Sunday 12/30/18
Galleries Lafayette and Dinner
The 30th was all about getting our return train tickets purchased. That was the BIGGEST concern on my mind because we had to get back to England to get on our return flight to the U.S. And Paris is a long way from London. We did not eat our 30 euros breakfast (we got coffee, but no breakfast - coffee was free). We walked to the subway station which was just up the bank of the river and across the street from our hotel and took a taxi to the Paris Nord train station. At the Eurostar office, I was told (with no sympathy at all) that there were no reservations for the Eurostar to London. In fact, there were no available seats to return to London until the 4th. That did us no good whatsoever. Great. We walked to a nearby restaurant for lunch where we got to sit and discuss our options which included booking plane tickets to England or booking a ferry across the English Channel. Plus, we got to have a great lunch at a small French cafe. We made our decision; and after lunch, we walked back to the train station to use the wifi to book our return trip to London via train and ferry, plus a hotel for one night in Canterbury.With our return to England secured, we had the rest of the day to fill. We walked to the opera house (very long walk for Momma but we took it slow and stopped as often along the way as she needed) and the Galleries Lafayette (which is directly across the street from the opera house). Being a huge opera fan, I would have loved to have gone to an actual opera while in Paris; but I did not work out those details in time and opera really takes up a lot of a single night so we had many other things to do than an opera). We would have liked to have at least taken a tour of the opera house, but it was closing by the time we got there. A man at the door turned us away... so we went into the mall.
Galleries Lafayette was very crowded. That was both discouraging as well as encouraging. We felt like we had to see what everyone else was seeing. Walking in (after we decided which entrance to take), we were immediately bombarded with shoppers and tourists. We were practically shoulder to shoulder with hordes of people. We walked through the center with the floating Christmas tree of presents and ornaments and then to the elevator as we wanted to go to the top for the view.
The elevator wait took FOREVER. Troy took the stairs. I took the escalator. Kayla and Momma took the elevator. We all, eventually, met on the roof which had a large viewing area of Paris and an outdoor bar under globes to keep you out of the cold. The wait for the globes was over an hour so we made our round of the terrace and then back downstairs. It was great, though, seeing the view.
After the mall, we went to Christina and Milan's apartment. We went by taxi but it took a good bit of time to find a taxi outside of the mall - there were so many people, all trying to get a taxi at the same time. Once we finally got a taxi, it was a pretty short ride. Our taxi driver was a young guy from Paris with a brother in New York City. I paid him in US dollars which I do not think he appreciated because he said he guessed he could save it for a trip to see his brother. I offered credit card, but he took the dollars and we all got out of the car onto a side street with no lights - like a dark alley (but, hey, we were a group).
Milan and Christina's apartment was just a couple of blocks from the Arch de Triumph (on the dark alley where we were dropped off by taxi). The two of them had just gotten back from shopping. We chatted with them and their little girl while we waited for Milan's mother to arrive. Milan's mother's long-time friend and her daughter and son arrived first. It was great to see that they were all so close and had not seen each other in quite a while. There was a lot of French going around. They went between English and French often so we got the jest of the conversations.
Once Milan's mother arrived, we went to dinner with them to an Italian place a block or two from the Arch de Triumph. We had walked to another two places, but they did not like the first place and the second place did not have room. The Italian pizza place was only a block from the second place. Momma was very tired but she troopered through.
A quick note about the walk to the restaurant: Paris has had several weeks of riots leading up to our trip. We have all been watching it on the news the whole time. The yellow vest rebels are rioting about higher fuel prices, poor education options, worsening cost of living expenses and a lot more again Macron's current government. We never witnessed a riot while we were in Paris, but we did see a lot of broken store front windows as we walked from the apartment to the restaurant. And after dinner, we saw a lot of plywood being nailed over store front windows in preparation for new year's eve the next day. The riots did get worse after our trip and we are glad that we got to see Paris without the riots and we wish the best for Paris and France and its citizens - all of whom treated us with hospitality, respect and kindness during our entire trip.
After dinner, the three of us took a taxi with Christina, Milan and Milan's mother back to our hotel for drinks and to show off the hotel and Christina was all about going to a disco. We had a great couple of bottles of wine and we were going to the nightclubs; but being Sunday, all of the surrounding nightclubs were closed for the evening. We had lost track of days on this trip and had no idea it was Sunday. It was for the best anyway. We had a long night the next night for New Year's Eve and Milan and Christina wanted to get back to their daughter. Everyone went home; and we, gladly, went to bed.
These next few photos are of us walking around the Paris opera house.
These next photos are of the Galleries Lafayette. In this first pic, you can see the globes on the rooftop terrace.
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| See the rooftop globes top right. The wait was too long. Eiffel Tower is in the distance. |
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| Disney at Galleries Lafayette! |
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| Arch de Triumphe |
Page 2: London to Paris on the Eurostar
Page 3: Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower
Page 4: The Louvre and the Petit Palais
Page 5: Galleries Lafayette and Dinner
Page 6: New Year's Eve in Paris
Page 8: Our Last Day in England
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