A Lovely Vintage Carousel in France

Recently I took my two young children on the train from our home in Grenoble to a nearby town, Valence in  the South-East of France.  The train ride was only one hour, but rather stressful as my kids insisted on acting up and fighting with each other . . .  sacre bleur as the French would say. But the ride was almost worth it when I saw this lovely vintage carousel . . .

My four year old boy riding the plane.

Most French towns have a small carousel in the middle of the town, which is a lovely feature of French villages, and also gives adults a chance to have a break from their kids for at least five minutes! We have a nice carousel in our home town of Grenoble, but this one in Valence is one of the nicest ones I have seen. It was very old-fashioned and was in perfect condition.

There was also a lovely hot air balloon on the carousel . . .

I actually took these photos with my new(ish) Samsung phone. I was very dubious about how they would look on the web, but I am pleasantly surprised. The ones taken when the carousel are moving are a bit blurry, but the others are actually not too far off a proper camera. I am impressed!

Stay tuned for more on vintage and living in France . . . 

Pin up Sailor Swimsuit by the pool

This is my last instalment of posts from my lovely trip to Spain in August (we travelled to Cartagena for a friend's wedding). The weather was perfect, not too hot, not to cold so a swim was in order . . .

As I have a curvy figure and pale complexion I have to put a little effort into assembling a swimming outfit - I can't just pick a bikini off the rack and hope it will look OK! I had decided on a nautical theme for my outfits so I hunted down this fantastic retro swimsuit on etsy (thank you Heather from The Red Dolly!). I like the fact that it is stripy on the top and navy on the bottom which I think may be more flattering for my type of figure. I am glad I didn't go with my original plan, which was striped all over. I had ummed and ahhed about whether to get an original 50s swimsuit or replica, but the originals tend to be expensive and you can run into problems with elastic that has wasted away and so on. I am very glad that I bought this replica - it is made of good quality fabric and fits like a glove.

We stayed at a place called 'Roda Golf and Beach resort' near Murcia in Spain. The pool was lovely and clean and the accommodation is very reasonable. However, the 'beach resort' is actually 40 kms away (a bit of poetic licence used in the brochure I think!).

Its a pity that I had to ruin the look by actually getting in the pool and swimming. It didn't do my red lipstick any favours I can tell you (I ended up with red smear all over my face, which my 8 year old daughter found very hilarious).

Good luck with finding your favourite swimsuit this summer season (that applies to my Australian friends, my US and European followers will have to wait a bit longer for summer I'm afraid!).

Outfit details:

Vintage swimsuit Pin Up Sailor Retro swimsuit– Heather at The Red Dolly

Swimwear cover up etsy

Vintage red parasol – the lovely Maura Bee at etsy Maura Bee

Sunglasses: Accessorize (Dublin, also available in the UK)

Red wedge shoes - a shoe shop on Henry Street, Dublin