Cafe L'imperial, Sept. 29, 2014
Yes, that's how Yvette and I spent our last day in Paris. Gifts for loved ones back home were top priority on today's agenda. We began our day by hopping the Metro and heading for the Arc de Triumphe. From there, we found a little pastry shop--really a franchise place called Brioche Doree--where I had the most yummy bread thing with chocolate and Yvette ate (you won't believe this!) a personal-size PIZZA!! She munched that thing down with every bit as much pleasure as I did with my bread-chocolate thing. Thus fortified, we began the long walk down the Champs Elysee.
While it had apparently rained a little in the night and the skies were somewhat overcast, the temperature outside and, even more so inside the stores, soared to what must have been 80+ degrees Fahrenheit. What's with these people and their need for heat? And, while I'm sweating buckets and wishing I could take off all my clothes and swim in the Seine, Parisians are swearing scarves and jackets. I think these people need a taste of Sacramento in the summer to attain some perspective.
Beautiful art nouveau Laduree - guess who got a
gift from here, Vanessa Rodriguez?
Taking a right on Rue Franklin D. Roosevelt, we made our way to the river for some picture taking. Heading toward the Place Concorde, we re-visited some of the shops on the Rue Rivoli that we had visited before. More gifts bought (and, well, I bought myself a new wallet as well), including some original artwork for a certain gal-pal at home who, I hope, will understand the decision to chose this particular piece of art when it is presented to her. Yvette did not help me chose, so I'm hoping against hope that I did all right.
A statue of Lafayette donated by the
"schoolchildren of the United States"
Now we're, of course, sitting in a little cafe at the corner of the Rue Rivoli and Rue Rouget De L'isle, cafe creme to drink and macaroons from Angelina's to eat. We haven't quite decided what we're going to do with the rest of our evening here, but I hope its early to bed to catch out 9:00 a.m. plane back to San Francisco.
More later....
After I wrote the above lines from L'Imperial, we sat at the cafe for quite some time, enjoying what seemed to be a little personal fashion show for our benefit. Of course, it was Fashion Week in Paris. We saw women (and a few men) in all kinds of fashionable garb, with some spectacular shoes. Funny, we also saw a "Maddie hat," reminiscent of Maddie's black hat with the little red cat ears. This hat was blue--but it had little ears on top. Now when Papa teases Maddie about her hat, she can assure him that it is the latest thing in Paris fashion.
A walk along the river
After leaving Rue Rivoli, with people in amazing clothes, shoes, and hats, we had the bright idea to walk to the Eiffel Tower, perhaps to find a place to have dinner where we could see the Tower lights at night. Here Yvette learned the lesson that's on all side mirrors on cars--objects may appear closer than they actually are. Damn, that was some walk. I couldn't say how many miles we trudged, but the distance was considerable. Nevertheless, we made it. We walked under the Tower and up the Trocadero. On the other side, we scored a fabulous table at the Trocadero Cafe, where we watched as night fell and the Tower lit up. Dinner was fabulous--ravioli for me and a cheeseburger and fries for Yvette (and she got teased about it by our waiter).
She looks like a postcard, doesn't she?
We were nearly through with dinner when it began to rain. At first, it seemed we would stay completely dry, even though we were sitting at the edge of the canopy. The rain really started coming down, and we schooched our table back further under the canopy. Our poor waiter--he was literally dodging raindrops while bringing around the almond cake we had for dessert.
Tomorrow--flight home.
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