What I've been up to: Paris!

Hi everyone! Sorry I've been away for so long. Work took over once again, but I've been able to squeeze in some great events, I got catch up with Allie once again, by the end of the day I was left in a food coma, I also went to comic con, but the highlight for me was my trip to Paris. It was a last minute trip but I enjoyed every single day! 

My sister read Anna and the French Kiss just before we left, so she remembered all the places Etienne and Anna visited. It took us like half an hour to find Point Zero, but it was worth it in the end! And Notre Dame was as stunning as ever. 

 

Notre Dame

We also got to visit the Louvre and see the Mona Lisa! And of course I had to make a stop at Shakespeare and Company, this is one gorgeous bookstore, with piles and piles of books everywhere, I of course could have spent the entire day there, but my sisters weren't too happy with this idea.

The Louvre

One of my highlights was going up the Arc De Triomphe, the photo of the building below, when you went to the top it really had the most stunning views of Paris. 

When roaming around the Eiffel tower we also came across a beautiful Artisan Chocolatier known as Puyricard, of course it made me immediately remember Laura Florand's Amour et Chocolat series. The store was absolutely stunning inside and chocolatier even gave us some samples to try (he even knew without asking that I would be a fan of salted caramel!). My sisters even had to be pushed out of the store! 

Inside Puyricard.

Visiting Paris couldn't be complete without visiting Disneyland Paris, my inner child caqme out in full force, I actually think I was more excited than my younger sister. I had to take my individual shots with characters of course, Genie and Jafar ended up being my favourites! The best was of course the parade at the end where are the characters came out. 

Other highlights of my trip included seeing the Sacre Coeur, this Church had the most amazing view from the outside, but inside I loved how serene and beautiful it was. The Love Locke bridge and this gorgeous shopping mall known as Galeries Lafayette. 

Sacre Couer

 

Paris was definitely one of the most beautiful cities that I have visited in long time, it has stunning architecture and the most extravagant food. The macarons from Laduree were absolutely divine! I do highly recommend visiting Paris one day, its one city that you shouldn't miss out on. Since I've been back all I've wanted to do is devour all the books with Paris as their setting! 

Bookish (and Not So Bookish) Thoughts #1

Hosted by Bookishly Boisterious

My friend Brandie @Brandie is a Book Junkie participates in this post each week and I always enjoy the post so I thought I'd give it a try. 

What I've been reading:

 I finished Act Like It after reading Keertana's glowing review I thought I'd pick this up and I loved it! It starts out as a fake romance between British stage actors that (of course) turns into the real thing.  It's super cute, filled with British humor and words (can I just say I love the word stroppy?), and left me with a big smile on my face.  I've listened to Virgin River, a recommend from Brandie and loved it! I'm already onto book two in the series. I've just picked up  Jane Steele.  I have high hopes because Jane Eyre is one of my all time favorite classics.

Since I joined Goodreads and started blogging my activity and diet have sucked. I'm not more than 10 pounds over what I'm used to, but the weight is enough that my clothes were uncomfortably tight.  I'm 5'2" so even 5lbs makes a difference.
The last few months I've been trying to change that, but recently I've become serious. I joined #FitReaders and have started tracking my steps with a goal of 10,000 steps every day. I haven't met it every day, but I'm close, and the tracker helps motivate me to do more when I'd normally come home from work and veg out with a book.  I committed to do something at least 5K in March and I completed that goal this last Saturday with a 6K hike I did with my sister (it really helps to have a buddy!).  It felt really good to be out in the fresh air on such a beautiful day:

I've been trying the low carb route for my diet, but not the super, super low Atkins 20.  Just the 40 carb a day diet, but trust me, that's still been tough, but I'm getting results. I can't tell you how much the phone app MyFitnessPal has helped with tracking! 

I'm constantly looking for tasty recipes that fulfill protein requirements without tipping the carb scales.  Here's what I tried this week: Lombardy Chicken.  I made some modifications on the recipe (you can see my notes on my Pinterest Pin), and I came up with 270 calories, 43.8 grams of protein and 7.4 carbs for one serving, 4oz of chicken (all figured out by MyFitnessPal!). It was pretty darn good!

#FitReaders is hosted by Jen @That's What I'm Talking About and Felicia @TheGeekyBlogger.  Here's my progress for the last week:

Thursday: 11,557 steps

Friday: 10,382 steps

Saturday: 23,167 steps (did my 6K hike)

Sunday: 7,939 steps (my legs needed a rest!)

Monday: 10,147 steps

Tuesday:10,201 steps

Wednesday: 12,645 steps

Books I'm Most Looking Forward to in 2016

There are so many books I'm (Rachel) really excited about this year so I thought I'd share some of them.  Most are adult books, but I do have a couple of young adult books on the list, too.

Several of these books I get to devour VERY soon. Feverborn comes out this coming Tuesday January 19th. I've been searching for it on Audible (which is how I've "read" the whole series) everyday and it just got added as a pre-order.  I'm shocked that Phil Gigante and Natalie Ross are NOT the narrators!  Luke Daniels and Jill Redfield are to be the narrators this time around. Even though I adore Luke Daniels, (he narrates the Iron Druid Chronicles, see below, Staked) I've come to LOVE Phil and Natalie's performance in the Fever series! We'll see how it turns out.

I happened upon Jane Steele on Eva's blog: All Books Considered.  It's a Jane Eyre re-telling, one of my all time favorite books, and it sounds amazing!  I'm so anxious about the ending to the The Raven Cycle! You better leave Gansey alone, Maggie, because Blue needs her love!

I'm sure it's no surprise to see the latest installments of The Others, Mercy Thompson, Kate Daniels (no cover yet), The Iron Druid Chronicles, and Laura Florand's latest Paris Hearts (no cover or title yet) on my list.

(click on cover for Goodreads link)

 

   

   

     

 

 So what books are you most looking forward to this year?

What I've Been Up to.

Hi everyone, I'm finally here with my first post for you in what feels like ages (I last posted on August 13th!!!). I was meant to have a few posts up before I went on holiday, but then work got in the way and then I was meant to post when I got back, and get back to reading, but I ended up taking a break instead. So what have I been doing in all that time? Well I finally went away on my highly anticipated trip to Canada, I've been twice previously and utterly loved it. I always seem to have the holiday blues when I get back and now I've been back for two weeks, I still sort of feel down. England just comes across really boring lately :(

Anyway whilst away I managed to go on one of the biggest rollercoasters (the drop is at 306ft!!) the Leviathan at Canada's Wonderland. I was fine when queuing up, but when I noticed the sort of seats they have (in England, they have a sort of support that comes over your shoulders, but here you have a tiny belt and this tiny thing to hold on. Of course I was super nervous, on top of that I ended up getting the edge seat on the ride, so I could see everything on my side, I seriously thought I was going to topple over when going up, but the initial dread of going up was made up with the rest of the ride. It was truly exhilarating!

   

Image Source: http://www.thecoastercritic.com/2012/02/leviathan-construction-photos-bm-goes-big-in-2012.html/leviathan-canadas-wonderland-giga-coaster-7

The weather was of course gorgeous, we got to spend a bit of time at Crystal Beach, near Niagara Falls, and of course we hit the malls. I of course found myself a bookstore, Chapters Indigo is always one of my favourite bookstores to go to when I visit Canada, the one at Eaton Centre was two stories of heaven! I of course told my sister to do her own shopping and meet me back in half an hour. She of course came back and found me with a mile high stack of books, and after a stern talking to about luggage allowance, I ended up leaving with three books and a mug!

I'm lucky to have so much family in Canada, that I love meeting with and just hanging out, this time we were lucky enough to spend some time on my uncle's boat, it was such a beautiful day too, That we were able to stop the boat and just have some pizza and beer and appreciate the gorgeous views.

Music I've been listening to.

Before I went to Canada I was living off House Every Weekend, so I was glad to get my cousins into it over there too.

And whilst in Canada I also became obsessed with The Weekend Can't Feel My Face and R City Locked Away ft. Adam Levine :)

  

 

What I've Been Watching.

Image source: http://www.maguzz.com/scandal-season-5-poster.html

I'm glad that Scandal is finally back, this show is one that keeps getting better and better. Honestly and the way Shonda Rimes keeps up hanging at the end of each episode!

I started Suits, Arrow and Once Upon A Time, but work overtook and I didn't end up getting back to it, but I really want to make time for these soon. I've also been hearing great things about How to Get Away with Murder, so need to squeeze that in somewhere too :/ 

Reading

I've been trying to read, honestly I have, but I think it really just depends on my mood, I read three books last month and I'm 43 books behind on my reading goal :(

I'm currently reading Queen of Shadows and here a few books I'm planning to read next.  

 

So that was my crazy, busy month of September, I'm planning to get back to regular posting this month and will be back around to check out all your blogs. I've missed you all!