After having slept an indecent amount of time in Deb’s estimation (what everyone doesn’t sleep in excess of 11 hours?) we launched ourselves forth into the wilds of Paris. Walked up to the Arc de Triumphe (get your map out now, we are at Rue de Faubourg St. Honore and rue Balzac in the 8th arrondissment) and the walked down the zoo that is the Champs Elysees on a Saturday. We stopped here and there, most notably PrisUnic which is a dead ringer for Target but has an entire level of the best food you ever saw: breads, cheese, wines and yummies that you can’t get in America for less than $20 a pop. Then we walked down the Champs Elysees up to Ave Franklin D. Roosevelt and were briefly considering going to the Metro, but ended up walking back up to the Fg. St Honore and hoofing it over to the Opera. Deb pillaged the Galeries Lafayette and I made sure Achilles didn’t go stark raving mad while all of these ravenous shoppers pooled and eddied around him in their shopping frenzy. =: ) I found a pair of 20 Franc espadrilles (a GREAT DEAL) and we saw a wonderful vintage Jaguar parked on the streets. Deb did a cheesecake pose in front of it.
From the Opera we took the Metro and got off on Franklin D. Roosevelt station and walked back up the Champs Elysees. We went back to the apt. at that point to dump stuff off and get change clothes…oh yeah, did I neglect to mention it was HOT that day? About 95 degrees F. Yeow. I was about to pass out from the heat.
After an hour or so at the apt cooling our feet and selves, we went out again and went all the way down Rue d’Iena and over the Pont d’Iena to the Eiffel Tower. This was about 7:15 p.m. It stays really light until about 10 pm, so we had several hours to play yet. We walked around under the tower and got one of those hot dogs made from almost an entire baguettes and munched for a while watching about 5 kids terrorizing the pigeons. Then we walked down to the river and got tickets for the bateaux-mouches, those flat bottom boats that go up and down the Seine under all the bridges. There was this little girl, who I’m certain learned to walk about 5 hours before, that was running up and down the walkways with manic glee while her mother patiently followed her around for the entire hour of the boat ride. It was great. I think I got a picture of that, too.
From there we walked down into the 7th arr. and grabbed the Metro at Ecole Militaire and went into the 6th at St. Michel. There are about 500 densely packed restaurants in the old medieval winding streets, where guys point at you and say, “Here’s your table!” We finally ended up in a Greek restaurant and ate ourselves into a coma. At midnight we were in the mood for nothing else but sleep. So we took the metro back and walked home where we promptly passed out.
total miles walked:approximately 15