Jardin de Plantes

My stay in Paris is almost finish and the next week I have to come back to Italy. I am so grateful for this experience because it gives me the chance to live even for a short time in my favorite city and to know some amazing people. I’ve spent one of my last days in Paris at Jardin des Plantes, an enormous botanical garden in the Latin Quarter. The Jardin des Plantes is actually France’s main botanical garden, serving as home to a national botanical school that trains botanists, constructs demonstration gardens and maintains a massive seed depository to safeguard France’s botanical and horticultural diversity. The sight was established as a garden nearly 400 years ago, with the first plants installed in 1635 to serve as a medicinal herb garden for the royal family. At about the end of the 15th century, the garden came under the stewardship of university-trained botanists, who expanded its size and focus to include plants of all sorts from throughout France and opened the space to the public.

Balenciaga bag / Isabel Marant sweatshirt and boots

Saint Germain

This afternoon I went to over to Saint-Germain-des-Prés to buy some candles at Diptyque shop and have a coffee at Café de Flore with my friend Emma. St. Germain is my favorite area in Paris. It’s still blessed by a youthful energy, interesting streets and the atmosphere that accompanies a living university district. As a center for bookstores, design shops, museums, churches, high-end art galleries, boutique hotels, historic cafés and restaurants, it is virtually impossible to be disappointed. To paraphrase Samuel Johnson with a twist “if you are bored in St. Germain, you are bored with life”.

Acne jeans / Celine bag / Isabel Marant shirt / Chanel flats

Ne me quitte pas

Springtime in Paris is simply glorious: all of the flowers in the city’s parks start to bloom, the trees start to blossom and those bone-chilling breezes off the Seine turn more pleasant than polar. I like enjoying le printemps at Palais Royal gardens, reading a book or studying for my thesis or basically doing nothing. Yesterday after having stayed all the morning there, I went to Fornasetti exhibition at Musée des Arts Decoratifs. It’s a fascinating exhibition, loosely chronological, that paints an entertaining portrait of an artist with a phenomenal output. All the familiar Fornasetti pieces are represented: the furniture, trays, umbrella stands and plates (astounding enough in their volume, humour and execution) but this comprehensive collection delves even deeper. It encompasses early paintings, miniscule sketches on scraps of paper, the books that inspired him, preliminary paintings for scarves and cruise liners, photos of his bedroom as a child (which he decorated himself) and cabinets of curiosities confirming that in Fornasetti’s world, there really was no object unadorned.

Bompard cashmere sweater / Acne jeans / Chanel bag and flats

Samedi dans le Marais

Walking around my neighborhood, le Marais, and visiting some typical Parisian café is something that I just love to do on a day off with my friends. On Saturday I was at Merci Used Book Café, located on boulevard Beaumarchais, that is an oasis of peace. No tourist to see, but only Parisians who are reading a good book, studybook or working on their laptop. I have spent all the afternoon there, talking with my friends and drinking a good coffee. I really like these kind of days, especially if they include also some last minute shopping at Isabel Marant as it has happened on Saturday after Merci.

Acne jeans / Balenciaga bag / Isabel Marant jacket and boots

Ma ligne de chance

Last Friday I was in Montmartre, the hilly quartier where Sacre Coeur perches up top overlooking Paris from its highest and most northern peaks. Home to the studios and workplaces of many waves of artist in the past like Picasso, Modigliani, Van Gogh and Dalì, this bohemian area is one of the most characteristic and interesting place in the city. The only thing I am not a big fan of this area is the fact that it can get crowed with tourist and by default, scammers and pickpocketers. My first stop was Place des Abbasses with the metro entrance designed by Hector Guimard and the ''je t'aime'' in all languages wall. It's a very charming and scenic square and I felt in love with it the first time that I sow Amelie movie. There are also a lot of vintage shops, fromagerie and boulangerie that worth it. Then I went to Musée de la vie Romantique that has also a really peaceful café in the garden and finally to Sacre Coeur, in order to see the beautiful view from the top of hill, walking around the artistic narrow streets.

Theory jacket / Cos top / Chanel bag and flats