Monday, August 05, 2013

Paris, Day 6 – Buses, Airplanes and Ice Cream


On Tuesday morning we woke up nicely on time. We decided to have breakfast at the hotel, so we got dressed. My mom and I had made a matching outfit with our black polka dot dresses and Hello Kitty bags that I had bought for the both of us (solely for the purpose of matching on vacation, haha). We went downstairs, paid for the breakfast and got us a plate. The breakfast was really nice, with lots of things to choose from. It’s a shame we had to pay for it separately now, but yeah.
The hotel had been renovated the year before, resulting into a bigger breakfast room. We could also sit outside in the courtyard garden, which was really nice! We could already tell it was going to be a warm day! We had a nice conversation with a mother and daughter from our own country and after we finished our breakfast, we went upstairs to get our things. We had planned to buy a two day-ticket for the tour buses of ‘Les Cars Rouges’. *_* I was so excited! We got our things and went on our way. First, we took some outfit pictures!
Our matching outfits for the day!

We took the metro to station Charles de Gaulle Étoile, where the Arc de Triomphe is. When we entered the bigger hall of the station, I noticed some Photomatons (photo booths) and I suggested to take some pictures! We entered the booth (well, my mom, I always bend inwards from the side) and put our money in. I really can’t remember why, but we ended up not using this Photomaton after all. Whether it was because it wouldn’t take our money or some other reason, we decided to walk back a little to an older model Photomaton and take pictures there. ^^ We chose the option for four different colour pictures and we did the following poses: normal smiling, looking at each other, showing our bags and ‘James Bond’.
Posing in the Photomaton with our pictures!

We left the station, went up the escalator and walked up to the bus stand. There were significantly more people waiting for the bus than last time, so we went to stand in line. After a little while, a staff member of Les Cars Rouges walked up to us and asked us what kind of tickets we wanted and told us about some of the available choices, which was very nice. I was even more happy that the guy was there when a bus came up, because some tourists (I have no idea what country they came from) thought that they could just skip the line because they already had tickets! They just wanted to jump the queue because they thought their tickets allowed them to! I was so glad the guy called them back. Those @#%&!
My mom and I got on the bus (the nasty toursists didn’t, eheheh) and we sat down on the upper deck at the back. The bus departed and we drove around the Arc de Triomphe. Next to my mom sat a guy who was sketching some of the sights we passed. He was really good!
The bus drove down the entire Champs-Elysées. It was so much more crowded in Paris than last time, that even the bus was affected by it. The bus ride took way longer! During our previous trips when we took the bus, the weather wasn’t so great so more people did indoor activities. Now we waited for traffic lights so often! And the sun was really bright, so every time we waited it was really hot. Once the bus started driving again it was okay, because there was wind which cooled us down.
We passed many beautiful sights: the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, Trocadéro, the Eiffeltower, Hôtel des Invalides, Jardin des Tuileries, the Louvre, the Nôtre Dame church, Madeleine, l’Opéra, Place Vendôme, Place de la Concorde and then back up the Champs-Elysées. I love this route so much!
Some of the many sights we passed! These pictures together look like a post card!

We decided to get off the bus at the Arc de Triomphe, our starting point. We had gotten quite hungry, so we decided to have something to eat. My mom suggested to have tea at Ladurée, since we had wanted to do that for quite a while. Of course I agreed!
We walked down the Champ-Elysées and arrived at Ladurée, where we asked for a table at the roofed terrace. I felt so fancy! ^^ The seats were all painted in Ladurée green (that is totally a kind of green for me now) and the tables had Ladurée logos on them. My mom and I sat down and started reading the menu (we had a lovely older waitress, she was very kind). After reading a little, we decided that we wanted to try Ladurée’s ice cream even more than their pastries! The menu had special ‘pastry coupes’ as I’d like to call them: ice cream coupes and sorbets based off their famous pastries.
My mom, reading the beautiful Ladurée menu!

Since I love Ladurée’s Ispahan pastry so much, I decided to try the ice cream coupe kind! It had raspberry sorbet, rose petal ice cream, raspberries, lychees, raspberry sauce and Chantilly whipped cream, according to the menu. It sounded like heaven! My mom chose the ‘Coupe Chocolat-Myrtille’, with blueberry sorbet, Guaraja chocolate sorbet and more things that I unfortunately forgot. We handed our menus to the waitress and she put a beautiful glass water can and two glasses on our table. It was nice to have some cold water on a hot day (our bottles of water had gotten a little… warm). After some waiting, our ice creams were served. They were so stunningly beautiful! *_* Of course we jumped on our cameras to take pictures of them!
My beautiful Coupe Ispahan! ♥

After we had taken our pictures, it was tasting time! And I can tell you, my ice cream was delicious! The whipped cream with raspberry sauce was amazing, especially combined with lychee and raspberry. Then I reached the raspberry sorbet and rose petal ice cream. The raspberry sorbet was like a pure, fluid raspberry and the rose petal ice cream tasted like perfume, but in the best way you can imagine! It truly was like heaven… ;_;
My mom really liked her ice cream too. She said it was like Viennese Sacher Torte in ice cream kind! We finished our ice creams, paid and left. Of course we took some pictures around Ladurée too.
We decided to browse some shops along the Champ-Elysées a bit. We passed a very expensive Arabian perfume shop (where they had the most beautiful bottles) where a kind man offered us to try some amazing perfumes. They smelled so good! Then we crossed the street and went into Guerlain, just to see what it looked like. After that, we followed the street and went inside the Disney shop. They always have the cutest things! I totally fell in love with a soft Mulan doll and I had to drag my mom away from a cute red Minnie Mouse bag. They had lots of Monsters Inc. things: the cutest notebooks with Mike’s eye and even a full suit, so cool! I think the staff finally gave up on their ‘no pictures-policy’, because everyone was taking picture and none of the staff said anything about it. In the end my mom bought a cute plastic grocery shopping bag with all kinds of Parisian sights on it, but with a Mickey Mouse touch. ;) She bought the same one in London, but of course with London sights. So cute!
Eiffeltower decoration in the Disney shop. ^^

We left the shop and walked up the Champs-Elysées. I needed to go to the toilet, so my mom waited outside for me while I went into the McDonald’s and waited in the long line. When I got back, my mom was sitting against an advertisement post taking selfies, haha!
We decided to take the bus again (XD) and just get out wherever we wanted. We passed a big poster of Leonardo DiCaprio, looking very serious with the watch he was promoting. I had to take a silly a picture. XD
We walked up to the bus stand and it wasn’t very crowded. When the bus arrived, I quickly walked up the stairs and we could sit in the back! Plus, the back seats were a little higher than the other seats, which we were hoping for!
The bus started driving and went around the Arc de Triomphe. While we slowly drove down the Champs-Elysées, we suddenly heard a really loud noise, like really strong engines. We looked up and suddenly, a group of military airplanes flew over! My mom and I looked at each other and suddenly realised it was a rehearsal for the military parade on Sunday, the 14th of July and France’s national holiday. During our previous trip, while I was at the Angelic Pretty Tea Party, my mom saw the same, only she didn’t know what happened until someone told her.
Many planes in different shapes flew over us! It really was an amazing sight! People all along the Champs-Elysées were looking up at the sky.
Some of the planes that we saw!

We really had an amazing view from the bus! And we were lucky: the planes had all crossed us when we went around the corner, so we didn’t miss a thing!
We followed the same bus route again and just as we were passing Jardin des Tuileries, groups of helicopters flew by! I have never seen so many planes and helicopters in one day! We also passed two very expensive looking cars: one red and one yellow. I think they were Lamborghinis and you could hire them to cruise around Paris. Pretty cool!
Some more sights because I like it! And my mom! ♥

Eventually we decided to leave the bus at l’Opéra. I would have loved to go inside the building (I’ve seen pictures and they are just… whoa!), but since the weather was way too nice it would have been a waste to spend time inside. So we wanted to see it from the outside again. ^^
We left the bus and walked around the building. Since we had gotten really hungry, we decided to look for a nice place to eat first. Suddenly, I say some people walking with McDonald’s drinks in their hands and we decided to go look for a McDonald’s (we were really craving hamburgers! XD). After some walking around, I spotted the big ‘M’ in the distance and went inside. I ordered our food (in French *^^*) and took it upstairs, where my mom was waiting.
Food~!

After our dinner we felt re-energized again and went downstairs. We took a look at the McCafé and really wanted to have some kind of dessert, but we didn’t know what to take. We decided to try the same thing the guy in front of us ordered. I think it was a Vanilla Frappé..? Anyway, it was really good!
I wish we had McCafés in my country!

We drank/ate our Frappés while walking. We passed a cinema where they had a poster of Star Trek: Into Darkness and I just had to take a picture of it. ^^
We walked back to the big square in front of l’Opéra. My mom had already finished her Frappé, so I gave her the rest of mine. It was quite heavy. ^^’ We tried to take some jumping pictures, which was quite a challenge with all the cars and buses passing by. But we succeeded!
LÓpéra is such a beautiful building! I love this picture!

In front of l’Opéra, a Michael Jackson-copying guy was performing. He wasn’t very good. ^^’ We crossed the street and took some more pictures of the building. We also copied a picture we had made during our previous trip of Sydney, Yumi, Emilie and me posing in front of a wall, only this time I was alone, haha!
We decided to visit one last thing: Place de la République. During our previous trip it was under construction and we could only see the big monument in the distance, but I had seen on Facebook it was finished now! We really wanted to see the result.
We walked down the stairs into the metro station. My mom took a look at some shoes while I went to see where we had to go. I was lost for a moment, but only because I had the wrong line in mind! XD We took the metro to République and walked out of the station. The square was really crowded! A big stage was built on the right and people were waiting for the concert to begin I think.
My mom and I walked up to the new water feature: a little square with a one centimeter layer of rippling water. Lots of children were playing in it (and screaming, pfew)!
The water feature at Place de la République. You can see the monument in the distance.

I was quite annoyed by two boys who were bullying playing girls. I had to hold myself back not to say something about it (as If I could have talked to them in French anyway). Eventually it seemed like the boys made up with the girls, so it was okay.
I had gotten really tired and we decided to go back to the hotel. There, we took a shower, got dressed into our pajamas and took silly pictures in bed. Then we went to sleep. It had been another wonderful day!

2 comments:

  1. very beautiful post and pictures of u :3 thanks for showing us the places of Paris

    You had a great post in LÓpéra ♥

    ReplyDelete