Kittens, Kittens, Babies, Chanel

The last morning of Paris approached us quickly as we awoke once again to pack up our suitcases and head down for our breakfast buffet. We grabbed our plates and by this time we knew what we had desired to be on them. The hard boiled egg was on each of ours and that’s when we decided that there was going to be an egg peeling show down. (This was to prove that I wasn’t as slow as I had been the first day of egg eating.) So, we cracked the time and it began… and guess who ended up trumping the other? Me. I won! But, if it means anything… I’d rather Luey peel my eggs for me any day! So, we ate our meal and went back to room 32 to bring down our suitcases in preparation for checking out before noon. Yet, just because our room was no longer available to us, that didn’t mean that the rest of Paris wasn’t…

That’s when we called a taxi and had it take us to one of the largest shopping galleries in all of Paris; The Lafayette. This shopping complex was a four 5 leveled arena that was located in an older built building. One probably couldn’t have told the difference between that old landmark compared with others, except that this one held many, many, many high fashion designer products and other goodies. Walking into this place it didn’t take long for me to be drawn into something, yet this time it was apart of the structure itself rather than clothing or of that sort. In this 5 story building, there was a enormous dome-shaped stained glass overlaying all of the levels. If standing on the first floor, you would see all the other levels built around the center in a circle like fashion. This was not your average Dillard’s.

We were on a mission for today: to find the perfect shoes. These shoes were going to be a pair unlike any other I owned. There were a few stipulations, 1. They were heels, 2. They were almost pieces of art that you could put onto your shelf, and 3. They were timeless. I know… I raised the bar pretty high for these little puppies. I also wanted to know instantly that they were ‘the ones,’ you know that feeling when you just know you have to have it? So, we wandering aimlessly around the racks and up and down different levels. We pretty much saw it all, the beauty products, the high end fashion lines from well known designers, the accessories unit, and eventually we ran into a little vending machine that sold non-other than coffee. Um, why doesn’t America have this? So, we took a little espresso break and then continued on our way. Being too afraid to buy anything in the price range that they had marked on their clothes, we headed on down to the lowest of the lowest levels; the shoes.

While weaving ourselves through the thousands of shoes that were down there, I was sure we were going to be find it. Even Luey was in on it. He was pointing out multiple pairs that may have been what I had wanted… and my eyes kept scanning all around to see if they were to become glued on anything special. But, there wasn’t much of anything that grabbed my attention as strong as I had desired. These shoes were going to (maaaaybe) be my wedding shoes! Yet, this time in Paris… there was no such luck for the perfect fit or style. Au revoir shoes!

Walking ourselves silly through the elaborate shopping facility, we worked up an appetite. This time we ventured outside until we smelt something and saw with our eyes the place we wanted to eat. This time it was a true hearted brasserie. They had all sorts of French food, and what better way to say good-bye to France than to eat multiple foods that reminisce France. Luey ordered mozerella & tomatoes, a ham crepe, and French fries, and my order was a tuna salad with all sorts of vegetable goodies sprinkled on top. Yes, please. It was so, so good! To top it off, there was a crème brulee served in front of me to truly seal the goodbye!

Leaving the little bistro, we then whipped in and out of selected stores that lined the streets we were walking at and ended up finding the perfect (winter) knitted sweater and also finding a Gap (!!!) in Paris. Beautiful thing shopping is. Some how we landed ourselves on the street that truly was made only for BMWs and/or any other high priced car, because this street held own little boutiques with the designers name dawned on it. There was Dior, Chanel, Valentino, Miu Miu, Versace, and any other name you’d expect to see on a runway. Of course we only dared to walk into a handful of them, and by the 2^nd or 3^rd one we almost felt silly and out of place. That is when we decided to call it a day on the shopping boulevard, and got a taxi back to our safe spot, Mr. Eiffel.

When we arrived we said our sweet (& maybe tearful) goodbyes to our new friend, and we walked down the souvenir filled streets to grab a couple of last things. J’Adore Paris shirt was bought, miniature Eiffel towers, and of course magnets and then off we went to our hotel to make it in time for our airport cab. Except for the fact that as soon as we stepped outside, there began a rain pour. This started as a meaningless drizzle yet only about 10 steps into the walk back, it began to pour kittens and puppies. Worst timing ever. We were holding our bags full of recently purchased remembrances and trying not to let our more valuable things get water damage. Practically running in straight ran, we some how made it back to the hotel in time to change out of our sopping wet clothes into luckily some of our newly purchased items since our other belongings were already packed away.

Once dry and ready to head to the airport, the cab came along to take us to the place where I had to kiss the glorious Paris au revoir. It was sad. We had a good run. The food, the streets, the history… I soaked it all in. We eventually figured out the weird security and bag checking system that the French had an after waiting awhile to check our bags we finally made it to our plane gate. We sat and read and checked the screen to make sure everything was running smoothly, and after checking it once again we noticed that our flight was delayed… for a mere 2 hours… I wish that it could’ve been a joke, but it wasn’t and that meant that we had another 2 hours to wait before our plane was to even take off. That also meant more people watching time, and that the AirFrance was to compensate us for a meal and it did just that. We anxiously awaited the plane and when it was time to board, we were ready.

It didn’t take long until we were back in Portugal and when we landed we were thankful to see a familiar face waiting for us after the long day of dealing with airport nonsense. Portugal, your land feels good beneath my feet… 

Merci, petit bébé!

Paris, here we come! Slowly but surely we made our way down to the breakfast buffet once more to eat up to energize for a not-so-long day, but still super adventurous. Luey made up my plate with exactly what I wanted and it ended up with a hard boiled egg on it, and apparently I do not know the correct method to cracking and peeling it’s shell off… but Luey does, he could be called an ‘egg peeler pro.’ (This will relate sooner or later.) So, we scarved down all the sorts of goodies and we walked our needed path to get to the tall, red bus and it happened be directly in front of Mr. Eiffel, and while walking… there came this beautiful, symphonic sound… And of course at 10 a.m. there was a full band playing in one of the pavilions for listeners ears. So, we stopped and enjoyed this free concert being played for us… but we maybe didn’t enjoy it as much as this little boy dancing almost violently directly in front of them, but we were close I would say…

Making it to our bus, we loaded on and sat on the top where the breeze was quite chilly but we were able to see Paris in the morning. We made it to our first stop of the day, Musee D’Orsay, an old train station that was now refurbished to be filled with some of the most eccentric paintings from the Impressionist era. There was a line that exceeded the roped off path they normally create, and we stood in it to wait. We were slowly making our way close and closer to the front and eventually we made it up to the front where they would create the line for us with the stretched out blockers. You know the kind… the kind they have at movie theatres… Well, Luey makes a joke along the lines of “well, get on out here!” so, I turned around towards the elastic fabric and pretended to walk through it and it snapped and immediately and quickly zoomed back to its beginning pole where it came from. In the process I scared this Asian girl in front of me, and there were some adults sneering at how juvenile I was… and at the same time the line coordinator who worked for the museum was walking over and shouted in a joking way “what do you think you’re doing?” (In English of course, because I am obviously American) and I started laughing and then he started moving us to another line, almost thought I was being kicked out. So, we finally made it inside and nobody was buying tickets… why was nobody buying tickets you ask? Because, of course, on the first Sunday of every month there is free entrance. Yahoo!

We immediately went over to the area that is pointed ‘Van Gogh’ and immediately Luiz started to have childhood memories of his profound love of the artists’ pieces. We were able to see some of his most classic pieces including the self-portrait capturing the crazy man he was. I want to paint like him. I also want to know how to paint in general. So we walked down the whole aisle that was attributed to solely Van Gogh and then we skimmed through the rest of the impressive Impressionist that even included Monet, Manet, Gauguin, Renoir, Courbet, Cezanne…. Honestly, this place was full of extremely impressive pieces. After getting drained once again from focusing on these finely painted pieces of canvas, we hoped back onto the bus to continue on with our eventful day.

We stopped right in front of the Arc de Triomphe but saved that for last and turned the other way down the huge, main strip of town. This street holds many stores to shop in, including multiple “Spy” stores…. come on France… what do you have up your sleeve? So, we walked up a hunger and found an Italian restaurant that Luey would always eat at when he lived in Paris for 4 years. Bingo! Luey knew exactly what he wanted as soon as we sat down, carborna pasta, and it didn’t take long for me to choose either. When our food arrived, I had a pizza covered in vegetable that was the size of a large plate, and Luey’s had a egg cracked right on the top of it… cooked. We easily finished it all and the routine of dessert was fulfilled at the huge Haagen Dazs ice cream shop right next door. Let me tell you that it was extremely difficult to choose from all the selections, but I ended up with a combination that was extremely delicious. Being full and expecting to walk around outside through multiple stores was going to be a hard task to overcome.

We stopped in front of windows to gaze at all the treasures and we popped in and out of stores at random. Continuing our walk back towards the huge center piece (The Arc) we happened to spot a (no-big-deal) 4 story Louis Vuitton store that even had a rope to form a line for entrance. Say what?! We definitely stepped into the store that was set up in a museum like way with it’s strategic placing of items and it’s purposeful lights shining directly on them. After being semi-freaked out by price tags and the weird fascination with the brand, we walked out for some fresh oxygen to fill our lungs. Nothing came of interest except for noticing that there were two McDonalds and that pigeons were still in love with crumbs from people’s trays.

We eventually made it back to the underground tunnel that would take us right underneath the Arc de Triomphe and once again blown away. This was yet another piece attributed to the great Napoleon to show of his war victories and blows. It was so big. There were so many parts of sculptures with war names, figurines, and plenty of other shapes and curves put into it to make it epic. After absorbing as much of this arched cement as we could, we got back onto our trusty red bus that would take us back to the hotel where it once again time to rest our heads before heading back out for dindin.

This time when we headed back out, we knew that it had to be something too good for it was our last dinner in Paris. What’s too good in Paris you ask? Mr. Eiffel, that’s what. So, we headed to the Seine river to find a floating brasserie. Arriving in front of Le Bistro Parisiene, we had the perfect view from our table on the deck we were seated at of Mr. Eiffel. Soooo woahmantic! We each ordered and each meal ended up being the perfect choice for our slightly empty bellies. Good timing we must have, because towards the end of the meal, the ole' tower did it again... it twinkled! We filled the stomach up to full capacity and we were planning on getting ice cream, but there ended up being no room for it. So… we continued our walk under and around Mr. Eiffel before we called it a night…

M. Eiffel viennent au Texas?