Saturday April 18th, 2009

A slow day as it was raining and we were feeling in a bit of a rut. Manaen picked up croissants and treats from the patisserie while I was getting ready and we enjoyed them at the apartment in front of the news - which is all we get in English on our TV.

Had originally planned to spend the day at Champs Elysee and the Arc du Triomphe, but we had to adapt those plans due to the weather. We decided to check out the opera house, Palais Garnier, and get a tour of the interior. We arrived and the tour guide had gone on lunch and wouldn't be back until 2pm! Which was 1hr 30minutes after we arrived. Oh well! 4 Euros each instead. The décor is so gaudy but it was marvelous to picture ladies in their crinoline dresses and men in their formal attire walking up the grand staircase. Everything is very dark and depressing though - deep reds, blacks and golds.

In total, we spent about an hour walking around, admiring the craftsman ship of the marble floors and wall/ceiling décor. Then back on the rainy sidewalks to explore the area. There were some neat but large clothing stores, including a high end department store that reminded us of Holt Renfrew. The temperature of the store was unbearable though! It was so hot compared to outside and I got tired of it quickly. We left the store in search of something to eat/drink but had a very hard time finding anywhere with coffee under 5 euros!! Argh. Was so sick of the rain, it started coming down pretty hard, so we ducked into a Starbucks for coffee and a snack. We sat there for a little while trying to decide what to do but came up blank. Finally decided to go back to the apartment and google "rainy day in Paris" hehehe.

On our way out of the Metro station near the apartment, we decided to explore the main street near our place, and after a few store fronts, stumbled upon this amazing store called "Merci". It's a modern, eclectic mix of vintage clothing, designer labels, one off furniture pieces and home décor items. It also had a used book section with a café, a little restaurant downstairs, a perfume bar and a flower shop. Cool!! I bought a second hand book and we headed towards a tights shop I had been eyeing since we arrived. The Parisian girls here are so stylish, and many of them wear hosiery under skirts, pants and even shorts with ankle boots. But not just normal tights - they have great floral patterns on them! On the way to the store, we ducked into a few high end, original clothing boutiques. I bought a wonderful shirt that was very expensive but will be my "Paris" piece. It's black, super flattering and unique. Also found an idea for a necklace that I can make at home and save myself the 30 Euros. We also purchased a wonderful green tea from Palais dus Thes (the stupid sales lady wouldn't let me take any photos of their tea shop though!! How rude - due to "marketing" purposes. Come on... if a competitor wants to know how you style your shop they can just walk into it!!!). Bought the tights from the store and back to the apartment we went.

Decided on a night in - we will take advantage of the weather and get to bed early in preparation for a busy and hopefully SUNNY few days ahead. Still sleeping badly and last night's plan didn't work, so back to one of us being on the floor - how romantic… NOT.

Manaen was craving Pizza hut since we saw a guy with boxes the other day, so he went off in search of Pepperoni. I tried to rent a movie but couldn't sign up for a membership because my credit card doesn't have a chip, and therefore no pin number. Oh well! We are watching a black and white burnt version of Lord of the Rings, Two Towers that we found in the cupboard here.

Hopefully tomorrow is a better day. Although we did find some great stores and made some very Parisian purchases, we weren't able to take full advantage of the city due to weather.

Pray for sunshine!

Love,

Kate