A Little Something

A little bubble of Britishness in the middle of Angoulême, that's the best way I've found to describe «A little something ». I cannot go to town without popping into this charming boutique, full of English (and American...and Harry Potter-esq) treats, going from tea cakes to salt and vinegar crisps, passing by cadbury's chocolate, cake mixes and peanut butter cups. If you've ever wondered, my favourites are the mini eggs, jelly popping chocolate and worstershire sauce pop corn (you heard me correctly, it's amazing!), of course I can't forget the chocolate oranges (I found a few limited edition dark ones...in the middle of january!). These mouth-watering sweets only represent about a third of the boutique, which also sells mugs (my weakness), stationnary, adorable bags and wallets, thermos flasks, molds, cards, Yankee Candles... in short about every single cute looking, incredibly tempting item you could possibly think of.

Une petite bulle d'Angleterre au milieu d'Angoulême, c'est pour moi la meilleure façon de décrire « A Little Something ». Une sortie en ville n'en est pas vraiment une sans petit tour de cette charmante boutique, pleine de denrées anglaises (et américaines...et Harry Potter-esques ?), allant des tea cakes aux chips sel-vinaigre, en passant par le chocolat de chez cadbury, les mix pour gâteaux et les « peanut butter cups » de chez Reese's. Personnellement, j'ai un faible pour les mini eggs, le chocolat qui «pop » dans la bouche et le pop corn à la sauce worstershire (vous avez bien entendu, ne me jugez pas sans avoir essayé!) sans oublier les oranges au chocolat (j'ai pu en trouver au chocolat noir - éditions limités de Noël - au milieu du mois de janvier!). Cette délicieuse malbouffe ne représente en réalité qu'un tiers du magasin, qui vends aussi des mugs (j'ai besoin de mugs, toujours plus de mugs!), de la papeterie, des sacs et porte-monnaie originaux, des thermos, des moules, des cartes, des Yankee Candles... à peu près n'importe quel article adorable et tentant auquel vous pourriez penser.

In the back of the shop, next to a music-diffusing TV, are english books you can borrow (you can also drop some for people to pick up, if you have too many, like my book-hoarder of a dad) and a couple of couches on which you can sit down for a cup of tea (oh so british!).

A l'arrière de la boutique, à côté d'une télé diffusant de la musique, sont quelques livres anglais empruntables (vous pouvez aussi en déposer quelques-uns, si vous en avez trop, comme mon grand lecteur de père) et une paire de canapés sur lesquels vous pouvez vous avachir pour prendre un thé (tellement Brit' tout ça!).

The establishment is owned by a very sweet lady, who clames to have tasted every single delicacy she sells (except for the smoked oysters, I wonder why...).

La propriétaire de l'établissement est adorable et dit avoir testé chacun des mets qu'elle vends (hormis les huîtres fumées, on se demande pourquoi...).

To be completely honest with you, if I accidently came to be stuck in any shop overnight, I would choose this one, not only for its cosy atmosphere but for the possibility of having THE biggest chocolate/sweets taste test the world has ever seen. Whenever I drag my family into this bubble, I find my dad's eyes shining whith nostalgia («hey Maddy, I used to have these as a kid, they're absolutely disgusting») and my sister completely overwhelmed by the piles of sweets.

Pour être complètement honnête, si je devais choisir un magasin pour y être accidentellement coincée après sa fermeture (très improbable, je l'admets), je choisirais celui-ci, non-seulement pour son ambiance très « cosy », mais aussi pour le plaisir de m'adonner à la plus grande dégustation de l'histoire de l'humanité. Quand, par un énième jour pluvieux, je traîne ma famille dans la boutique, les yeux de mon père brille de nostalgie («hey Maddy, j'avais ça quand j'étais gosse, c'est immangeable ») et ceux de ma sœur se perdent dans les piles de bonbons.

So, if you find yourself in the not so busy streets of Angoulême, I definitely recommend you get your sweet tooth (or savory tooth?), cute accesory/candle hoarding addiction or simply tea craving, into «A little something », you won't regret it !

Si jamais vous venez à vous trouver dans les rues pas si bondées d'Angoulême, je vous recommande d'aller satisfaire votre gourmandise, envie d'accessoires ou simplement de thé en allant faire un tour dans « A Little Something », vous ne le regretterez pas !

                                                                 A Little Something

35 rue de Genève

16000 Angoulême

0545924224

See you soon,

Maddy

Fear...

This blog post nearly didn't make it past the « publish » button. Because I was afraid, afraid that you might not want to read the story and advice given by an inexperienced fourteen year old, afraid that talking about my little first world problems and fears would offend people that are going through « real » and « more important » tough times.

The writing of this post is one of the many times where fear creeps into my life and keeps me from doing what I want. Like the time I know a violin piece on the tips of my finger but get paralized in front of the judges/an audience and become incapable of playing. Like the times I miss an opportunity to talk to somebody because I'm afraid of what they might think about me. Or like the time I completely freak out in a crowded shop for nor reason at all and suddently want to cry.

Here's a fun fact : I'm not afraid of heights, or speed and I would gladly bungee/parachute jump. What I fear the most is little tings in my day to day life, things that most people wouldn't think of as being scary.

A week back, I went on holiday (see post here) to visit a friend I had only talked to online, never had met. I had to take the train, twice, sleep in her family house, with people I didn't know at all, give up my stupid little granny habbits, my tea before bead, my 45min makeup session every mornings, all of my little Tics and OCD moments... And that terrorised me even though I tried so hard to convinced myself that I could be like any other teens and socialise « normally ». I finally went, and you know what ? It turned out to be an absolutely great week ! The train journey was a piece of cake, everybody in the house was really nice, and I had so much fun I forgot about all of my crippling little habits.

You may think I'm not the most « qualified » to talk about fear, as I don't suffer from an extreme anxiety that keeps me stuck at home. But I do believe that everybody's resticting their possibilities to live the best life possible to a certain extent, and that's all because they're scared.

I decided I would try to work on overcoming my fears, whether it's by doing as many auditions as I can to get better in front of a public, trying to say yes (as Zoella said, just say « Yes ») everytime I get an opportunity to do something, as daunting as it is, daring to ask questions whithout being worried of looking stupid, dressing as I want, going out bare faced, letting myself be unorganised for one day... I'm not talking about getting rid of fear, but about overcoming it, as it is my definition of true courage. I know it'll not be done in a day, that the journey to bravoury is a life-long one, but I'm willing to give it a shot.

Hopefully, it will make my life a lot more enjoyable, less stressfull, and a lot more interesting.

That's the end of my little ramble about fear, now let me ask you, what are you afraid of? Please tell me in the comment below.

Thank you for reading,

Maddy

Because I'm hatty!

Ladies and gents, let me introduce you to the only structured hat that I can wear without looking like Michael Jackson. No, seriously I am in love with this fedora hat from H&M (similar here), even though it's very out of my confort zone, I find it instantly turns a plain/boring outfit into one that could come out of a film. It's a little Breakfast at Tiffany-esq but not as dramatic, don't you think ?

Ho, and it doubles up as an umbrella, and god knows I need one in my rainy Charente.

Makeup:

Base: Chanel Vitalumière aqua, Rimmel wake me up concealer, Make Up Forever HD powder and full cover concealer, Benefit Hoola and dandelion boxed blushes, The balm Mary-lou manizer.

Eyes/brows: Benefit brow zing, The Balm nude tude, Beneit they're real, Rimmel khols in nude and black.

Lips: Bourjois rouge edition in 36 « Pourpre Jazzy »

Have a lovely day,
Maddy

A tour of Tours

I told you in my previous post that I was going on holiday to Tours, to visit a friend. I had an amazing time, both my friend and her family were exeptionnaly nice.

Fanny, if you stumble apon my post, thank you so much for a lovely week.

 On my first day there we visited the city of Tours (which has many more shops than Angoulême, surprisingly). We popped into a café (typical me), a few shops, a creperie (had an eggy crepe, no pictures, too hungry, sorry...), a shop selling mangas in which I made my little purchase (para-para-paradise) aaaand H&M (and now I'm hattyyyy). Unfortunately, we were too short of time for me to make a mess in sephora, 'still can't decide whether this is a good thing or not.

I'm now on a mission to take my family to Tours, because I feel like I need to taste a bagel from one of the numerous bagel restaurants of the city... plus they have a Sushi Shop !

The region of Touraine is known for its castles, another reason I want to go back with my family. On day two of my trip, my friend and I went to visit « Le clos Lucé », which used to be Leonardo Da Vinci's and Marguerite de Valois's castle. We had a sneeky peek into the genius's beautiful home, in which were exposed miniatures of his many, many inventions. This guy managed to be a painter, sculpter, biologist, inventor, event organizer... in only one life. I couldn't help but being impressed by his ingenuosity and the precocity of his ideas. He was a truly inspiring person, and the inventions reproduced on a bigger scale in the giant (wet) park of the castle, weren't there to prove the contrary.

Day three consisted of visiting the medieval village of Loches, since I didn't want to spend my entire holiday shoving my camera in my hosts' faces,I didn't take any pictures of the place. It was beautiful nonetheless, with its castle and dungeon, its paved streets, its market and its Yves Rocher...wait, what ? Yup' that happened, now my hands smell like a fruit pie.

These were the main « going out » parts of my trip but I spent at least as good a time chatting with a good friend (pianist, which made violin/piano duets possible), discovering the highly intellectual TV show « friends» (come on, I'm just 20 years late to the party!) and listening to her brilliant collection of CD (how can one have such perfect music tastes?).

So that was a little resumé of my vacation, I hope you enjoyed it and if you went on holiday recently and wrote a post about it, feel free to link it in the comments, I promise I'll give it a look.

See you soon,

Maddy

Ce n'est qu’un au revoir...

Hi guys,

I just wanted to let you know that I'll be going on a four day holiday on sunday. I'm going to visit a friend who lives at a couple of hours train ride from my home. An adventure for the wuss I am!

I haven't scheduled any post for the follwing four days but I should come back to you with nice pictures and entertaining things to blog about (spoiler alert : some castle visits and shopping are going to happen ).

Have a lovely week,

Maddy