ibiza

summertime in europe, cue a two week holiday to the smallest spanish balearic island with the biggest personality: iiiiibiza!

together with my au pair family, we flew out of stormy paris (after a 3 hour flight delay, ta easyjet) and landed in hot, hot, hot ibiza. we found our way to our gorgeous villa in jesús (so much fun to say...heyzus!), about a 5 minute drive from ibiza town. despite arriving at midnight, no-one could resist the lit-up, turquoise pool....so before we knew it, the 10 of us had all jumped in (even noah, in his little floaties)...bienvenido a ibiza!

but first, to explain why i was there. i'm still au pairing for my gorgeous family in paris, and given it's summertime, they decided to jetset across europe to their country of choice (as you do when you're a european) - to take advantage of the hot sun, golden beaches & crystal clear mediterranean waters. how unfortunate that i was dragged away from paris for two weeks, on a free holiday to a spanish island...what can i say, it's a hard life.

the deal was to get the kids up in the morning, and look after them every other night while the parents of both families (we were two families in our villa) hit the town and pretended that they were a decade & a half younger. in return i had the days free to lounge around on ibiza's stunning beaches, explore ibiza town, visit the island's markets...etc. the cherry on top of all this was that the other family brought their own babysitter/au pair - a gorgeous lil' parisian named sarah. we're the same age, and got along like a house on fire. so there you go, hope you're a little less confused now..!

we decided between us that everyday we would visit a different beach, so that we could see more of the island. from las salinas, the stunning strip of beach next to the salt farms; to platja d'en bossa, a beach lined with bars & clubs open day & night that blast techno no matter what time of day (...or night); to playa san miguel, where you can quench your thirst with beer of the same name in between snorkel sessions to see the colourful fish; to cala xarraca, where you can swim 200m out to sea, climb a rock and jump 5-8m down into the turquoise waters below....plus so many others, each one different to the next.

the temperature hovered between 30º-35º for the two weeks, such incredible weather that i actually managed to get a tan. yesss! 

the guilty pleasure of our time in ibiza was the seemingly endless supply of sangria that was everywhere we went - especially at the villa. sarah & i would grill up some veggies mediterranean-style, pour ourselves a sangria (or three), then kick back by the pool. our favourite spot in the villa was up on the flat, white roof - where we could see out to ibiza town & watch the lights in the old city twinkle in the night. every other night there were fireworks leaping around in the sky, and up on the roof was where we got the best view. picture perfect.

adiós,

S.

platja d'en bossa

noah driving

ibiza's clubs advertised by walking along the beaches with music, signs & topless babes

sangria

spanish garlic dip. delicious.

my artwork

left for the day, came back to this

lunch overlooking playa san miguel

noah being cute, liam throwing a sandball in my face. normal

san miguel beer at playa san miguel

liam 'drinking' beer

playa san miguel

cala xarraca

player

paella

noah & liam, my au pair boys

noah being a cute bébé

villa

villa

villa

relaxing on the roof

mmmmm

we had several fig trees in the garden. delicious!

sunset at las salinas

a sunset at notre dame

rediscovered this stash of photos on my laptop just this morning - they were from a few weeks ago, when neesh, frida and i caught up after work for a crêpe (just for a change). we lazed about, wolfing our crêpes down....then regretted not savouring every last delicious bite (every time! after 5 months in paris, i still can't eat a crêpe slowly...). these photos sum up how we spend our mid-week evenings: tasty food, eachother's company & a ridiculously beautiful backdrop. while strolling from saint michel to notre dame, we crossed the river and looked down on the riverbanks - where we saw (& heard) several people strumming away on their guitars, while others were pulling baguettes, cheese & red wine from picnic baskets. i love this pocket of paris, where the everyday hustle & bustle seems to stand still - i know that for me, in any case, those early evening hours is when i can stand apart from it all and really admire & appreciate paris' beauty.

it had been one of those hot 30º days, so the setting sun had a glorious warmth in it as we watched it ever so slowly, but surely sink towards the horizon. it's weird to think that i'll be leaving paris soon, and with the weather dropping lower every day - it feels like this little chapter of my time in paris was an age ago! 

will definitely miss these stunning sunsets, reflected in the rippled waters of the seine...

bises,

S.

hunchback frida

seine booksellers

lining the riverbank from pont neuf to pont des arts are the green, wooden boxes of the seine river booksellers. at night the little boxes lie dormant, but during the day they open up into a snaking line of miniature stalls overflowing with old books, new books, big books, miniature books, foreign-language  books, etc... 

although that part of the booksellers is self-explanatory, the little shops/stalls also sell prints of famous artworks, copies of famous magazine covers & iconic images dating back to the 20s, both new & pre-loved postcards (i bought an old print of the arc de triomphe with a barely legible love letter from the 70s written on the back. cute), old keychains made up of random recycled advertisements from previous decades, amongst a sea of other oddities.

the booksellers run right up to pont des arts - the "love-lock" bridge, so the stalls leading up to the pedestrian bridge sell locks of all shapes, colours & sizes that passers by can then attach to the bridge's railings. i somehow always seem to lose track of time while strolling along the banks of the seine...i get caught up rummaging through old prints of paris (of which there are literally thousands), flicking through the  impressionist prints dangling from the roofs of the little boxes & snapping the same photos time and time again - everywhere i look just seems to capture a new moment of the quaint little existence of the seine river booksellers...

à bientôt,

S.

looking across the seine to the musée du louvre

a street busker playing a piano-ish type of instrument i've never seen before