higher up one goes, the more windy it gets so, uh, bring a scarf. You can buy different passes to the Eiffel tower which might include you walking up stairs or taking the lift, and going up to only the first or second floor or all the way to the top. We figured we’d go all in tourist and hit the top but walked most of the way down at a leisurely pace.

We also hit up the Louvre to go visit M. Lisa, but she had a lot of friends already. Going into the museum we knew it was going to be big, everyone says it is big, but I didn’t think it was “we actually got lost in the Louvre” big, but um, spoiler alert: it is. The Mr and I who are both at least medium good at reading signs got totally lost and had to wander around looking for the way out like confused, non French speaking toddlers squinting at the windows looking for the “pyramid” that got us inside. Don’t worry, we got out. I am not writing this from the Louvre. Probably. Also every article I saw about the Louvre reminded one to “look up” as if you could possibly miss the awe inspiring paintings and sculptures on the ceilings. I mean I guess if you were never planning to look up, here is your reminder. There is rad stuff up there.

Also Notre Dame…

Then we skipped off to Bruges for some Christmas market heaven and got ultra festive with some street food and picked up present. The main square had an awesome little market with some food stalls where we got some Bratwurst, fried shrimp and shrimp croquettes, this sea snail stew which was awesome on the cold night and this potato and cheese mountain of glory. I forgot what it was called but if you ever see this run to it. It will embrace you with warm, gooey, cheesy potato arms.

Hot chocolate + waffles from Lizzies Wafles and Belgian Chocolate! To make the hot chocolate you drop the bowl of chocolate into the warm milk! There was a long line for this place but totally worth it! To mediate the sweets we also stopped in at the Bruges Torture Museum which was an illuminating glimpse into all the ways I don’t want to be questioned about my interest in the occult…

Finally we wrapped our stay back in London at the CitizenM hotel which was a super futuristic and cool arts focused spot in Shoreditch (they gave you an ipad that controlled the color of your bathroom lights…I mean what!?!) that apparently also heard it was our honeymoon and had to top the other hotel’s generosity…

The last night in London was a little bittersweet as we knew things were wrapping up and we’d soon be on another LOOONNNNGG flight home but wow, what an incredible honeymoon! Thank you so much to everyone for all your travel tips, nice thoughts, and comments along the way, we appreciate you all!

Now it’s back to business and trying to beat that jet lag so I can be my best for you!

Thanks for following along and happy snacking!

xoxo,

RP