Weekend in Antibes, France

  I think this was the warmest day of our trips outside of Barcelona, which was perfect because I declared it a beach day. Of course, it could just have been the mojitos(which, in true southern france style, was made with champagne) talking.... The private beach owned by the AC Ambassadeur was spotless. The beach and sand was super clean as well. It is a short 2 minute walk from the actual hotel, not too bad. The pool was very nice, with a lot of lounge chairs, but not heated and it was quite cold. The service at the hotel itself is great, although they charge for EVERY single extra. We asked for silverware to feed our daughter spaghetti and they wanted to charge us 5 euro! 

Antibes is a pretty good location to stay if you want to travel to the surrounding areas like Cannes, Nice, or Monaco and generally is more affordable than staying in those places. There are endless restaurants, cafes, and pastry shops and touristy shopping .

   But possibly the best place I found was a little store on Palais des Congres. I think it was called Boutique H.17, and it is basically an outlet designer boutique. They have brand names like Michael Kors, Missoni, Moschino, Cavalli, and Barbara Bui. Here, I fell in love with a Givenchy studded peep toe bootie, a buttery green leather jacket, and Giuseppe Zanotti over the knee leather boots that my husband treated me to. They were marked down to 200 Euro! 

Our hotel lobby

the bar at the AC Ambassadeur

the infamous mojito with champagne

Thanks for reading!

Print Mixing

      Fashion should be fun and expressive. What better way to have fun with clothes than patterns? Patterns of all sorts are 'in' for the upcoming seasons, and mixing them, even more so. I have to admit when it comes to this I am intimidated. Not because I don't know how, but there is something daunting about it, am I right? I am making it a fashion goal to mix prints by the end of June.. and document it, of course.

       If this is something you want to try, but don't quite have the cojones to go bold, try a simple mix like the look on the top right (below): where you mix two muted print pieces. This look works because it's keeping in the same color category and it is broken up by the solid black jacket and (godly) booties. The top isn't too busy and it's paired with a low key check print.

    If you want to go more colorful, pair floral with stripes. I know.. it sounds a little crazy, right? But it works. To tie this look together, I chose a floral print that was against a black background and also worked in the coral/red color at the bottom with the shoes and the clutch. This would really pop with a sexy red pout (and look great out to dinner or for drinks).

    The third look is for the advanced. It is edgy and sexy. This print look works because the two are not competing together. One has a small somewhat stripey herringbone print going on and the skirt has a larger bolder print. It is broken up because the top is cropped. If you are on the shorted side, like me, I do not recommend wearing a pencil skirt or a midi with ankle boots because it will make your legs non existent. Try instead a mule or a nude shoe that doesn't cut off your leg with anything near the ankle. This will elongate your legs.

                                                      Thanks for reading!