Ma Vie: Selfridges

Friday, 12 December 2014

Christmas lights in London

I love Christmas and I love London, therefore I was super excited to get into the festive spirit and go and see the Christmas lights.

We got the train into Baker Street and then walked down Marylebone HighStreet looking in awe at all the posh shops and restaurants (wishing we could afford to visit!!). The lights here were simple, and cute. However we did get to visit the Conran Shop, which is one of my favourites stores on this high street simply because it sells such random things! We went straight upstairs to the Christmas Market which was a selection of cute huts with Christmassy bits and bobs inside and also real Christmas trees. The highlight was the snowman sitting at the Christmas dinner table!

Marylebone High Street ends up at the top of St Christophers Place, which is the cutest little street with lots of unique restaurants and shops, ending with a nice square with restaurants such as Carluccio's on it and Apostrophe.

After going down a narrow alleyway you end up on busy Oxford Street. Its hard to get a good picture as its so busy, but we headed towards Selfridges where we went to the Christmas Emporium on the top floor which was amazing!

Next we wandered down to New Bond Street and saw their lights which was super cute and like feathers, then ending up on Regents Street. The lights this year are sponsored by the new Night At The Museum film.

Just of Regents Street is Carnaby Street which had some cool headphone lights this year. Just off Carnaby Street is a little square called Kingly Court which has some unique, boutique stores and restaurants.

We then walked back to Baker Street stopping off at Langham Place church and the BBC Headquarters. These have been recently renovated and looked amazing. I would love to go for a tour of the BBC one day.

How amazing is London at Christmas. Next I need to visit South Bank and all the lights along the Thames! xoxo

Wednesday, 28 May 2014

Rainy Adventures in London

Yesterday I had a foodie day in London looking at the latest trends and sampling lots of delicious food followed by an evening up The Shard.

First stop was Selfridges food hall. I love Selfridges food hall there is so much there and many different products that you would not find in your standard supermarket.

My favourite was the bakery counters, Lola's had a counter in the food hall and also Selfridges had their own counter. We bought a selection of 'Cronuts' from here. I have never tried a Cronut and was excited to try this new craze. For those who do not know what a Cronut is, its a mixture of a croissant and a doughnut and has been brought over from America - of course!! ;)

We sampled the mini Salted Caramel, Vanilla and Red Velvet. These were just fried croissant with flavoured icing. My favourite was the Salted Caramel as it was the most moist and had the most flavour. We also tried a large Banana Cronut. This had banana cream filling in the middle. I am not a fan of banana flavoured things, but this was amazing. The banana flavour was so subtle and very tasty!

We then headed to Covent Garden and Soho, we had a nosy in Hummingbird Bakery. We wanted to stay for a cupcake and a drink but there was no seating free. Instead we went next door to L'Eto Caffe. I have always wondered past L'Eto and looked at their cakes but never been in. I think that inside was a bit of a let down and nothing special. However the lemon meringue pie that I had was quite nice, but nothing special!

In the evening we went up The Shard. We had booked tickets in advance so despite the rain had to go up. The view at 8pm was not great, we could hardly see anything as the rain was covering the view and there was a lot of mist. We had chosen to go up at 8pm as sunset was meant to be at 8.59. However with the awful weather did not see the sunset, which is very upsetting!

When the lights came on after sunset the view improved slightly, however I would love to be able to go back up when the sun is shining and I can actually see the beautiful sights and landmarks on London! I personally think they should offer half price return tickets or something when you go up in bad weather, as I feel it was a waste of £50.

However my highlight of the trip up The Shard was the lift. You woosh from floor 1-33 in literally seconds. Then from floor 33 to 68 just as quick. I was very impressed with the speed, and hate to admit this may have been the best part of the experience- which is a shame!

Here are a couple of pics from the day!