J'adore

In 2004 I was quite possibly the luckiest girl alive. At age 15, my parents let (and paid for) me head overseas on my own on a student exchange program for 5 months. I left a terrified, shy 15 year-old and came back a much more self-assured (if a bit cocky) and immeasurably more confident 16 year-old. It was the trip of a liftime and I'm pretty sure it'll be one of those things I'll 'tell the grandkids' about! I stayed with quite possibly the loveliest family ever in a small-ish fishing town in the north of France called Boulogne-sur-Mer (or Boulogne for the locals). It's located quite close to Calais and used to be home to the France-England ferry before it was relocated to Calais. While I was there I went to the local lycée (or high school) and met some of the most amazing and beautiful people.

I was also fortunate enough to travel around a bit (mostly in the north) and even ventured to that most covetable of capital cities, Paris (three times in fact: I flew into Paris and the exchange organisation took us on a fly-by bus trip around the city for a couple of hours, once on a school trip and my host Mum also took my host sister and I there for a whole week). I got to see some of the most incredible things while I was in France, of which I count seeing the site of Jean d'Arc's burning among the most awe-inspiring. I have the greatest memories of that time of my life, both of the people I met and the places I saw. I forged friendships that I hope to keep for the rest of my life and I've vowed to return there - one day (maybe when air travel becomes cheaper?). But I thought it was about time I shared some of those wonderful memories and experiences. So here are some of my snapshots from my trip and I apologise for the terrible black corners in all of the photos, I dropped my camera not too far into my stay.

The town of Boulogne:










My French home:







While I was there my host Mum and a friend took my host sister and I to a 'history of fashion' exhibition in Lille which included dresses from Dior and Chanel as well as some truly bizarre concepts for dresses including garments made out of beetles, dust, bone and watches. These are some of the stranger dresses we happened upon:







And these are some of my favourite dresses (I can't remember what designer created which dress as it's all a bit of hazy nostalgia for me now).











I'll do another post in a few days on my other photos from Paris and the rest of my time in France.