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We looked outside our window this morning to see warm blue skies and a market set up underneath the railway tracks. While shopping for groceries at the supermarket the previous night had been a painful ordeal, the opportunity to mingle with the locals at the stall selling fresh produce, breads, meats, seafood and miscellaneous items was not to be missed.

There were sea urchins and snails, bbq chickens and ducks, an amazing variety of apples and the nicest looking tomatoes that you’ve ever seen. Tiny strawberries and clementines with the leaves left attractively on top. We stopped at this stall and that, filling up our pantry though we only have a couple of days to eat it all. And it was only a few metres away from the apartment.
Our menus du jour at the Bistrot Pierrot across the street were so much better than the day before’s and we felt a little Parisian taking our time to savour them and watch the world unfold outside the window. Until Alex dropped his glass of water on the floor during dessert. Oh well.

Every trip has a shopping day for B and this was the day. The area around us has lots of chain stores like H&M, Gap and Pimkie right next door to us. But, possibly due to this being a long weekend, they were all closed. The Champs Elysee was sure to be open, so we caught the overhead metro across the river Seine, past the Eiffel Tower, to the Arc d’Triomphe. Though we didn’t climb up this time, at least Alex will be able to recognise this monument in his books.

The Champs Elysee was throbbing with shoppers, many tourists, and a group of red cloaked Christians, and most definitely open for business. B finally found her perfect spectacles, which meant that we had to hang around for a few hours while they were prepared. Alex fell asleep in my arms, but was awake for our entrance into the Men’s Hell that is Sephora. He, of course, wanted to do face painting, while B squeezed through the throngs to purchase the cheap, but high quality makeup.


Everything done we caught a train along the same line, stopping at Bir-Hakeim and walking to the dramatically lit Eiffel Tower. The waiting times were too long to catch a ride to the top – maybe tomorrow. We hung around long enough to enjoy the strobe light show on the hour, before walking the now cold streets back to the apartment and a dinner from the morning’s market.