Really? All this and I’m still only on Day 2? I guess it shows how much more we can fit in when we’re traveling as a group of 2 instead of 6!
As we left the Orsay people were opening umbrellas and sprinkles were falling from the sky. We decided to walk across the street and along the Seine in the misty grey air. Rain makes me so happy. We found ourselves at the end of the Champs-Elysees and decided to walk up it toward the Arc de triomphe. Before coming to Paris last year, the Champs-Elysees was legendary from all the times I had seen it on the final day of the Tour de France, but I was a bit disappointed to discover that it was just a big, busy, modern shopping street with a cool monument at the end. Oh well. It does have some high end shops, like Louis Vuitton and Tiffany. Josh and I popped in to this over the top version of . . .
Abercrombie and Fitch. Yes, seriously. Gold trimmed gates and doors, looking like a palace, but inside are the same clothes, loud music, and pictures of half naked male models. They even have a live Abercrombie model as a greeter.
To go along with the ornate decor, they classed it up and turned the half naked guys into paintings instead of photographs.
The store was huge (4 stories?) and attracted every pre-teen for miles. I heard loads of giggling through the cloud of cologne. It really is that dark inside. I’m not sure how anyone can even see the clothes.
We are obviously too old for this. And too cheap.
A line to get inside the Nike store? Crazy. Inside were 3 floors of athletic wear, wall to wall people, and it was as warm as a California summer day. It was damp and chilly outside, but the employees were all wearing tank tops. It was a sweatbox in there.
We stopped for lunch at the top of the street and rested our feet, drank some wine and sparkling water, and ate gourmet hamburgers. Another great meal. After warming up, we headed across the street to the Arc de triomphe. Well, we actually headed around the circle since the Arc sits in the center of a huge, busy roundabout so we had to travel the perimeter until we reached one of the stairways that led to the underground tunnel access.
After a million stairs up, round and round a small circular staircase, we finally made it to the top. The view of the city is beautiful, even on a wet day. It was the perfect amount of rain — enough for us desert dwellers to enjoy it, but not enough to make us wet. We were both able to wear our regular jackets and didn’t need raincoats. It was fun to stand at the top with the cold drops sprinkling our faces.
Josh still hasn’t been to the Eiffel Tower. I’m letting him catch glimpses of it from all over the city before we go view it up close.
After our time at the top we headed inside to one of my favorite gift shops. I’m not a shopper, but the museum gift shops in Paris always have fun and unique things that you can’t find elsewhere, especially the one inside the Arc. After picking up a few things for the kids (and a metro map dishcloth for me) we took the metro back to our neighborhood to pick up some food for our apartment.
At the cheese shop. I had picked up a few bottles of sparkling water at the corner grocery next door while Josh picked out some cheeses. Then we went a few doors down to the charcuterie to get jambon (french version of prosciutto) and then to the bakery to get a baguette.
And a few other pastry treats as well — why not try them all?
Then we went home, crashed into a nap, and woke up and talked to the kids. I love them, but 5 minutes on FaceTime was enough for me to remember why I needed this vacation. Especially when Camille started demanding that she get to hold the phone and then went off sulking because she had to share the screen. She’s an all or nothing kind of creature. We’re working on that.
Later that evening we ventured out as far as the restaurant downstairs from our apartment where I had a fabulous cassoulet (white beans with sausage and bacon), the perfect comfort food, and Josh ate duck breast. He ordered duck several times on this trip after our dinner with the chef because he wanted to see how it differed from restaurant to restaurant. I ordered a glass of Sanceere, a white wine that comes from a particular region of France. It was my favorite from the night before so I ordered it everywhere we went for the rest of the trip. It’s clean and crisp tasting with very little aftertaste. Every version I tried was a little different, but they all maintained the qualities that I liked from my first tasting. Expanding our minds and our palates.