On our final day in Paris the sunshine came out again and we spent the day strolling down the tree-lined Champs Élysées. This time we walked nearly the full length, starting at the Grand Palais which is used as a convention/exhibition centre. Although the Grand Palais has a little bit of interesting history e.g. used as a hospital in WW2, occupied by Nazis as a truck depot etc, no one was really in the mood to go in. After such a busy few days of monuments and museums I think we all wanted a day to just wander modern Paris and do a little window shopping.

I would have loved to do some real shopping, but we are being conscious of our budget and trying to keep the shopping to a minimum. Also, most of the stores along Champs Élysées are pretty fancy - you could spend a fortune here. It's very much a place to see and be seen, and enjoy a little extravagance. Point in case - the Abercrombie and Fitch store. We approached some large iron and gold gates flanked by security and assumed it was a ritzy apartment building or hotel, until we saw the store sign and noticed the two preppy guys greeting people at the gate. We wandered through the gates and up a hedge lined, perfectly raked white pebble path to reach the large golden doors, where more preppys greeted us and a shirtless male model posed for Polaroids with customers. Through the doors and we have four floors of perfectly folded polo shirts to explore, at every counter there is a model with perfectly crafted hair working the register and here and there, hired dancers have grins plastered on their faces and occasionally 'whoop whoop' as they dance. All a bit bizarre, excessive and artificial, but it gave us a bit of a giggle!

We saw a few more of the car showrooms including Renault, Citroen and Toyota with hybrids and electric cars being the main feature, browsed the Virgin megastore, stopped for a cheap and nasty 'Quick' meal (fast food), and checked out the Lamboughinis and Ferraris for hire on the side of the road.

I also visited the most touristic toilets ever! I paid 50 cents to enter (hey, when you gotta go...), then queued in a foyer lined with drinks, snacks and souvenirs, while the lady in front of me photographed the Mona Lisa poster framed on the wall (really lady?!), cleaners went in to each stall with their mops and sprays after every single visitor and a valet escorted me to a toilet. Really, really strange!

We went home to pack for our departure the following day, and then went to a restaurant called the 'Madelaine' for dinner and something I'd been dreading - to try frogs legs and escargot (snails). I'm not a particularly fussy eater but I do have a bit of trouble with food that has a funky texture or food that can stare me down! They didn't end up having any froggies (phew) but we tried escargot and it was actually quite tasty! A little chewy but not the slimy sensation I'd feared, nor were there any little antennas/eyeballs peering at me. Our waiter was a little abrupt bordering on rude, the first and only time we'd experienced this, but the food was good and we had a little in house entertainment from a Frenchman on a date two tables across, who seemed to find everything hilarious and laughed at max volume like the Count from Sesame Street. It was both awful and funny, and probably a first date deal breaker..poor guy.

Paris has definitely exceeded my expectations. It wasn't high on my list as I'd heard more negative reviews than positive and thought it may just be one big tourist trap, but I really did enjoy this city. There is so much to see, a very rich history and culture, and we would need much more time to get around to it all. I found the people to be really nice and willing to help, it was not overly crowded and was very easy to get around on the metro. A little expensive in general but not as much as I'd expected - groceries were reasonable except for red meat, alcohol was cheap from the grocery store but expensive in bars/restaurants. The city is filled with music (so many talented buskers), with beautiful food in delicatessens and patisseries, and the streets are lined with cafe after cafe - all the chairs lined up facing outwards for people watching. Unfortunately many of the streets are also dotted with homeless people, it broke my heart to see the number of children and even babies sleeping on the street and it has me wondering what sort of social welfare is available here. The streets can also be a little smelly, at times worse than Bangkok, but overall quite clean for such a large population and there are lots of parks and green space to relax in.

All in all a wonderful start to our adventure! From here we join Busabout, which is a hop on hop off bus network that allows us to be flexible with where and how long we stay. This is mostly how we will be getting around in combination with a few trains, ferries and a couple of flights. Next stop - Lauterbrunnen in Switzerland!

Au Revoir Paris!

Liss xox