Montpellier

This year I did a terrible thing – I decided to skip Queen's Day in Amsterdam. I've been to five already, and much as I love the city turning into one big flea market I was a little over it. My sis and I did cruse the Jordaan for an hour in the morning where pickings were good (she scored an iShuffle for €20, me polaroid camera for €1...) but there'll always be next year. And sometimes you need a break from things to really appreciate them the next time round. So, what did we do instead? We packed out bags, hopped on a plane and headed to the science geek for six days in the South of France! Yay! The geek, we'll call him Dr S, is actually not geeky or nerdy at all but really very stylish and suave. I'm posting this today as it's Dr S' last day in the lab. Fingers and toes, pet, he's on his way to Amsterdam! Here is the Dr S' lab... looks way too grown up...
...but at the same time kinda reminds me of highs chool... must be the lab coats.Oh, we're in Montpellier, by the way! A beautiful city.
CC was of course in awe of the Aqueduc Saint-Clément. The girl is obsessed with them, I tell you! Above, lit up at night in a beautiful blue. This was nice, but what I did really like was the carved wood service door to the aqueduc; a beautiful minty green water-fall door.
That, and the crazy feral iron work surrounding it. Truly incredible, it was like ironwork gone wild, and at the end of a long dry summer about to go to seed.The weather was lovely and so we did the only sensible thing to do; we headed straight to the local market and stocked up on fresh bread, cheese, amazing strawberries, paté and of course, wine and headed for a sunny patch of grass for a picnic.
And the gluttony didn't end there, I can assure you. Dr S took us to an amazing fondue restaurant for dinner, great crepe place for lunch and breaky consisted of a good strong coffee and maxi chocolate croissant – seriously, huge!

For the remainder of the visit we hired a car and headed up the coats to Niemes, Aux en Provonce, Marseille, Cannes, Nice, St.Tropez, and Monaco. A bit of a whirlwind trip but also very chilled. And I was just so happy to get back behind the wheel of a car again. More about the trip to come over the next few days...

Hussy

Hussy by name and hussy by nature. Great summer clothing range from the Australian fashion label that's bound to get people talking. Available in Australia or by ordering online here. A big range, these are my picks from their summer collection:
Above, Garden of Eden skirt AUD $289 / €176. Celia ruffle blouse, lilac AUD $270 / €164.
Butterfly Kisses mini dress, white anglaise AUD $359 / €218.
Cella ruffle blouse AUD $270 / €164. Mayfair shorts, black AUD $229 / €140.
Crème soda dress, hot pink AUD $398 / €242.
Copacabana jumpsuit, steel blue AUD $329 / €200.
Limoncello top, oyster AUD $259 / €158 Galactica shorts, purple AUD $249 / €150.
Sugar & Spice top-dress, lemon AUD $289 / €176. Beba skirt, daffodil AUD $270 / €165.
Sugar & Spice shift, mint AUD $388 / €236.
Sunset tunic, rustic rose AUD $298 / €180.
Pearly shell dress, lilac $249 / €150.
Glimmer singlet, gold AUD $149 / €90. Glimmer shorts, gold AUD $189 / €115.

Eindhoven

Welcome to Eindhoven. For those who are unfamiliar, this is a very important Dutch city. It's the home of Philips 'healthcare, lighting and consumer lifestyle' products and where the city first developed it's love of design. I didn't go to the Philips Museum, but I have heard it is worth a peep. Where I did go was the Eindhoven Academie, The Netherland's foremost design university which is continuing to churn out the most incredible designers year after year. Sorry, no pics but the gallery there is great for upcoming talent.
Continuing on we headed to a design and museum hot-spot – Design Huis and the van Abbe Museum being a stone's throw from each other. below, just some nice tiles i found on my travels...
The van Abbe Museum of Modern and Contemporay Art. The building itself is lovely, blending the old with the new.
And there's a lovely cafe overlooking the water feature, also accessible on it's own. Sadly all we had time for was to re-fuel at the cafe as we were on a design mission. so, off to the next stop...
Design Huis (Design House). The building is the former Eindhoven courthouse, designed by engineer J. Kruger B.I. and built 1962, has the characteristics of the Delft School as well as the building style of the New Traditionalism. You can read more about the building and it's renovations here.
The ceiling of building is a work of art in itself. the whole building is a lovely mix of concrete, stone, slate and wood.
Polish designed rug Dia by Moho Design.
The main exhibition focuses on design for the mass market looking at Hema (above and below)...
Muji product design, below.
Topshop, below:
Viktor & Rolf, for H&M:And a few smaller companies:
The shop has a great selection of designer products too.
And that was Eindhoven!

The Van Abbemuseum
Bilderdijklaan 10 Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
Open: Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday the museum is open until 9 p.m.! Until December 31th 2008: free admission on thursday evening, from 17.00 o'clock till 21.00 o'clock. Cost: adults: €8,50. Holders of 'Museumkaart': free of charge. Groups of 15 or more and those over 65: € 6 per person, students (up to 27 years old) is €4. Children under 12 years of age free.

Design Huis
Stadhuisplein 3, 5611 EM Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

Open: Tuesday – Sunday, 11am – 6pm. Cost: adults €5, seniors/students €3 (must show pass). children 12 and under €1.

Steven Harrington - Our Mountain

Steve Harrington has a traveling art show Our Mountain organised by Sixpack. The opening in Paris, then heading on to Berlin, Milan and Barcelona. The tour coincides with his first solo book launch. There is also an interview on Sixpack's site here and you can purchase a work of art in t-shirt form here.

First opening in Paris June 5th at LazyDog Gallery: 2 passage thiéré 75011 Paris.

Hortus

De Hortus is a lovely way to while away an hour or two on a lazy weekend day. De Hortus is one of the oldest botanical gardens in the world, with more than 6000 plants. Founded in 1638 by the Amsterdam City Council it was originally a medicinal herb garden. At that time, herbs were of vital importance as the basis of medicines and the city had just experienced a plague epidemic. Doctors and pharmacists trained in the preparation of prescriptions at the Hortus. Further information here.
Some of the herb gardens above and below.
Some crazy display cases.
Hortus has some great tropical greenhouses. I also recommend visiting on Museum Night, where tropical fare is on offer in these houses.
Don't miss the butterfly enclosure.
Hortus Botanicus Amsterdam: Plantage Middenlaan 2a, 1018 DD Amsterdam
Open: Monday – Friday 9am – 5pm. Saturday 10am - 5 pm. Sunday and holidays 10 am – 5pm.
The Hortus is closed at 4:00 p.m. during the months December and January. The Hortus is open daily until 7:00 p.m. during the months of July and August. cost: adult €7, senior/student €3.50, child (5-14 years old) €3.50.