Today I decided to go in search of a flea market that was recommended in my Lonely Planet however when I came out of the metro station it was almost as if I had taken a plane and flown to Africa instead of twenty minutes on the metro! The difference between this suburb and the others that I have seen in Paris was just astounding - everywhere I looked there were run down buildings and rubbish on the footpath... I had a quick look for the flea market but all I could see were people selling a few random items on a towel on the ground such as one old pair of sandshoes, a packet of coat hangers and a couple of cans of deodorant. It definitely felt like being back in Asia (I guess I could say like being in Africa, if I had been there) I received lots of stares walking around and seemed to be one of the only white people in the area, so I quickly hopped back on the metro and headed for the centre of Paris. I will go back one day and see if I can discover the good part of the market!

I picked a random metro station to get off at, I knew I was somewhere in the vicinity of the Champs Élysées though. It was lovely (probably my favourite thing about Paris) being able to pick a direction and just wander until I spotted something that made me want to change direction - with this method I came across an amazing view of the Eiffel Tower, an amusing attempt at romantic wedding photography, place de la Concorde and finally the Champs Élysées and L'Arc de Triomphe! I attempted to do some shopping on the Champs Élysées but after getting excited and choosing a few things to buy I discovered that I can't use my travel money card there because it doesn't have my name on it grrrr! I had of course left my credit card at the house and so had to leave empty handed. I searched for an ATM but couldn't find one so instead decided to climb the L'Arc de Triomphe - some of my strongest memories from my last trip to Paris are in and around the Arc so I was excited to see if it was as I remembered. Unfortunately the lifts to go to the top were broken, so the line was not moving as everyone had to take the stairs - feeling restless and impatient I gave up after only a few minutes and added it to the list of things to come back to later in the year, which is actually starting to be quite a long list.

I then spotted the much talked about Ladurée store and decided that I had better see what all of the fuss was about, of course there was another long line there which resulted in another episode of restlessness and me leaving, I decided that they couldn't be that good... but I will get some at some point!

I didn't think that I remembered anything from my last trip to the Champs Élysées, until I saw the Disney store - which brough memories flooding back of the Disney Princess alarm clock that I desperately wanted. Dad told me I had to wait until we were back in Paris after the rest of our Europe trip so that we didn't have to carry it around everywhere - predictably it wasn't there two months later.... poor Dad there seem to have been a number of these incidents throughout my childhood (most notably the Tweety Bird showbag...) Anyway eleven years later there was still no sign of the alarm clock, so my plan to demand the money for it from Dad failed ;)

I then decided to head to La Défence which is the modern part of the city with the (rather ugly in my opinion) Grande Arche so I walked for ages and then gave up and caught the metro there - five hours of almost non stop walking had already occurred by this point, so I was pretty tired! It felt like I was walking around Brisbane when I got there - it was the heat combined with the modern buildings and rather spacious feeling I think- definitely not like I was in Paris! Until of course I reached the top of the steps under the Arche and had the fantastic view looking back towards L'Arc de Triomphe!

Six long, exhausting, frustrating yet amazing hours after leaving I finally arrived home and was instantly greeted by big smiles, shouts of hello and cuddles which made me quickly forget how tired I was :)