Today was another major expedition, this time walking to the
Champs-Elyseés, Arc de Triomphe, Tuilleries Gardens, Place de la Concorde and
the Eiffel Tower. We are really enjoying walking through Paris, admiring the
buildings and just seeing the difference in the neighbourhoods. We have
probably heard more African and Indian being spoken than French. In fact, in
many respects, you could think you were in any large city in the world, with
only French writing on the buildings betraying you are in France. It’s quite
astonishing how you can be in an Indian neighbourhood in one block, cross the
road and find you are surrounded by very dark Africans, or more olive skinned
Algerians. We are also intrigued by the
differences in body shapes and sizes among the different cultures.
We have enjoyed being in Paris again, it’s exactly 30 years
since we were here last time! We again found the Eiffel Tower amazing, but were
rather disappointed with the Champs-Elyseés. Last time we remembered it as
being lined with highly exclusive stores, targeting the rich and famous in
Paris. Now, there is just as likely to be a 10€
store (equivalent of our $2 shop I guess), McDonalds, cheaper clothes shops
offering 70% discounts, or a pizza place interspersed with major showrooms of
Peugeot and Mercedes, or designer stores like Versace. We were looking out for
chic Parisians out on the prowl for designer clothes but failed to spy any.
Caught a metro home and back by the very reasonable hour of
5pm. Just perfect to have a glass or two of our rosé which is sitting in the
fridge. We have to get through it within the next 2 days. John is trying
manfully but I am already over my limit with just one glass – I guess a small
homemade salad for lunch hasn’t given me much freeboard. We plan to be
extravagant tonight and go to another Indian restaurant for dinner.
We have been having muesli for breakfast each morning, brought
with us from Céret. It is really hard to find any cereals here that aren’t
about 90% sugar and/or chocolate (slight exaggeration). However, we ran out of
muesli today so had to find a replacement at the local superette. We ended up
with “Cruesli” (i.e. crunchy muesli) that is crammed full of chocolate chunks.
The good news is that the chocolate is 65% cocoa though, so obviously it’s ‘good’
chocolate. Clearly. We think the French just
don’t do cereals – they have croissants or pain
au chocolat (like a croissant with chocolate filling) with coffee for
breakfast and that’s it.
