Paris! (Day 2)

Got up in the morning and started planning the day. We decided we'd head to Les Champs-Élysées first to see L'Arc de Triomphe and to hit up Ladurée for les macarons.

Ended up feeling pretty hungry so we decided to sit down and eat lunch at Ladurée. Be forewarned! If you want to eat a meal here, just know that it's pretty expensive!!

Baby boy ordered the Omelette Concorde which had chicken, spinach, tomato, cucumber, fresh cream, and mustard along with a side of fries. I ordered the Salade Ladurée which had arugula, artichokes, green beans, fresh mozzerella, asparagus, sundried tomatoes, squash seeds, basil, and a dressing made of grapefruit and lemon olive oil. SUPER yummy.

omelette

huge salad

bread! and a roll of butter

des frites

After lunch, we headed downstairs to the bakery part so I could pick out some macaroons. I got two caramel (most popular flavor, and for good reason), two raspberry (Baby Boy wanted to try a raspberry one), chocolate, and coffee. I meant to get pistachio, but I forgot. The boy helping me must've thought I was stupid because I started off by saying, "Bonjour, je voudrais sept macarons, s'il-vous-plaît," (translation: I would like seven macaroons, please,") but I only asked for 6. Oops!

Then we walked along the Champs-Élysées and then headed into the city center to check out the Louvre, Notre Dame, Centre Pompidou, and Hôtel de Ville.

Hôtel de Ville

Notre Dame de Paris

Point Zero

Centre Pompidou

Louvre

Our appetizers

Duck confit

After all of the walking, we headed back to the hotel so that we could look up a place to head for dinner. We found a place that was zagat rated (the Royal Madeleine) but when we finally got there (got a bit lost on the way), it was fully booked! Since it was a Sunday night, most places were closed so we wandered around until we found this place, Madeleine 7. I had oysters (on my list of French foods to eat!) to start followed by duck confit. Baby Boy had goat cheese toast, duck fillet, and a cheese plate. The oysters were so good. They came with some sort of shallots and vinegar mixture to top them. They were really fresh and yummy. Both duck dishes were amazing as well. The duck fillet was super tender and the sauce was SO good - not sure what was in it. And the accompanying circular little hash browns were perfect. The duck confit had a perfectly crispy skin but wasn't too greasy or anything.

Cheese plate

duck fillet

blue lights!

After dinner, we took a few photos in front of La Madeleine (famous church) and then headed in the direction of the Louvre. We saw some bright blue lights and heard some music so we followed the lights assuming it was a club. Turned out the blue lights were for some sort of ice sculpture show. However, across the street, we saw pink lights and those turned out to be where the music was actually coming from. We investigated, hoping to get into some party, but it looked too ritzy and there were scary bouncers at the door so we sat on a park bench to enjoy the music for a bit before we headed back. On our way home, we stopped to take some photos while the Eiffel Tower was doing its light show again.

Tiny Eiffel Tower in the background

We were pretty tired, so we crossed Pont Alexander III (Alexander III Bridge), the most ornate bridge in all of Paris (by reputation) and made our way back to the hotel on the metro. But before going to bed, we stopped by a pub in the neighborhood and slammed a few beers before officially calling it a night.