The trip part 10

As soon as we arrived in Paris it was if everything became easier and much more user friendly again. We had splashed out for a private shuttle to collect us from Orly airport to our hotel. Yes, we had a man standing, waiting for us with a little whiteboard with our name on it. How special are we huh? He was such a nice driver too, he loved explaining to us the city sites as we made our way to the city. He even gave us a few handy French words to use, he was great. Our hotel was in the (we found out later the upmarket bit)7th district, between the Hotel Invalides (the big old army hospital) and the Eiffel Tower which we could see from our sixth floor window. Awesome. The whole notion of French people being rude and arrogant is unfounded. I was last in France 4 years ago and for a much longer period of time, and could've said the same thing back then. We always found everyone to be extremely helpful and pleasant, unlike some of the Barcelona locals who really thought their shit didn't stink at all. Miss R and I wandered around Paris during the afternoon, walked up the Champs de Elysee for a bit of gawk and then found ourselves a little cafe near the hotel. Anyone who knows me knows that of all the desserts in all of the world, I simply cannot get enough of Creme Brulee. And here we were in ground zero of Creme Brulee. Miss R bet that I couldn't eat one at every restaurant we went to during our stay, but I did, and these weren't your little ramekin ones either, these were practically served in breakfast bowls. Outstanding really. I wonder if a city can ever reach a restaurant critical mass. Paris seemed to have one on every street corner and in between as well, and yet they were all busy, even on a Tuesday night. We found ourselves on another tourist bus the next day, an easy way to get around to be sure, but again, the headphone commentary was rubbish at best. But it's a good way to see everything and to get around. We started at the Eiffel Tower, dodging the super dodgy street merchants trying to flog the crappest of all tourist tat imaginable. There really is too much to explain to go into any great detail, but Paris is simply stunning, really it is. If you see a gold topped dome on a church, the Hotel Invalides, or the old Opera House, it isn't paint, it's actual gold leaf, and it really shows. We stopped off at Gallerie Lafayette, which is quite simply a staggering temple to consumer-dom. We're talking umpteen floors of department store madness here, and we're not talking your $10 home brand tracky dacks here. All the high end stuff was to be found, from Gucci, YSL, Prada, Versace, Chanel...just staggering. I'm not sure how many people were actually in there to buy anything as opposed to just having a good ol sticky beak at how the other half live. A $350 t-shirt...come on, that's just silly. We got on the bus and off again half way along the Champs and found ourselves walking back to the hotel through some very exclusive streets. We bought some very very high end chocolate from a lovely chocolatier who was very excited about us being Australian. According to him "I simply luuurve Australians, you are always so happy." Warms the heart really huh? We ended up having dinner at a restaurant next door to the hotel which, from what I thought, were pretty reasonable main meal prices. Yet, the bill came to a staggering €75.00!! I was amazed, yet they had pinged us for coffees that were €4.50 each...yes, that's almost A$9.00....for a coffee....boggles the mind that people over there can afford anything.