Postcards from France: Return to blogging part 2!

Welcome to the Töck and Phantasmafloria blog once again! 

Phanty here, and I've returned after a short trip to France for the Cannes Film Festival, which you may have heard of in the news and press as one of the most prestigious film festivals (and events, period) in the world! More on this later in the post.

Firstly and more importantly, we recently held our Easter Meet, which unfortunately was overshadowed by much rain. But being Aussie lolitas, we steeled through and kept going with the meet regardless (and I hope this decision didn't upset the poor lolitas who made the trek through the rain)!

Our Day was comprised of 2 parts: A crafternoon and an easter egg hunt! For the hunt. the lolitas were tasked with finding 84 coloured plastic eggs, including 12 large eggs worth 5 points and a pink toy chick worth 10! 

The meet took place in Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens, which was where last year's Welcome to Sydney Lolita meet was held. We decided this was a comfy spot for a meet, and held it there again. The theme of course: Easter!

The eggs were hidden around the gardens under trees, around ponds and hidden behind statues. It was great to see all these gorgeously dressed lolitas running around and looking for eggs!

And Töck was tasked with keeping them on track, making sure everyone was able to find their eggs and not get lost!

They had an hour to do this, although with the rain, and the fact that the eggs were quite easy to find, the hunt ended within 15 minutes. Well done, everyone!

And once again, we got to raffle off a Metamorphose March of Ducks JSK Set! Congratulations to Loki who won the raffle!

In total, we had about 30 lolitas (with some coming late) attending the meet, which are excellent numbers considering the heavy rain!

Thank you everyone who attended! We did a lot of preparation for this meet, and while everything didn't go ALL according to plan, it was great meeting you all!

Now, to Cannes!

I recently received an offer for an internship to work with The American Pavilion, which i promptly accepted. This would be my first time overseas, and my first time on a plane. Very exciting, although I had no time to wear any Lolita stuff!

As an aspiring filmmaker, being at Cannes is like a dream <3

The badge is basically an all-access pass to the Palais du Festival!

I got to attend many world premieres, including Carol, Sicario and Umimachi Dairy!

Being part of the Pavilion  basically gave me an all-access pass to the Palais du Festival!

I got to see many movies before they screened, including Carol, Sicario

The festival lasted for 2 weeks, and boy they were a busy two weeks! Imagine having full time work every day, 3 film festivals running concurrently and trying to find time to meet friends. Amazingly, i got to do plenty of each!

Being part of the Pavilion  basically gave me an all-access pass to the Palais du Festival! I got to see many movies before they were oficially released, including Mad Max and Carol

I got to meet and see many famous filmmakers and stars, including Amy Poehler, Woody Allen and Emma Watson! There are many amazing hotels and massive yachts that hose exclusive parties that require an invitation, which in turn, requires you to have excellent social wrangling abilities [or just be popular!]

And when you're tired of movies, head down to the beach and relax! Besides the festival, there is a very laid back atmosphere, and the locals are very friendly. Hopefully one day, i'll have a chance to go back, and possibly this time, with a film!

People are so friendly at Cannes! You can literally strike up a conversation with anyone close by about movies, their purpose for being there and ask them out to drinks.

And if you get lucky in the raffle, you may wind up with a much sought after ticket! From there you can experience the movies...

The lines...

And the audiences are always passionate! You may end up getting up, cheering and giving the movie a standing ovation!

For two weeks, Cannes becomes the centre of the world of cinema, and I'm grateful that I got a chance to be right in the middle of it!

One day, I'd love to return and be able to walk down the red carpet in Lolita!

But until then, Au Revoir Cannes!

To Paris!

After Cannes, I took a train up to Paris for two days...

I got to see the Notre Dame during a mass for Pentecost Monday [and they had very strict no sound policies inside for tourists]...

The "Opera"...

And the Lourve! (I didn't have time to go inside though) :-(

But most importantly, I found this little shop:

This visit happened on a public holiday (Pentecost Monday), so I was surprised they were open! Inside I found many lovely goodies!

The store had stock of the latest prints, some rather hard-to-find tote bags and plenty of nice blouses, accessories and cardigans!

Paris was formerly choc full of harujuku/j-fashion stores, half of which have closed down now. Baby maintains a relationship with the "Princess Crepe" crepe shop, however, which remains a popular hang-out spot for Lolitas and Japanese subculture enthusiasts.

BTSSB Paris is situated about an 8 minutes walk from the Bastille, which is accessible via the cities complex subway system.

As it turns out, this might have been the most exciting place i got to see in Paris! After all the hustle bustle of the festival and the travelling and visiting all these big museums and galleries, it was nice to be overwhelmed by something i truly love, and to see something i'm really, really interested in. (Sorry, Eiffel Tower!)

I, myself was only able to buy 2 items to take home. A BTSSB hoodie, and an AATP cutsew for Lottie's birthday!

Unfortunately, I didn't get to see any lolitas on the day, besides the wonderful shopkeeper whose name I can't recall. (If you ever see this person in the photo, please contact me and let me know how things are going in Paris!)

After my 2 day journey around Paris, it was time to return home. For my first trip overseas, this certainly was an overwhelming one. But honestly, and I know this sounds really quite silly, the most exciting part of the Paris trip may have been seeing the Baby store! Thanks be to Travis and Axelle for giving me a place to stay for a night, and to the people at the American Pavilion for having me. Perhaps we'll meet again one day. 

But until then, it's home sweet home for Phantasmafloria!

Thank you to Mai for the pics from the Easter Meet (Being too lazy to bring a camera ourselves) and to everyone who attended the Easter Meet! Hope to see you at the Ann and Simone's Twinning Meet!