Journal no. 3

the backlog of photos from 2012's trip, part 3.

 i took morning walks around the Le Marais neighbourhood. love the graffiti. love the neighbourhood.
 we took the Batobus tour of the Seine - it's a boat bus that stops at the landmarks of Paris.
made my cousin pose as the Statue of Liberty when the Eiffel Tower was in the background. lol
 the tower. and a carousel.
it was drizzling.
my cousin did a 007 pose in front of the horse statue at Pont d'Iena. auntie V was amused.
would have liked to go to the Champ de Mars side actually.
 we walked up to the Trocadero.


on the way, was accosted by a man who wanted to put bracelets on my cousin's hand.
i read about people who made you buy the bracelets by doing that.
anyway, we said no thanks and my cousin was a little shocked by this incident.
lol, then i made my cousin imitate the statues on the Troc.
and he made me do the "day at the beach" pose (stand on 1 foot with arms outstretched).
 then we walked to the Arc.
we didn't go up.
 then we walked down Champs Elysees and auntie V brought her to the restaurant she liked - Chez Clement.
it's awesome and swanky,  i loved it.
this was my lunch order - country basket? rock-hard toast, egg, cured meat, pate, radishes, cheese, tomatoes.
the others had roast duck and potatoes, chicken...
 and a glorious platter of oysters!
and we could see the Arc and the wide boulevard from where we sat, in front of a huge glass window on the main street side.
i took photos of the fancy people on the street. but mostly they were unglam tourists. haha.
 this is the reason why i love this Chez Clement. the cavernous and dark-themed front restaurant opens up to this gorgeous skylight area. then there's another gold+beige-themed section after this area.

after lunch we strolled the Champs-Elysees.
saw the long queue to enter the Louis Vuitton, went to the Toyota showroom, saw a make-shift Laduree store.

then we separated into 2 groups for shopping. there was some tension when we couldn't find or contact them and waited for ~45 minutes around Fnac.com.
it was good for people watching though. it was crowded with all sorts of tourists.
after we managed to meet up again, we went to Monoprix and did the souvenir shopping at the gourmet supermarket. it was awesome.

we had to get to the Batobus station to take the boat back home.
it was a long walk but we got to see Avenue Montaigne where the luxury boutiques were. there was also the Comedie Studio and a posh hotel with iconic red awnings (Hotel Plaza Athenee).
 we had to hurry to the boat and were also dead-beat from all the walking, so i didn't explore my favorite bridge - Pont Neuf.
that's one part of the fancy ornaments on the bridge.
back on the boat, and saw Eiffel in a different light as the sun was setting on a cloudy day.
the Seine was very pretty with all the bridges and Parisian sunlight (i think the light in Paris is splendid and exceptional, okay?).
we dropped off at the Notre Dame and i think i made us walk around that area before going home. :P