Diary for sapp travels


Champs-Élysées

2018-07-27

Friday morning and we wake up shattered from our mammoth day yesterday. Thanks to our very late to bed, the thought of sleeping in holds great appeal. However, thanks to the heat and noise of the street below, we aren’t successful. We are slow to get going though and slide right on into Parisian time. We finally leave the apartment and head for the Champs-Élysées. Due to the sore feetedness we metro it there to give our feet a little bit of a break.

It’s a hot day and avenue is busy. We head toward the Arc de Triomphe. On the way we stop in at the Renault store, just for fun, when you have a Renault at home, it kind of feels obligatory to do so.

Both Mum and I have only ever just swarmed at the bottom (the free bit) of the Arch. We buy our tickets and get in the queue, security checks and scan through and then we start climbing to the top. There are 284 steps (I googled that as I lost count on the way up). It was well worth all the steps. When you step out onto the top of the Arch, the views are breathtaking. You can see it all and it is simply magnificent. We stay up there for ages, wowing and taking photos. And then slowly we make our way back down, stopping to read and learn and watch the information videos on the way.

After leaving the Arch, we wander down the Avenue, window shopping and people watching. We stop for a baguette and water and then keep walking off to Galeries Lafayette – a fancy (very), big (massive) department store. It’s quite a long walk to Lafayette and the air conditioning is a welcomed treat. We aren’t there to shop, we are there for the spectacular architecture. There is a roof top terrace and the panoramic views from the top of the building are quite spectacular.

The art nouveau architecture showcases a very large dome on top dome and lighting.  The top of the building has a very large dome, which from the outside is just a dome, the magic it creates in the centre of the building inside is nothing less than spectacular.

After Lafayette we browse some normal people priced shops, and then head to the metro to head back toward home, Le Marais district. We get there and are feeling a tad fatigued, somehow we have still managed to walk about 15 kms. Thanks to Mum wearing her fitbit, I spend the day constantly asking here how far we have travelled.

We chill out in our apartment for a while, discussing dinner options, we watch a storm come through and with the window open the heavy heavy rain was really refreshing. It was great to have made it home in time without getting drowned though!

We opt to try out a little restaurant next to the bar downstairs from the apartment. Classico Argentino. As is the norm, there is no air-con and now that the rain has stopped it is quite warm.  We sit next an open window overlooking the street and suss out the menu. Empanadas seem to be the go and is mostly what the place is all about. Thankfully there are multiple vegetarian options. The empanadas come in fours, and you can chose whichever ones you want. We make our selection and eagerly await its delivery. Oh wow oh wow, man those empanadas! Soooo good. We share 4 vegetarian empanadas and a salad and watch the world. A hail storm with massive golf ball sized hail sweeps though and it is magnificent (if you are inside).

We wind up our dinner and head back upstairs to the apartment. We are both incredibly tired and after another very full day, with an early start tomorrow, we are, thankfully, in bed just after 9 p.m.

We need our rest, tomorrow we are heading out for a tour of the Champagne district!