Encore Paris - Jour 2

While planning this time around, Jul, Amandine and I all agreed - we'd each done most of the important touristy things in Paris, this time we were going to EAT and SHOP!!! And we stuck to this promise, MUHAHAHAHA!!!!

In the spirit of our declaration, we started off by walking down the street to a close cafe/boulangerie - Fauchon - for breakfast!

Jul gets into the Asian spirit.

Amandine being cute.

Nom nom nom!

After our epic breakfast, we decided to head towards Boulevard Haussmann towards the Grands Magains to get in our shopping. I mean, we could have turned the other way and gone towards Place Vendome but you know...anyway, I ended up buying a big down coat for winter and a pair of black stacked heel mary janes that should be easier to walk in on the Munich cobblestones! We also went into Uniqlo but it was so full of people and queues that we didn't get any thermals or merino jackets :(


Eventually we went home exhausted by the huge number of crowds on the streets - I had forgotten the craziness of the shopping crowds and traffic leading up to Christmas on Boulevard Haussmann. Which are of course inflated by people stopping on the street to look at the Christmas lights and windows of Printemps and Galeries Lafayette. It sent me back 7 years!

Eventually we stopped to recharge our batteries before heading out to dinner at our restaurant in the Latin Quarter. But we decided to walk there and admire the city by night :D Our route took us down Rue Saint-Honore and through the Cour Carrousel

Where we saw this monkey guy hanging out of the Musee des Arts Decoratifs

...and the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel + friend

So purdy

Walking along the Quai Francois Mitterand, we took a load of photos of the buildings lining the river,

and of the great view of the Institut de France all lit up...

and of things in the distance.

We chose to cross the river at the Pont des Arts and saw all the lovers locks,

posed like Asians,

and admired the view of Pont Neuf and the Ile de la Cite from here. 

We continued along and joined all the other tourists admiring Notre Dame

and the lovely full Christmas tree outside. 

And continued along while every now and then looking down the little alleys of the Latin Quarter.

We then ate a huge dinner which will be recounted in another post. After dinner, we chose to walk back again but I also saw this for all the Harry Potter fans...

HELLS YEAH!!!