I’m back! The lovely Ally commented about how I should visit La Defense if I go back to Paris, hehe Ally, this is the part for you (or it might be the next one depending on how long it takes me to get to that bit of the story!)
So after the Louvre, we went back to the hotel to get changed before going to dinner. We had dinner at a Restaurant called “Boeuf sur le Toit” which I understand to mean Beef on the Roof – or something like that! The meal was lovely but they were out of the chicken dish for the main meal, so it was a choice between beef or fish – neither of which I’m particularly keen on. Thankfully my Caesar Salad and Chocolate Pudding balanced out what I didn’t eat for my mains lol. (I did have to send my mains back – I wasn’t trying to be picky but I’d asked for well done and it was still v. Pink in the middle)
Anyhoo after dinner, we went to find a supermarket so that we could get bits for lunch for the next day. We wandered along the Champs-Élysées and I’d spotted the Monoprix but only saw clothes we wandered along a bit further and ended up at the ends with no shops so we about-faced and wandered back. I was a bit fed up cos I was shattered so I went to a newspaper stand and asked the guy there where the supermarket was. He explained that Monoprix was behind us and that it did clothes and food lol. (By this point he’d realised that I was an English tourist trying to do my best impression of someone who speaks French and answered my French question in English!)
We grabbed some bits in Monoprix and walked back to the hotel. From a few doors along we could see the top floors of the Eiffel Tower so we stopped and watched the lights for a few minutes but it was getting cold and it had started raining again so we headed inside.
Believe it or not, I was asleep shortly after 10pm I was that tired! I’m serious that’s early for me! Something must have been up for me to be that tired lol!!
Sunday
So to have a lay in on a Sunday never normally happens and how I managed to sleep for like 12 hours is a miracle. What’s more of a miracle is that I slept through the church bells that were two doors down from the hotel lol.
We got up and headed off for more of an adventure – first up – Breakfast! We looked at breakfast in the hotel but €12 each was a little bit much for breakfast so we went off for a wander. We had seen the Haagen Dazs shop the night before thought we have a look elsewhere first. Well, we didn’t really find anything and so we had a look in the HD Shop. It was breakfast so we couldn’t really have ice cream for breakfast (if it had been in a crepe I might have made an exception lol.
Thankfully Haagen Daz does croissants and muffins. So I grabbed a croissant and That Boy had a Raspberry and White Chocolate Muffin and a Caffe Latte for breakfast – we sat outside and watched the world go by for a bit lol.
Following breakfast, we went to the Grand Palais. The Grand Palais is basically a massive conservatory lol. It was built for the Paris Exhibition of 1900 (about 50ish years after The Crystal Palace was built in Hyde Park for the Great Exhibition in London).
Unfortunately, we couldn’t get in to have a proper look but we could see through a few of the windows from one of the foyers so that was cool. I loved this stair case – it looks like something out of a Disney Film lol.
And once again bed time has crept up on me and I need to leave it there – so Part 4 might be here tomorrow (thats when I get to La Defense.
(Haagen Daz image from ChampsElysee-Paris.com)
That outdoor seating at Haagen Dazs reminds me of a small cafe my husband I went to while we were in San Francisco. They had a really delicious chocolate drizzled croissant. We were in for a couple of days to attend a wedding and that’s what I remember most about the trip — eating a delicious croissant and drinking coffee at a table outside the cafe.
Chocolate drizzled croissant sounds lush lol. I wanted to get a crepe but they didn’t serve them until lunchtime or late afternoon. It was lovely to sit outside in the sunshine and not feel rushed lol.
A HAAGEN DASZ SHOP!! Heaven!! And “By this point he’d realised that I was an English tourist trying to do my best impression of someone who speaks French and answered my French question in English” – I think that’s just the French for you. My stepmum went over last year (she speaks fluent Canadian French) and they still insisted on answering her in English!
I think it’s the Dutch as well – we went to Amsterdam 3 years ago and even when I tried to speak dutch – their look was just like “If you’re going to kill it, don’t bother”. I’ve heard people on the continent complain that British tourists go over there and make no effort but then when we do make the effort to speak French/Spanish/Dutch/etc they decide that we’re not good enough and speak English at us (Okay sometimes it’s nice that they do, do that but then again at least humour me and let me try!)
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