Strasbourg attractions - Shop signboards, a pictorial

This is a re-post due to Blogger acting up the last time I logged in and wrote about this. And now I have lost my muse. Guess I just make do with photo post, which I try not doing as I'd love to jot down what I experienced when travelling.


Somewhere around Cathedrale Notre Dame de Strasbourg


Poterie d'Alsace


Signboard of restaurant in Le Petite France


Restaurant on rue du Maroquin


Pâtisserie Christian Meyer

Strasbourg attractions - Cathedrale Notre Dame de Strasbourg

It's the first Roman Catholic church I visited in Europe and I've gotta say it's truly magnificent. And among the churches/cathedral I've been to, it's the most beautiful. Even when compared to Notre Dame de Paris. If you are in Strasbourg, this is the one place that you must visit.

I'm not a Catholic, but since I used to dream of having a church wedding (blame it on all the movies I'd watched since young), I've had some fascination with churches. And even though I can't really differentiate which religion a church belongs to, I'd like to admire it for its gorgeous architecture. And I really envy those are lucky enough to get married in this church.

I came here around noon, right at the time its astronomical clock having the procession of the 18-inch high figures of Christ and the Apostles. It was an very interesting experience and the geek in me thought of all the mathematical equations that were created to build this mechanism. It was definitely worth the wait, the queue and the ache of my neck (as I needed to look up to see the whole happening).

The Astronomical Clock inside the Catheral

Beautiful details of the clock

After the procession, the visitors were allowed to mingle for a few minutes before they close the church to outsiders. It was a weekday after all. And I couldn't help but gasp in wonder when seeing its grandeur. It was my first visit to a cathedral in Europe, you can't really fault me for being charmed by its beauty, right?

Pillars with pain-taking detailed sculptures

Stained glass windows from 14th century, or even before that

Richly ornate ceiling

If you think inside is beautiful, I think you will be lost for words when looking at the church from the outside. It's so big that I couldn't take a photo of the whole church with my poor point-and-shoot digital camera. Unless I take it from afar, which I forgot to do. But still, without that, with a few below pictures, I guess you can figure out yourself.

Now, take a breath and enjoy the wonder that's called Cathedrale Notre Dame de Strasbourg.

And of course, there's also an obligatory shot of myself in front of the church.

Shopping resolutions for the second half of 2011

Yes, I am doing my list of resolutions this late, as I didn't know what I wanted this year in January, and right now, I think I need to write these self-made promises down so that I can keep them. Also, they will act as a memo for me, if I have any urge to break them.

- Shoes: I've had a change of mind after buying my first pair of Chloe shoes. Truthfully, I was a little disappointed when opening the package and seeing the flats the first time. The material is suede, not grain leather that I'd seen in the store. Even when I read the details on the site, it didn't state suede, just leather, though the photos indicated differently. Guess I need to trust my eyes more in the future. And the fitting is a tad tight, but that is the risk I was willing to take. Then, that disaster with the re-heeling and re-soling. I am now very conflicting. Half of me wants to run to YSL and buy that pair of Love flats. Another half doesn't want to buy any more shoes, except those Ferragamo jelly flats for Pre-Fall 2011.

And guess what? I've decided not to buy shoes until my next travel, except for that pair of Ferragamore jelly flats and another pair of Ferragamo Spiffy flats. That makes 2 pairs of flats within 6 months, which is reasonable and practical. And from now on, I think I will buy my other shoes overseas. The reasons are plenty. First, the next pair I want to own, quite desperately, is from Chanel and Ferragamo (I mean their leather shoes). And the prices of these two brands are marked up heavily in Singapore. I feel so cheated to buy anything from them here (again, jelly flats are the exceptions, I have no other choices). And when they are having sale, like now, there are nothing left in my size. Trust me, I tried to go on the first day of sale, and there were nothing left, unless you have giant feet.

So overseas is the solution. When you travel, you feel less guilty to shop. Just think that you might not have a second chance to buy them, it will help you to hand over your card/cash. I made that mistake, not buying a pair of Chanel shoes and I regret it everyday. So next time, I will just close my eyes and pay for it. After all, prices never go down, they just go up every year. And the brands to focus on are Chanel, Lanvin, Ferragamo and Louboutin.

One big note to myself: No re-heeling and re-soling in Singapore for flats. Even if it means the life spans of my shoes are shorter, but at least I feel happy when wearing them.

- Jewelry: No buying online, unless it is a designer brand, i.e. YSL and Chanel. Chanel means its vintage earrings, brooches and necklaces. But I might want to wait until I go back to Manhattan to shop in those fabulous consignment stores. YSL means its in-store costume jewelry. I'm still in love with its arty rings. Such a statement piece.

Anyway, back to the reason why I won't buy jewelry online, it is because I was badly burnt by an experience with Amrita Singh jewelry. The photos on the site were deceiving. Except for its jewelry box, which is pretty, the two rings I bought were such a let-down. Even though I knew that they were made in China, I thought the quality should be above average as they were charged with such high price for gold-plated material and semi-precious stones (US$100 for a ring before sale isn't cheap). When I saw the rings, I was shocked due to the cheap-looking metal. Gold-plated, my ass! And the craftsmanship was poor, really poor. On the way back home, I had half a mind to throw them into the bin. Yep, they were that bad! So yeah, no more online "unknown jewelry" shopping!

So what will I do about jewelry? Hand-made and order-to-make. I've just realized that Thailand is a heaven for gorgeous hand-made jewelry and I will wait for those Thai fairs/festivals to buy those. Or I can travel to Bangkok and bankrupt myself with those beautifully-made rings, earrings, necklaces, etc. For order-to-make, I have my trusted friend and our favourite shop back in Vietnam, I just need to find the designs and send them to her. She will choose the stones, adjust the designs to match with those stones and have them made. When I go back to Vietnam, she will give them to me. The cost will be definitely much cheaper than those badly-made Amrita Singh rings.

- Clothes: Massimo Dutti and Zara are the shops to go. For dresses, DvF is still my trusted brand whenever one in my size is available on sale on Shopbop (the cheapest on the net and no shipping charge). And I will definitely stock plenty of them the next time I go to New York.

- Skincare: No more buying until I finish two third of what I have in stock. No more space to store. This means no shopping/shipping the next three months.

- Cosmetics: Except for sunblocks, facial mist and liquid foundation, no purchase is needed until 3 months later.

Singapore shopping - Second pair of shoes for 2011

It is my first pair of Chloé shoes. And yes, it is another pair of flats. Out of all shoe types, flats is the one I wear almost daily. Be it weekday or weekend, it is my first choice of shoes. Unless I have a specific outfit in mind, which I usually need to go with a certain shoe type. I know it sounds boring but after spraining my ankles twice (once each side), I might have developed a phobia of wearing high heels. So until I feel my ankles are 100% back to normal, I guess I will continue to wear and buy flats.

Anyway, this pair of shoes wasn't my first choice. I wanted to get YSL 'love' flats, which was in an amazing color. And it was on sale as well. However, the sizing was a little off, plus the fact that the shoes didn't look that well-made (at least compared with my own YSL purple flats which I bought about 2 years ago). So I decided not buying it. Then... I wandered off to Chloé and tried on their shoes. Wow, "soft" was my first thought when putting on theirs. Sad to say this but YSL needs to increase their QC standard before it drops further. Back to Chloé shoes, they fitted me perfectly. I had half a mind to buy on the spot, even though there wasn't any sale at that moment. But... there is always a "but". My size was sold out for the design that I like. Damn...

Luckily, I have another way to get I want, without flying to Paris. Namely online shops. Coincidentally, one of the websites is giving out a 30% off for SS11 collection. So why should I wait for the sale? And a few days later, I received my lovely shoes.

At the moment, the shoes are at the shoe repair services shop to have their sole prepped. I've learnt my lesson with my old Lanvin flats. Now I just need to see how it's done and if it is what I think it is, I will have my black Lanvin flats prepped as well. Yep, expensive shoes definitely needs more care than your average run-off-the-mill shoes. But the reward is when you wear them and they change your outfits as well as posture entirely.

Updates on 21 Jun 2011:

I really regretted having it re-soled and re-heeled. A disaster. Shoe repair services in Singapore suck big time. This is my second time having problems with my shoes after sending them to the shops. Let's see how long I will put up with this pair before chucking it into the bin. For 424 (400 + 24) bucks, I guess I have to wear it at least 100 times. For every other day, this means around 6 months. It means until next year. Well, I can do this. But first, I need a spare nail file.