Tuesday 25 May 2010

Me-Made-may: Days 22, 23 & 24 (Handmade Holiday!)

This weekend I took Me-Made-May on the road. ROAD TRIP!!!!!!!!! Although to be honest I'm not entirely sure what constitutes a road trip rather than a holiday that you get to and around by car! Anyways, semantics aside, I embarked on a three-day road trip that headed north into Southern France with my wonderful 'dads' and my boy:

Saturday (AKA Day 22) took us from Barcelona across to border and into the incredible Medieval town of Carcassonne just in time for lunch. Then onwards to Toulouse.

Me-made nautical Jenny skirt, stripy top, pants and jacket. Argueably not the most road trip-appropriate gettup, but displaying a certain French air I believe!

On Sunday (Day 23) we headed further West and (including the car breaking down) eventually got to Lourdes. Back in the day a little peasant girl Lourdes resident called Bernadette allegedly saw a vision of the Virgin Mary seventeen times. This resulted in her earning herself a sainthood and Lourdes becoming the second most visited place in France (after Paris) because of all the squillions of religious types that go there to feel blessed and stuff.

At this point I feel I must explain that none of us are religious (despite 50% of our number being raised Catholic), but we all appreciate Catholic ephemera and thought it'd be fun to visit and see what all the crack was about.

Me-made sailor trousers, light cotton blouse and pants. I deliberately made sure I wore something that covered my arms seeing as I was going to a religious place and would most likely find myself in a church at some point despite it being really hot, but it seemed that that majority of the non-nun females there didn't share my concern and I needn't have bothered.

Now, I loves me some iconography and was excited by this trip as an opportunity to add to my collection, but by the end of a day saturated with statues and novelty holy water canisters, even I had had my fill and this final religious icon factory and exhibition was almost too much, hence my spazzed out expression in the documentation shot above. Time to retreat!

The final day (Day 24) was spent in Toulouse, but pretty much everything (well, shops) was inexplicably closed. So we wandered about the deserted but incredibly beautiful streets fueled by butter croissants and jacked up on caffeine. This was particularly exciting for me as I'm pretty much caffeine intolerant and usually have to be very careful about how much and when I drink caffeine, if at all, but I'd procured some sleeping pills and thought 'What the hell?! I'm on holiday!'.

Me-made sailor trousers, tunic top and pants. I know what your thinking, 'Umm, Zo, not sure about this garment combo', and I agree, the tunic would have looked better with my jeggings. But at the end of a weekend of crepes, croissants, moules and frites consumption meant they weren't happening!

So there you go folks. Sorry if I've bored you with the mini-tale of my trip (believe me it could have been longer!) but I wanted to explain the variety of situations that my me-mades successfully performed in. Wishing anyone else heading away soon a very happy Handmade Holiday!

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your road trip looks awesome. I do love those sailor pants.

Camelia Crinoline said...

Lourdes looks amazing. I'm not religious either but I have a strange obsession with Catholic iconography. I love all your nautical themed clothes.

Anonymous said...

Looks like a great trip! We did the same in reverse a few years ago (staying near Carcasonne and heading into Spain via Andorra, which is a very strange place!), but in nowhere near as much style :D I am personally quite a fan of the tunic/sailor combo!

Minnado said...

Glad you had a good trip - the food list sounds fab, and the sailor trousers are great. I am off on my own mini road trip from Midlands to Devon right at the end of MMM - need to identify a good MMM driving outfit....

Len said...

Everything was probably closed on Monday for the same reason as it was all closed here in DLand - It was Pfingsten (a quick google brings up Pentecost auf Englisch) so maybe the Frenchies do it too? Either way, looks like you had a fun trip all the same, and I love the outfits :)

Zoe said...

Thanks ladies! Camelia, if you come over to Europe at some point, I'd definately recommend checking out Lourdes to get your iconography fix, it was like some mental Cathlic Disneyland!

I think you're right Len! There was a days holiday in Barcelona (hence my ability to away) and my boss's explanation was 'Second Easter'!

That's mental you did a backward trip Clare! I have no desire to go to Andorra, you have confirmed my suspision that is a bizarre place. Plus skiing and tax free shopping are not on my list of favourite passtimes!

xxx

Anonymous said...

Yes, we just drove through (because none of us had ever been, and we didn't think it was somewhere we'd visit otherwise), but since none of us were interested in cheap booze, petrol or Swatch watches, there didn't seem a lot there for us! Nice views though :D We're staying in the same place near Carcasonne this year for my handmade holiday (friends' parents holiday home - very handy!) but staying local this time (less driving = more winery tours!)x

Alyssa said...

I'm so so so jealous...all I want to do is go live in South France (vive la france, je dis!)
Also, yay for nautical clothing.

Uta said...

Five words. I. Need. A. Road. Trip. (Pentecoast fun fair with the kids isn't quite the same!)
I love how you elaborate on the places and situations you take your me-made garments. I lack the enrgy for that; maybe next year? ;-)

Tasia said...

Looks like a fantastic trip! How amazing that you can road-trip into Southern France... Love the outfits too, especially the sailor pants. It's not boring at all!
So much better than taking photos in your work-parking-lot every morning like me.. you're going places!!

Bettys Closet said...

ohh how fun. looks like a great little trip. im heading that way next year and cant wait. Australia is so cold at the moment and those pics just warmed me up so thanks! love the outfits too, you always manage to look so casual and chic!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...