Paris

Chasing Summer: Part 3

This is the end of my summer holiday recap. Other than the luggage drama (documented in full detail in my previous post) Paris was an absolute dream as always. Correction this time was better because this was my first summer in Paris and listen this city in summer *chef’s kiss*.

Honestly there’s not much for me to say that I haven’t already said in my other Paris posts so I’m going to share a whole lot of pictures.

Galeries Lafayette views

The view of the city from the terrace at the Galeries Lafayette is quite a site to behold.

Places we ate

Touristy Shots

Sacré-Cœur

Cheesy Shots

Yes I do have a bit of an obsession with the Eiffel Tour

Recap of this past decade

As we approach a new decade I felt I should do a bit of a recap of my past 10years. So much growth happened and I also got bit by the travel bug. I started this decade as an agency producer then became an animation producer and I’m ending it as an artist manager and founder of Ofentse Management (shameless plug) but yes I have grown in leaps and bounds. I did a bit of self-searching (not sure if that’s a real phrase) over the years and I have to say travel was actually a huge part of me finding myself. I’m happiest traveling to be honest and I hope the next decade is filled with even more travel (preferably in business class universe *nudge, nudge , wink ,wink).

Ladies and gentlemen I present to you my travels through the years:

2010 London- UK

2011 New York – USA

2012: Dubai- Dubai

2013 New York, Miami, LA- USA

2014- 2015 Were clearly a dark time in my life as there was no travel during those two years LOL. Seriously though those were my transition years when I left the 9to5 grind and that’s when the soul searching began. These proved to be very crucial years for me and I’m grateful for the experience and I haven’t looked back since.

2016: Vienna, Graz- Austria

2017 Inhambane- Mozambique :

2017 Paris – France

2018 Mombasa – Kenya

And this year I returned to my favourite place in the world to celebrate my sister’s 40th birthday: 2019 PARIS once again

French 40 : What we got up to in Paris

I’m posting twice in one week because well I haven’t posted anything in a while, my bad. Anyway as the title says my sister turned 40 and here’s what we got up to in Paris, you know touristy things for me and shopping for everyone else. Amongst the touristy antics we got up to; we trekked up and down all 284 stairs of the Arc de Triomphe so I could get my perfect shot of Paris.

Trust I took a break walking up these stairs

My perfect shot of Paris from the Arc de Triomphe(I finally got it. YAY!!!)

I didn’t take many pictures of the crew shopping so instead I will gladly share more happy-clappy- touristy shots.

Eiffel Tour

Louvre

Crepe break

Arc de Triomphe

Jardins du Château de Versailles AKA Garden of Versailles

FRENCH 40

So my sister turned 40 this year and she choose to spend it in my favourite place in the world…..Grand PARIS. So you know I was down. My first time in Paris was a solo trip so I was super excited to going back with some of my faves you know the Fam-bam.

Paris weather was a bit stank this time around but don’t get it twisted the magic is there regardless.

Processed with VSCO with nc preset By now ya’ll know I hate flying so I try to be as comfortable as possible (which I never am) *sidebar my brother said I looked like an anime character

IMG-20190926-WA0001 Touchdown in Paris

So once again we waited and waited and waited for the shuttle to the hotel so here’s a quick tip just take a cab or maybe try another shuttle company because Paris Shuttle was No Bueno.

Anyway back to the regular programming celebrating 40 in Paris, we checked in to our hotel, showered and hit the Champs-Elysees for supper and touristy things like navigating our metro line. The next day was my sister’s birthday so we explored the neighbourhood, lunch at Ralph’s in Paris and then we hit up BadaBoum to go check out Muzi perform. Processed with VSCO with kk1 preset

Looking fabulous at 40 and strutting her stuff on the streets of Paris

Muzi on stage at BadaBoum

Touristy Pics

I didn’t realize it until recently but I take the cheesiest touristy pictures. And for some strange reason I am drawn to buildings, I’m lowkey an architecture groupie(very lowkey). Maybe architecture groupie is the wrong phrase actually just like taking pictures of buildings and interesting structures.

SAM_0171 SAM_0416 Atlantis Hotel in Dubai

SAM_1253 The Kunsthaus Graz or the Graz Art Museum which stands out amongst the red roofs in Graz Austria. SAM_1112 MUMOK (MUseum MOderner Kunst) in Vienna

SAM_1140 My Fave The Schönbrunn Palace (Vienna) SAM_1173 The Belvedere Palace (Vienna)

The Churches in Austria are breathtakingly beautiful

Processed with VSCO with a5 preset This is a ride at a theme-park in Austria, I liked it cause it looked like the cover of Michael Jackson’s Dangerous album

Screen Shot 2017-11-07 at 12.06.07 Flat Iron building in New York

SAM_2637 Walt Disney Theatre in LA

SAM_2504 This was the view from our hotel in LA (Grauman’s Chinese Theatre)

SAM_2528 Screen Shot 2017-11-07 at 13.39.11 These are for my inner rockstar 😉

SAM_2161 View from Empire State building (I told you I was a cheesy tourist)

thumb_SAM_1674_1024 thumb_SAM_1669_1024 thumb_SAM_1668_1024 The Quai Branly Museum, Paris thumb_SAM_1455_1024 Paris Opera thumb_SAM_1467_1024 Palais Royal,Paris

thumb_SAM_1634_1024 Flame of Liberty in Paris which is the unofficial memorial for Princess Diana

I Love Paris

Ever since I could remember I have been drawn to Paris, but to be honest as time went by I fell in love with the idea of it more than anything else. I avoided going there over the years in fear that it would not live up to the dream, the idea I had created in my head. But since I am in the year of yes I figured oh well Ofentse its time to take Nike’s advice and JUST DO IT and boy am I glad I did.

What I did may have seemed crazy to some… going to a foreign country where you don’t speak the language all by myself. Crazy or not I did it and loved every second of it.I would like to say for the record Paris lived up to my imagination, it was whimsical quirky and cool in other words the city version of me.

I went full blown tourist out there guys as you can see from my happy snaps:

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Processed with VSCO with hb2 preset Le Palais Royal