Day 23

22 October 2022

Another rubbish night. At this rate I will sleep all the way back to Australia.

Not to be deterred, and as it was Saturday morning, it was eggs time. It was more an omelette than scrambled, but with the addition of the left over chevre from the other night it had an added tang. Very nice, and set us up for the day.

We had a date with Ella at the Eiffel Tower, not that Ella was aware of it. Ever since she was small, Kate had trained her to recognise the Paris landmarks, and she is now very keen on anything to do with Paris. This has been reinforced with such books as: “Clarice, The Chicest Mouse in Paris.”

So, we arrived at the Eiffel Tower at the appointed time, 10am our time and 6pm Ella’s time. We video called her. Andrew had obviously said we were going to call, but without saying why. We didn’t show her the Eiffel Tower at first, and she was perplexed as to why we called. We then turned the phone around and her expression was priceless…..her grin just kept expanding, it was so cute. Clearly excited, we chatted on and promised to get a photo of the Arc de Triomphe for her.

She wanted Notre Dame as well, and I told here to check out my blog has I had already posted photos there.

Next we headed basically next door along the Quai to the Musee du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac. It is a very cool building with the entire exterior a garden. Ex-President Chirac was a very keen student of world indigenous art, and hence his name is associated with the Musee.

The collection is extensive and we took audio guides to assist. There is a good section on Australia, but the PNG section is huge. There was also a special exhibition focusing on black America acknowledging indigenous Indians, which is the focus of Mardi Gras in New Orleans. It was an eye opener for me having this background, and also the history of slavery. France was far from innocent as regards the slavery movement.

It was certainly and exhausting morning, so we went in search of at least a coffee. We settled on what is probably an iconic café just over the Pont d’Alma, with a view back over the Seine with the Eiffel Tower behind. Bugger the coffee, gin for Kirsty and Campari spritz for me. Again, it was a hot and clear day, so the refreshments went down well. We were almost tempted to settle in for the afternoon.

But no, the street next to us was Ave. Montaigne. It houses many of the haut couture houses of Paris, so of course we need to stroll by (wallet firming locked into my pocket). I had no need to fear, each “House” had ques to enter, so Prada, Gucci, Dior, Armani, Jacquemus (no idea ?) YSL and Louis Vuitton missed out on our custom. We did venture into Moncler, which has out of this world ski gear and Kirsty almost bought a pair of sunnies. Given that anyone buying seemed to be getting champagne, we could have at least bought a T-shirt. May be next time.

As we were now on the Ave des Champs Elysée it was only fitting as tourists to walk up to the Arc de Triumph and take a photo for Ella. The only problem was that every other tourist and every Parisian had the same idea. It was packed. We made our goal, took the shot, crossed over and came down the “poor” side with all the usual stores: Nike, Adidas (where the que was massive) etc. We found a café down a side street that was not a tourist trap and had an easy salad late lunch.

Now for home. I was really starting to fade. We made it back to Place de Concorde, crossed it safely which is no minor feat, into the Tuileries and down to the Louvre. The crowds were even bigger on this part of the trip. We bailed into Rue de Rivoli and into the Metro and home as fast as we could. It was 5.30pm by the time we were pouring our first whisky.

Big day. No nap for me, but someone else is snoring as a type. Dinner at 8pm and then bed, hopefully this time for a decent nights sleep.