Wear- A Doggie's Wardrobe

Yesterday Sunny got a major makeover. She was behind on her grooming schedule due to our big move home and was in desperate need of a haircut. We took her to The Fur Factor and you can see the results for yourself....
 

The nice groomer lady gave Sunny a pretty little hankerchief that I think compliments her bright white hair very nicely. We will be keeping this as a special occasion scarf for dinner parties and the like.

No move to the great cold north would be complete without a red parka from Pet Valu. And this one is lined with fleece. Lucky puppy! I want one of those!

Finally for kicking around the house she also has a comfy fisherlady sweater in grey with toggle buttons. This one is a clear favourite.

What do you think of the complete makover? Do you remember her dreadlock rasta look from before? You can see some of it here and here.

And tell me, does your Dog have a few comfy cozies or am I just crazy?


Love and Hugs

Do- Where to take your dog to the park in Paris

Here's in France dogs go everywhere, the hair salon, fancy restaurants, jean shopping with you but they do not go to the park! I'm not sure why but if I had to guess I'd say it's because Parisians do not pick up their doggies poop and they can't be trusted to go in the beautiful parks and lovely grassy spots you find throughout the capital. So unfortunately most of them are off limits for your dog.

Thankfully there is one off leash park in Paris and it's at the Louvre, naturally. My new friend Jennifer had a party there last Sunday for her girl Moxie's 4th birthday and we got invited!

Source: Thanks for the pic Jennifer!

The old Monkamonk was pretty excited to be there. When she saw Moxie from across the park she ran over as fast as her little fluffy legs would take her.

Here's a great shot of the off the park with the Louvre in the background so you can see what I mean. Thanks Mairin!

 

Sunny obviously got down to the serious business of playing. She is a social little monkey chatting with DSK the American Cocker spaniel and a small baby monkey.

She fell in love with a three month old Boston Terrier named Georges. Obsessed with younger men just like her Momma! ;)

While the dogs played we enjoyed vin chaud, pasta salad, muffins, apple crisp and more wine!

The weather was perfect and we stayed all afternoon soaking up the view and great company!

Soon it was time to go and give the birthday girl one last kiss before we were on our way home with a very happy and exhausted doggie.

What a success! We are so going back there Tuesday afternoon so Sunny can run and get tired before the big 8 hour flight home and to have one last look at one of the most beautiful pieces of architecture in Paris! 

What's it like for dogs in your town? Can they roam where they please or are they confined to your homes? Apparently Toronto has a off leash dog park every few meters like the metro in Paris so we are pretty excited about that! Right Sunny?


Love and Hugs

Do- Champagne tasting

Thank goodness for twitter is all I can say. I met a lovely girl on there named Emma. She is a major wine buff and turned us on to the many tastings at Caves Auge. The oldest wine shop in Paris and her old workplace.
A couple of Saturdays ago Auge had a handful of small vintners come in and offer free tastings of their bubbly with discounted prices on the bottles. We were late, arriving around 3pm and this is what we saw: 

A packed sidewalk with desperate tasters huddled around the barrels.

We mustered our way in and were rewarded with many a glass of lovely champagne.

Sunny didn't really see what all the fuss was about.

The vintners were pouring tirelessly from 11am-5pm educating us on their specific process and taste points.

Most people were taking notes and really getting into it. We tried most of the wines as well and left with 3 great bottles which have since been consumed!

It was a great Saturday and we definitely reccomend logging on to the Auge Website and viewing the other tastings coming up. They have one almost every three weeks and if you want to benefit fully don't do what we did, Get There Early!


Do you drink champagne? Cava? Prosecco? Or are you a straight up red wine type person? I'd like to know so next time I come over to your house I bring the right bottle! ;)



Love and Hugs

Do Thursday- Climbing mountains

Well not really just up a little hill near the Fontainebleau Castle. Wanna come with us? Coooome on, you'll feel better after!

The first part was this neat cobble stone walkway that I imagined was an old trade route or maybe for knights and horses from the Castle? It looks like there were even some trenches?

Here's the welcome board. It's rated easy and about 2 hrs long. Man I wish I could read better in French. But honestly early Saturday morning after a wine n dine evening the night before...not gonna happen!

Anyways. "Almost there Monkey! Keep going!" Sunny loves going on walks and runs in the woods. For an indoor lap dog she is quite the little outdoor enthusiast.

 "Don't worry about me you guys! Yup, no problem I'm just back here!"

It promised a great view and delivered. Fontainebleau forest is beautiful and expansive. It's lovely to see it from up here where you can tell how small the village/town really is all nestled inside the forest.

We went off track, thought we were lost and joked but felt kinda scared about Robin hood type hoodies hiding in the forest waiting to attack us! Ahhhhh!

Thank goodness it was actually part of the route! We ended up back at the bottom where we were suppossed to be with our Saturday started off right and a very dirty doggie!

Do you guys love walking in the woods as much as I do? Even in the suburbs I long to get off the pavement and into the woods. Where's your favourite place to get some exercise?

Love and Hugs

Freeforall Friday- The Nicknames of our Bichon/Maltese Puppy

Are you guys nickname lovers? We are and it's getting out of hand. Our favourite little person to nickname is our doggiedaughter. Isn't she a cutie?

Her full name is Sunny Strawberry Klein but most people must think she's called Monkey cause that's what you can hear us call her the most often, with a few small substituions such as: Monk, The Monk, Monka, Monkaburninglove or just MonkaMonk.

Although when we first got her we called her Snoop Strawberry you know cause of her middle name and her being a dog and everything. And then that turned into my Dad's favourite: The Strawb. But my Aunt Ann likes to call her just Strawberry. She can also be seen being called HRS here on the blog wich translates into Her Royal Starwbyness of course.

My Mom likes to call her the Muttrag cause she thinks I never wash or brush her and wants to get her Grandmother hands on her to clean her up all the time. This has since turned into Muttie or raggie.

Vince calls her Boukie or Boukyness and also BoukBouk. When we are out for a walk I find myself calling her My Tiny Missus or just The Missus. But lately it's been mostly Boo and Booboo and Booboobear and now Le Bearoniss.

But when she's being bad (rolling in poop, jumping up on people, running away) it's always just a very loud, SUNNNNNNNY!!!!!!!

What about you? Do you have nicknames for your pets or loved ones? I remember my Sue used to call her cat Momasita. (The cats real name was Beers). She has a very handsome Bernese Mountain Dog named Ringo who now goes by the nickname ShiShi. Cute eh?

Tell me! Tell me your nicknames!!!

Love and Hugs

Do Thursday- Cinéma au clair de lune

Cinema au clair de lune is an outdoor movie event held in Paris though out the summer. When I was little Mom and Dad used to take us to the drive in theater in London Ontario near the big Macdonalds on the highway...you know the one? Now it's a Price Club I think? Anyways it was awesome. Mom would dress us in our p.j's and we'd sit in the back of the car and wait for the dancing hotdogs and popcorn to come on the screen at the admisson time. I hadn't watched a movie outside in so long and was so excited to check this out!

We took our velib bikes all the way over to Le Bois de Vincennes in the 12e expecting to sit in the grass....not so. It was in a parking lot near Le Bois! What!

Also for some reason Sunny was less than impressed, maybe the lack of grass was getting to her? Finally after looking for a semi-grassy spot we found a place to sit but she still looked pretty unhappy even after finding a stick to chew on.

Once we got the food out she was a little bit happier. We paked a light dinner of salads, hummus, cheese and wine.

But as it got dark she grew more scared and barked a lot which is not her thing. Kinda sucks cause we love to camp and thought she would too. Guess she's a glamping girl all the way.

The movie was good and lighthearted but the venue was not what we hoped for. (gravely and pavement) I honestly don't think I would go again. Sorry Cinema au clair de lune guys! maybe get a vrai pelouse and we'll be back next year.

Do you love watching movies outside or are you a comfy couch, fireplace, popcorn movie type person?

Also do they have drive in theaters anymore? Just thinking about it makes me crave root beer for some reason.

Love and Hugs

Do Thursday- Foire aux vins

Every September in France there is a Foire aux vins in most stores and cave a vins. It's harvest season which means many new vintages are ready and the big wine critics give out their top wines of the year. The bonus is a lot of the bottles are also on sale! Vince and I are planning on being out of France for 10 years and thought this was the perfect time to store a few boxes away for when we get back.

So we got down to business straight away looking through Le Figaro's free review of wines and talking to our caviste guy for his kind advice.

Then it was time to take the list to our local grocery store and cave a vins to buy the bottles.

Next was the best part, taking the wine home and tasting! (Mr. Caviste said to leave a little in the bottle open over night and then taste it again the next day at lunch to determine if it will age well)

Of course it's best to taste your wine with food, cheese is preferable.

But don't be a wino, Mais Non! You should have dinner too. We ate a lot of soup that week to try and conteract the amount of wine and cheese calories we were taking in. I know, we're geniuses.

And then we thought, 'Why not have some soup with cheese?'

Finally after all that tasting we had made our choices and were ready to box them up, lable them and take them to the safest place on earth, Vince's parents basement. Nothing ever leaves that room!

2 great things that happened: We found a bunch a great vintages we can't wait to taste 5+ years later and learned a new technique on how to find out if a bottle will age gracefully or not.

but most importantly,


1 valuable lesson learned: Eating cheese and drinking wine all week whilst eating soup for dinner will not help you lose weight. ;)



Please tell did you guys pick up any great deals on wine this week? Do you buy wine in bulk and age it or drink it straight away?

Love and Hugs

Wear Wednesday- Date Night

Last Saturday we went out to Les Pleiades to celebrate the night we met 5 years ago. It was the poshiest place we've ever eaten so we dressed the part.

I wore a black crepe Kookai dress, my wedding shoes from Cosmoparis, clutch from Aldo, orange tassel earrings from Satellite Paris a bracelet gifted from Shelly, Red #10 lipstick from Bobbi Brown and french cancan nail colour by Mavala.

Finishing the last glass of champagne I put on my new red trench from cheapy cheap brand Camaieu. I'm above average French girl size and find it hard to find chic pieces to fit my shape but with a little digging I always find a few great things.

 But more importantly what did the husband wear you say?

It was all about the dapper tailormade dark grey suit and shirt he got in India.

The details were cufflinks from Debenhams and shoes from Texto.

We hope you enjoyed our first what we wore Wear Wednesday post and please let us know what you thought, we LOVE hearing from you! ;)

Love and Hugs

Freeforall Friday- Love is in the air

Love is in the air over here in our little corner of the universe. Yesterday was the five year anniversary of the first day we met and it sure did feel good. One of my most romantic memories is sitting with Vince at a winery in Napa a few months after we had met. We were sharing a bottle of Vincent Arroyo Nameless and he said, "let's buy a few bottles to open after we've been together 5 years."

'What a guy', is all I thought and then, 'I'm gonna marry him.'

A few of our love shots:

1. Happy hour, Paris 2009
2. Our new family, Paris 2011
3. Vin chaud two nights before Vince proposed, Paris 2009
4. Our wedding night, Malta 2011

Yesterday I got a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a handwritten note. He knows that one of my favourite things is to read his handwritting especially when they are words of love and commitment.

Source

So eventhough we bought those bottles of wine that day to open 5 years later we unfortunately didn't forsee the crazy amount of travelling we'd be doing and they are still at home in Canada in My Aunt Ann's basement. To compensate we've decided to book a table at Les Pleiades restaurant a short 10min drive away in Barbizon. It's our first Michelin starred restaurant and we are so excited to see what wine they have to offer.

But nothing will beat that first bottle of Nameless in Napa with my love.

Happy Anniversary my sweetie! I can't wait to see the next 60+ years with you!


Love and Hugs and hoping you have a romantic weekend wherever you are.

And Fridays are a Freeforall

Notes from last weekend

1. Pretty flowers from the market. Dahlias are in season right now and I'm loving it!
2. Mid afternoon snack came in the way of yellow tomatoes, avocado and hummus toasts
3. Quetsch tart made with love
4. Sunny and Vince doing some running in our new courtyard

Have a great weekend everyone! 

Love and Hugs

Thinking Halloween

ohhhhhhhh scary Lion doggie!

I think this Yoda one is perfect for my dog nephew Rocky!

awwwweeee sweet little Cupcake doggie

What should Sunny be for Halloween? I think these custom made knitted hats from Sweethoots on Etsy are perfect for her. She can dress up and be warm all through the winter. I'm partial to the Carmen Miranda one cause Sunny likes to chacha party but the sweet cupcake one is pretty cute too and the baby blue would look just darling against her snow white hair! What do you think?

I think Vince is going to kill me if I buy a baby blue cupcake knitted hat for our dog!

Love and Hugs