Paris, Day 8 – Jardin du Luxembourg and Last Time Shopping

On Thursday morning we woke up on time to have breakfast and then pack all of our things. This was our last day in Paris! :( I always get worried whether everything fits in my bags or not. Especially now, since my bag was pretty full already and I had to put an entire extra dress set in! But I managed. :3

Packing, packing, packing~!
We dragged our suitcases into the hall and I checked the room one last time. We took our stuff downstairs and while my mom sat down on one of the cute chairs, I checked us out. I asked the nice lady behind the desk if we could stall our luggage somewhere until the end of the afternoon. We followed her into the courtyard garden and stalled our luggage in a special room there. We thanked her and then left the hotel, where we took our last outfit pictures of our trip.

Outfits of the day!
We had decided to visit a place we had never been before on this day: Jardin du Luxembourg, a garden which was supposed to be really pretty, so we wanted to check it out. But before that we decided to go to Montmartre so my mom could buy some last things there. We crossed the street to get some money at the bank and then we crossed the street another time to look at the cute bakery’s pastries one last time. We walked into the metro station and took the metro to Abbesses. Since it was still early, the streets weren’t very crowded yet. We walked past a shop that was all about angels and cherubs and they had the most beautiful cameo necklaces. My mom and I doubted about buying one together, so we decided to wait to see if we made other purchases that day. We also passed a shop with lots of cute cards.
We arrived at the Sacré Coeur hill and walked into the shopping street, where we bought chocolates at Georges Larnicol. My mom had been waiting a year to buy her favourite chocolate mussels again! The guy behind the counter was very good-looking by the way. *_*

Our chocolates~! ♥
We quickly found the store we had discovered last year: it sells all kind of cute things, from stationary to touristic key chains. My mom had seen a beautiful pink, Paris-themed serving tray there and she regretted not buying it, so we went back to see if it was still there! While my mom walked around the store, I admired all the adorable Ladurée items they had! Everything was so expensive, but so cute! ;_;
My mom quickly found the serving tray (which seemed even more beautiful than last time), but doubted about buying it again! I do admit it was a bit pricy, but they came in multiple shapes and sizes with this theme. I convinced my mom she would regret it again if she didn’t take it, so eventually she took one size smaller than planned. She uses it a lot now. ^^
We left the shop and I bought some touristic jewelry at a shop nearby. I bought a necklace, bracelet and earrings I believe. We decided we were done in Montmartre and walked down the steep street to metro station Anvers, where it was suuuper crowded. Suddenly I spotted a Photomaton and since we wanted to take pictures, we ignored the crowds. But unfortunately I did something wrong, because the machine took only one picture which got printed 16 times, all very small. Oops! -_- I was not very pleased with that. Oh well, at least I took a funny picture with some Wolverine posters.
We took the metro to a station near Jardin du Luxembourg, but when we got out it took me a while to figure out where to go. This was a part of Paris we had never been before, so I needed all my concentration to find out how to walk. Luckily we went the right way. ^^
We arrived at a gate with a sign that said ‘Jardin du Luxembourg’ and walked in. Jardin du Luxembourg is supposed to have a castle and lots of recreational facilites. And of course lots of trees and flowers.

My mom enjoying the park.
There were lots of statues around, but none were really exceptionally beautiful to me. I did really like the playground we passed. It looked like a lot of fun! Children could also ride around in little cars, so cool!
After walking for a while, we arrived at a very big open space and to our left, we could see the palace! It was so beautiful! The sun was quite bright and reflected a lot from the ground, so I was glad I was wearing my hat. ^^ Before we went to the palace, my mom took some lovely pictures of me with our red polkadotted umbrella.

There were a lot of these beautiful flower pots. Great photo material!
We walked around for a bit and took lots of nice pictures. There were many brightly-coloured flowers everywhere. They were so pretty!

Some of the beautiful flowers in Jardin du Luxembourg.
We walked up to the palace. There was a really big, round pond in front of it where children could play with boats. There was a little stall where you could rent a wooden boat with the flag of a country on it that you could use for a certain amount of time. There was no remote, you had to push the boat away with a long stick. It was really fun to see the children play, without electronics or machines, just having fun with their boats. The boats didn’t sink, so they just sailed around the pond, passing ducks that couldn’t care less about them.
After watching the children play for a while, we decided to take some pictures. If I may say so, I took quite a nice picture of my mom!

My mom in front of the Luxembourg Palace!
We sat down on two chairs for a little while (we could see both the Eiffeltower and Tour Montparnasse), while I checked the map to see what the best route would be to the Lolita shops, since we wanted to go there one last time (it was my mom’s idea, I swear)! We left our chairs and walked in the direction of the exit. We wanted to take some pictures around another beautiful flower pot, but some old people were taking ages taking theirs. After what seemed ages, they finally left. I wonder what was so special that took so long to take pictures of?
We walked to the exit (passing a woman who was enjoying her coffee while her two cute doggies were sleeping ♥) and we left the park.
We walked past two ice cream cars that had like a million flavours and several amazing photographs of the Tour de France through the years. They were really amazing! *_* We also saw the Panthéon not so far in the distance.
We crossed the street and quickly visited a cute bakery (with outrageous prices) and then went on our way to the metro. We walked for quite a while and finally we found the station. My mom bought some drinks at a machine, but the machine gave her too much money back. She gave it to a homeless man. ^^
We walked to the right platform and waited. Soon the metro arrived and we sat down. We had to ride quite a while, so we made ourselves comfortable in our seats. Across from us sat a mother with her baby and I have to admit: it was the cutest baby I had ever seen! She was sooo sweet! She had two band aids on her arms, so I think she had just gotten her shots, but she looked really happy nonetheless!
We finally arrived at Ledru Rollin, when I suddenly realised there is a great Photomaton there! We took pictures again (with Amélie), but this time we made sure we chose the right option!

My mom with our new pictures!
We left the metro station and while I went into McDonald’s to use the toilet (where I had to wait for ages), my mom waited outside. A very old couple passed her by, she said they looked really sweet together. ♥
We walked for a while until we reached the Baby shop. ^^

The beautiful Baby shop window!
Claire was there of course and she welcomed us. ^^ Nothing had really changed, but because I had been there last time without my mom, now I could show her everything I had seen. I showed her all the lovely bags (she didn’t like the coffin bag at all), accessories (my mom really wants me to buy a bonnet someday), dresses and blouses. I also showed her the beautiful sax blue lace dress (called ‘Dreaming Sherbet’) that I absolutely adored. Unfortunately, it was very expensive and way over my budget. My mom really loved it too. Later she told me that if it hadn’t been so expensive, she would have bought it for me! N’awww! ;_; ♥

My mom with one of the blouses she really liked! I think she matched it quite well with her outfit!
I browsed around for a while, but nothing (other than the sax blue dress) caught my attention. We talked a little with Claire about the Tea Party and before we left, I asked her for a picture.

With Claire! We kind of matched!
We left the shop and took some pictures in front of the windows! My mom wanted to be in a picture too this time, hihi! ^^

In front of the Baby, the Stars Shine Bright store~! ♥
Suddenly I saw Sawada-san (smoking), so I walked up to him and thanked him again for the wonderful Tea Party! Hopefully again next year..?
We walked down the Avenue Ledru Rollin until we reached the Rue Keller. We soon arrived at Angelic Pretty, but it was closed! We read on the door that it would open again at 3:30 pm and since it was almost time we waited. We didn’t have to wait for long, because soon Dominique arrived and let us in. ^^
My mom looked around (she really loved the Angelic Pretty shop with all the old toys for decoration) and I showed her the Promenade de Paris print. She really liked it as well. ^^ She also loved the Drained Cherry dresses a lot! We didn’t only browse the AP section, we also took a look at the other dresses, shirts and cardigans they had to offer, from for example MILK and Tralala. I tried on two really sweet cutsews, but unfortunately they were not made for me. Oh well. ^^
While we were busy, a mother and daughter came in and we started talking a bit. They were German but they lived in Norway and they were really nice! I gave the girl the link to my blog. ^^ We also talked with Dominique for a while.
Meanwhile, I browsed the shop to see if I wanted to buy something. Eventually I decided on a pink and blue 6% Dokidoki bracelet and the blue and pink Heart Lollipop necklace from Angelic Pretty. Both would match my new dress really well. ^^ I went to pay for them (Dominique gave me two postcards with my purchase), thanked Dominique again for the wonderful Tea Party and then we left.

Purchase picture!
We decided to eat something heavy now, as we wouldn’t really have time for dinner because of the train ride back home. We quickly decided to have a Croque Madame at the café we had been two years ago again. We walked back to Avenue Ledru Rollin and quickly found the café. We sat down on the terrace and ordered two Croque Madames, an orange juice and a lemon juice. When the food arrived, I tried my mom’s lemon juice. It was so sour! It didn’t understand how she could like something like that at all! XD My orange juice was wonderful by the way. ^^

Our delicious Croque Madames with Emmental cheese!
While we were eating, my mom asked me where my cardigan was. Then I realised I had left it in the Angelic Pretty dressing room! Stupid me! After we finished our food, we went back to the shop. When we arrived there, the door was closed! Suddenly, Cocotte appeared around the corner and I quickly told her what happened. She called for Dominique (who was just walking away from the shop) and he quickly let me in to get my cardigan. I felt so stupid, having to say goodbye twice. ^^’ Oh well.
My mom and I walked to the big Bastille square, where we took some pictures of the monument and then walked into the metro.

Taking the metro from Bastille.
We arrived at our transfer station and suddenly, while we were walking, we heard music. My mom and I looked at each other and we realised it was the group of musicians we had heard two years ago! My mom really regretted not buying their cd and last year she kept listening if she heard them. And now we found them by accident! We followed the sound and quickly found the men! We kept listening for a while and my mom finally bought their cd. ^^
We continued our way back to the hotel, where we picked up our things. We said goodbye to the neighbourhood (;_;) and then dragged our stuff through the metro. It wasn’t far to Gare du Nord, but it’s still a terrible job.
We finally arrived at the station and while I waited, my mom went to get some drinks and food. Soon after she was gone, our train number was called and we could go to the platform. My mom returned and we walked to our train. We entered the train, stalled our bags, sat down and just relaxed. Not long after, the train departed and we said goodbye to Paris.
Not much happened after that. We had an incredibly annoying child behind us (stupid parents as well), we ate our delicious cakes, my mom slept, I listened to music and after a few hours we arrived back at Amsterdam Central (of course, no delay now -_-). We had a bit of trouble finding my dad (thank you everlasting constructions) who came to pick us up and then we went home.
It had been a magical trip I will never forget!!!

This was my last Paris 2013 post! Thank you all so much for reading about my adventures! I hope you enjoyed them! All of your comments were so nice! ♥
Thank you for staying with me~!

Paris, Day 7 – Notre Dame, Busrides and Eiffeltower by Night

On Wednesday morning we woke up, but I wasn’t feeling well at all. I felt really nauseous, so I took a shower to feel better. It didn’t really help, so I hoped breakfast would help then. We had breakfast at the hotel and I did indeed feel better after eating. After breakfast we went upstairs, got our things and went on our way. Of course we took some outfit pictures too!

Our outfits! I think my mom looked really nice that day.
My mom had suggested to go to the Notre Dame church to take the bus there, so we took the metro to Cité, which is quite a creepy station. The ceiling was really high, with a staircase that seemed to go on forever. Plus: the elevator never came…
We walked up the stairs and we finally arrived at the top. There, we quickly spotted a Photomaton! Despite the incoming draft from outside, we took some nice pictures. Our poses: smiling, me sleeping and my mom smiling, ‘Grumpy Cat’ and looking away. ^^

My mom holding our pictures!
We walked up the stairs and left the station. We arrived at a square with a beautiful building with an even more beautiful gate in front of it in the distance. After looking around us for a bit, I discovered a sign telling us where to go. After a little walking, we found the Notre Dame church. Because it was the church’s 850th birthday, a special platform was placed in front of it with an information desk and lots of other, stair-like platforms from where you could take beautiful pictures of the front of the church. Along the low walls of the platform, deep questions were written like: ‘Quel est de sens de ma vie?’ (‘What is the meaning of my life?’) and other things like that. A lot of them had to do with religion and the church. We walked up to the stair-like platforms and took some pictures.

In front of the Notre Dame. ^^
We walked down the stairs and walked up the square in front of the church. Our initial plan was to take the bus right away, but since the line to go inside the Notre Dame was so short, we decided to go inside after all! While we were standing in line, we spotted lots of military men. We often see them in Paris.
We entered the Notre Dame and this time we actually did walk in the right direction (unlike last time, when we walked countercurrent). We took a lot of pictures of the beautiful windows (my mom also tried her new camera) and we wrote our names down in the guest book.

Three of the beautiful windows you can find in the Notre Dame church.
We arrived at the gift shop (I still think it’s weird it’s inside the church), where I read a bit in a comic about the building of the Notre Dame. My mom, who had been browsing, wanted to show me something she really liked. I walked after her and she pointed out a small replica of the big, round window we had seen earlier. You could hang it in front of your window. Despite the fact she really loved it, she didn’t want to ask how much it cost since ‘it would probably be a lot’. Luckily I managed to persuade her to ask after all, since the price wasn’t expensive at all! So my mom bought the beautiful round window. :3
Then we left the Notre Dame again. We decided to take the bus now, so we bought some drinks and walked up to the ‘station’, where we waited for a little while.

Waiting for the bus with a wonderful view! :3
Soon the bus arrived and we managed to sit on top. ^^ We just sat down and enjoyed the view and the wind. Amélie, our Paris bear, enjoyed it too (huhu)! We drove along the same route again, but it was very nice. I love the bus so much~!
When we arrived at the Eiffeltower, my mom suggested to get off the bus and walk around the special ‘Summer market’ across from the Eiffeltower. We left the bus, crossed the street and walked underneath the big sign while enjoying the lovely panflute music that was being played (XD). The market was quite nice and many different things were being sold. At the front of the market there were mainly jewelry and clothing stalls, but the further you walked the more interesting the goods got (not that the market was that big or anything. You get my point). There was one guy that sold beautiful glass jewelry with real flowers in them. We had a nice conversation with him. ^^

This stall was all about matryoshka dolls!
While we were walking I started to feel bad again. I had been feeling a little nauseous during the whole morning already, but now I was also getting dizzy. My mom suggested to get some food at a really nice stall where they sold dried fruits and bread. There were a lot more stalls with food, but this food really caught our attention. My mom bought some dried pineapple parts and raspberries and a piece of brioche bread. Despite the fact I love raspberries, the pineapple parts were so much better!
We walked up to the Seine and sat down in the shade of the Pont d’Iéna. I dipped my feet in the water, which helped a lot. The brioche was really good and we talked for a little while.
We got on the bus again (it was a stupid bus with high yellow fences) and decided to finish our round, so we would get out again at the Notre Dame. But the bus was sooo slow because there were so many traffic lights and cars and people that we stood still really often. The sun burned down on us and I felt worse and worse. It got quite clear to us that it was actually the sun and heat that got to me! So my mom decided I needed a hat to protect me from the sun.
We finally arrived at Notre Dame again and quickly walked into the shade. After some browsing, I found a nice hat, but when I tried it on it looked stupid and made me feel old. Later, an older lady tried it on and it looked perfect on her because of her skin tone! I found another, very simple hat that I liked, so we bought that one. ^^
When we walked out of the shop again, we heard music and singing. We discovered a guy with a little barrell organ singing nice French songs. My mom liked him so much, she bought his cd! I also got a picture with him. *^^*

Me and the cute guy! You can also see my new hat!
In order to make me feel better, my mom bought some coke bottles and we crossed the bridge (we saw a shop selling dog collars with ‘Lolita’ in rhine stones on it!) to lay down in the shadow in the little park there. I also checked my phone a little, since there was wifi. It all really helped a lot!
After some resting, we started to think about things to do. We really wanted to go up the Eiffeltower at night and since I was starting to feel better (thank you hat and shade!) we still really wanted to do that. Of course we needed to have dinner first, but we doubted a bit. My mom still wanted to go to Princess Crêpe, so we needed to do it either on this day or not, because the shop would be closed on Thursday. But since we were right next to Quartier Latin, we could also visit the Italian restaurant we had visited two years ago that we really loved. I let my mom decide and after some doubting, she chose the Italian restaurant. We left the park and walked into Quartier Latin, which is a really nice neighbourhood filled with restaurants, especially Greek ones. We browsed a bit in a Georges Larnicol shop (chocolaaate~!) and just looked around for fun.

My mom in Quartier Latin.
Finally we walked into the street where I knew the restaurant was located. But we couldn’t find it! We walked the street at least two times, until we discovered it was gone! My mom was so sad…
After we accepted the restaurant was gone (boohoo ;_;), my mom suggested to have a salad at café d’Albert again, which we really loved anyway. So we went back to our metrostation and went to have some lovely Salade Loisir at the restaurant. So good…

I still dream about this salad…
Before we went back to our hotel, we bought two pastries at the bakery. A Marbre Noir for me and a raspberry one for my mom. After we had eaten them and had rested a litle, we got our things and then went to the Arc de Triomphe (I can’t remember why we did that again, but yeah). We took some brilliant pictures with a Grumpy Cat picture in the station. XD When we got up the escalators, I saw a red bus about to depart, so I asked the driver if we could still get on. But this bus drove according to an evening schedule, so it wasn’t possible. I believe we browsed one of the shops a little and then took the metro to the Eiffeltower.
We arrived at Trocadéro and walked all the way to the Eiffeltower. While we were walking on the Pont d’Iéna, I tried to take pictures with my mom’s camera, but somehow they all turned out black! Until I realised I forgot to take off the lense cover. -_- I am so smart.
We arrived at the Eiffeltower and unfortunately the line at the nearest pillar wasn’t that short after all. The line at the pillar a little further away seemed shorter, so we took that one. We had set a time for ourselves to return to the hotel, because we didn’t want to miss the last metro like last year. But the line was so slow! We were quite worried for a while, especially because going to the top of the Tower would take even longer according to the information sign. So we decided to see how long it would take to get to a certain point in line and if we made it in time, we would only go to the Tower’s second floor. So we waited in the cold (I brought a cardigan, my poor mom didn’t) and we made it! So finally, we were going up the Eiffeltower at night in four years!
We could finally buy our tickets (leaving a very enthusiastic American guy who was talking to a Russian couple behind us behind) and got our tickets and bags checked. The ticket lady ripped my ticket too much, meh…
We went to stand in line for the elevator and before we knew it, we were upstairs! We immediately went outside where it was super cold and windy! But it didn’t make the experience less fun! Paris looked breathtaking with all its orange and yellow lights. We were very curious about a group of blue lights between the buildings close to the Eiffeltower. They stood out quite a lot!

Paris by night! You can see the Sacré Coeur in the
distance and the blue lights in the middle.
Paris looked sooo beautiful! I couldn’t get enough of taking pictures! After a while, the Eiffeltower started sparkling too! :3
Finally we got really cold and went inside to browse the gift shop a little.

Eiffeltowers in every shape, size and colour!
Finally it was time to go down again. We waited for the elevator for maybe a minute and then left the Eiffeltower. I can finally cross ‘Visiting the Eiffeltower when it’s dark’ off my list!

The beautiful Eiffeltower, illuminated at night!
We took the metro back to the hotel, changed into our pajamas and went to sleep. Despite feeling sick for a big part, it had been a great day!

Paris, Day 6 – Buses, Airplanes and Ice Cream

On Tuesday morning we woke up nicely on time. We decided to have breakfast at the hotel, so we got dressed. My mom and I had made a matching outfit with our black polka dot dresses and Hello Kitty bags that I had bought for the both of us (solely for the purpose of matching on vacation, haha). We went downstairs, paid for the breakfast and got us a plate. The breakfast was really nice, with lots of things to choose from. It’s a shame we had to pay for it separately now, but yeah.
The hotel had been renovated the year before, resulting into a bigger breakfast room. We could also sit outside in the courtyard garden, which was really nice! We could already tell it was going to be a warm day! We had a nice conversation with a mother and daughter from our own country and after we finished our breakfast, we went upstairs to get our things. We had planned to buy a two day-ticket for the tour buses of ‘Les Cars Rouges’. *_* I was so excited! We got our things and went on our way. First, we took some outfit pictures!

Our matching outfits for the day!
We took the metro to station Charles de Gaulle Étoile, where the Arc de Triomphe is. When we entered the bigger hall of the station, I noticed some Photomatons (photo booths) and I suggested to take some pictures! We entered the booth (well, my mom, I always bend inwards from the side) and put our money in. I really can’t remember why, but we ended up not using this Photomaton after all. Whether it was because it wouldn’t take our money or some other reason, we decided to walk back a little to an older model Photomaton and take pictures there. ^^ We chose the option for four different colour pictures and we did the following poses: normal smiling, looking at each other, showing our bags and ‘James Bond’.

Posing in the Photomaton with our pictures!
We left the station, went up the escalator and walked up to the bus stand. There were significantly more people waiting for the bus than last time, so we went to stand in line. After a little while, a staff member of Les Cars Rouges walked up to us and asked us what kind of tickets we wanted and told us about some of the available choices, which was very nice. I was even more happy that the guy was there when a bus came up, because some tourists (I have no idea what country they came from) thought that they could just skip the line because they already had tickets! They just wanted to jump the queue because they thought their tickets allowed them to! I was so glad the guy called them back. Those @#%&!
My mom and I got on the bus (the nasty toursists didn’t, eheheh) and we sat down on the upper deck at the back. The bus departed and we drove around the Arc de Triomphe. Next to my mom sat a guy who was sketching some of the sights we passed. He was really good!
The bus drove down the entire Champs-Elysées. It was so much more crowded in Paris than last time, that even the bus was affected by it. The bus ride took way longer! During our previous trips when we took the bus, the weather wasn’t so great so more people did indoor activities. Now we waited for traffic lights so often! And the sun was really bright, so every time we waited it was really hot. Once the bus started driving again it was okay, because there was wind which cooled us down.
We passed many beautiful sights: the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, Trocadéro, the Eiffeltower, Hôtel des Invalides, Jardin des Tuileries, the Louvre, the Nôtre Dame church, Madeleine, l’Opéra, Place Vendôme, Place de la Concorde and then back up the Champs-Elysées. I love this route so much!

Some of the many sights we passed! These pictures together look like a post card!
We decided to get off the bus at the Arc de Triomphe, our starting point. We had gotten quite hungry, so we decided to have something to eat. My mom suggested to have tea at Ladurée, since we had wanted to do that for quite a while. Of course I agreed!
We walked down the Champ-Elysées and arrived at Ladurée, where we asked for a table at the roofed terrace. I felt so fancy! ^^ The seats were all painted in Ladurée green (that is totally a kind of green for me now) and the tables had Ladurée logos on them. My mom and I sat down and started reading the menu (we had a lovely older waitress, she was very kind). After reading a little, we decided that we wanted to try Ladurée’s ice cream even more than their pastries! The menu had special ‘pastry coupes’ as I’d like to call them: ice cream coupes and sorbets based off their famous pastries.

My mom, reading the beautiful Ladurée menu!
Since I love Ladurée’s Ispahan pastry so much, I decided to try the ice cream coupe kind! It had raspberry sorbet, rose petal ice cream, raspberries, lychees, raspberry sauce and Chantilly whipped cream, according to the menu. It sounded like heaven! My mom chose the ‘Coupe Chocolat-Myrtille’, with blueberry sorbet, Guaraja chocolate sorbet and more things that I unfortunately forgot. We handed our menus to the waitress and she put a beautiful glass water can and two glasses on our table. It was nice to have some cold water on a hot day (our bottles of water had gotten a little… warm). After some waiting, our ice creams were served. They were so stunningly beautiful! *_* Of course we jumped on our cameras to take pictures of them!

My beautiful Coupe Ispahan! ♥
After we had taken our pictures, it was tasting time! And I can tell you, my ice cream was delicious! The whipped cream with raspberry sauce was amazing, especially combined with lychee and raspberry. Then I reached the raspberry sorbet and rose petal ice cream. The raspberry sorbet was like a pure, fluid raspberry and the rose petal ice cream tasted like perfume, but in the best way you can imagine! It truly was like heaven… ;_;
My mom really liked her ice cream too. She said it was like Viennese Sacher Torte in ice cream kind! We finished our ice creams, paid and left. Of course we took some pictures around Ladurée too.
We decided to browse some shops along the Champ-Elysées a bit. We passed a very expensive Arabian perfume shop (where they had the most beautiful bottles) where a kind man offered us to try some amazing perfumes. They smelled so good! Then we crossed the street and went into Guerlain, just to see what it looked like. After that, we followed the street and went inside the Disney shop. They always have the cutest things! I totally fell in love with a soft Mulan doll and I had to drag my mom away from a cute red Minnie Mouse bag. They had lots of Monsters Inc. things: the cutest notebooks with Mike’s eye and even a full suit, so cool! I think the staff finally gave up on their ‘no pictures-policy’, because everyone was taking picture and none of the staff said anything about it. In the end my mom bought a cute plastic grocery shopping bag with all kinds of Parisian sights on it, but with a Mickey Mouse touch. ;) She bought the same one in London, but of course with London sights. So cute!

Eiffeltower decoration in the Disney shop. ^^
We left the shop and walked up the Champs-Elysées. I needed to go to the toilet, so my mom waited outside for me while I went into the McDonald’s and waited in the long line. When I got back, my mom was sitting against an advertisement post taking selfies, haha!
We decided to take the bus again (XD) and just get out wherever we wanted. We passed a big poster of Leonardo DiCaprio, looking very serious with the watch he was promoting. I had to take a silly a picture. XD
We walked up to the bus stand and it wasn’t very crowded. When the bus arrived, I quickly walked up the stairs and we could sit in the back! Plus, the back seats were a little higher than the other seats, which we were hoping for!
The bus started driving and went around the Arc de Triomphe. While we slowly drove down the Champs-Elysées, we suddenly heard a really loud noise, like really strong engines. We looked up and suddenly, a group of military airplanes flew over! My mom and I looked at each other and suddenly realised it was a rehearsal for the military parade on Sunday, the 14th of July and France’s national holiday. During our previous trip, while I was at the Angelic Pretty Tea Party, my mom saw the same, only she didn’t know what happened until someone told her.
Many planes in different shapes flew over us! It really was an amazing sight! People all along the Champs-Elysées were looking up at the sky.

Some of the planes that we saw!
We really had an amazing view from the bus! And we were lucky: the planes had all crossed us when we went around the corner, so we didn’t miss a thing!
We followed the same bus route again and just as we were passing Jardin des Tuileries, groups of helicopters flew by! I have never seen so many planes and helicopters in one day! We also passed two very expensive looking cars: one red and one yellow. I think they were Lamborghinis and you could hire them to cruise around Paris. Pretty cool!

Some more sights because I like it! And my mom! ♥
Eventually we decided to leave the bus at l’Opéra. I would have loved to go inside the building (I’ve seen pictures and they are just… whoa!), but since the weather was way too nice it would have been a waste to spend time inside. So we wanted to see it from the outside again. ^^
We left the bus and walked around the building. Since we had gotten really hungry, we decided to look for a nice place to eat first. Suddenly, I say some people walking with McDonald’s drinks in their hands and we decided to go look for a McDonald’s (we were really craving hamburgers! XD). After some walking around, I spotted the big ‘M’ in the distance and went inside. I ordered our food (in French *^^*) and took it upstairs, where my mom was waiting.

Food~!
After our dinner we felt re-energized again and went downstairs. We took a look at the McCafé and really wanted to have some kind of dessert, but we didn’t know what to take. We decided to try the same thing the guy in front of us ordered. I think it was a Vanilla Frappé..? Anyway, it was really good!

I wish we had McCafés in my country!
We drank/ate our Frappés while walking. We passed a cinema where they had a poster of Star Trek: Into Darkness and I just had to take a picture of it. ^^
We walked back to the big square in front of l’Opéra. My mom had already finished her Frappé, so I gave her the rest of mine. It was quite heavy. ^^’ We tried to take some jumping pictures, which was quite a challenge with all the cars and buses passing by. But we succeeded!

LÓpéra is such a beautiful building! I love this picture!
In front of l’Opéra, a Michael Jackson-copying guy was performing. He wasn’t very good. ^^’ We crossed the street and took some more pictures of the building. We also copied a picture we had made during our previous trip of Sydney, Yumi, Emilie and me posing in front of a wall, only this time I was alone, haha!
We decided to visit one last thing: Place de la République. During our previous trip it was under construction and we could only see the big monument in the distance, but I had seen on Facebook it was finished now! We really wanted to see the result.
We walked down the stairs into the metro station. My mom took a look at some shoes while I went to see where we had to go. I was lost for a moment, but only because I had the wrong line in mind! XD We took the metro to République and walked out of the station. The square was really crowded! A big stage was built on the right and people were waiting for the concert to begin I think.
My mom and I walked up to the new water feature: a little square with a one centimeter layer of rippling water. Lots of children were playing in it (and screaming, pfew)!

The water feature at Place de la République. You can see the monument in the distance.
I was quite annoyed by two boys who were bullying playing girls. I had to hold myself back not to say something about it (as If I could have talked to them in French anyway). Eventually it seemed like the boys made up with the girls, so it was okay.
I had gotten really tired and we decided to go back to the hotel. There, we took a shower, got dressed into our pajamas and took silly pictures in bed. Then we went to sleep. It had been another wonderful day!

Paris, Day 5 – Sightseeing in the Sun

On Monday morning, really early, I checked my phone. I knew my mom had to be in the train on the way to Paris by now and I wanted to make sure she made it. Well she made it, but they were already incredibly delayed! I called her and she told me the situation. I was incredibly pissed off: we had payed a lot of money for her ticket and now she was delayed and she didn’t have her own seat! I was really angry and immediately planned to file a giant complaint.
The only bright side of the situation was that I could actually accompany Emilie to the station instead of saying goodbye at the hotel. We went to get breakfast and Emilie packed her last things, after which we left the hotel. We took the metro to Gare de Lyon and just talked a little. Emilie would stall her suitcase at the station, after which she would visit the Titanic Exhibition and then return home. While we were almost at the station, my mom texted me she would arrive a bit earlier than expected. So I said goodbye to Emilie at the station. It felt weird to suddenly having to say goodbye after spending four days together, but it wouldn’t be for long… ;)
I waved Emilie goodbye and suddenly I was all alone. Never before had I been in Paris all by myself! It’s not that I was scared, I actually felt really cool! I took the metro to Bastille (all by myself~!). I was confused for a moment, because I thought the metro line I would need was closed, but it turned out it wasn’t. I got pretty lost at Gare du Nord, but luckily a staff member could help me out. Eventually, I found the right platform where the Thalys would arrive, but my mom turned out to arrive at the planned (delayed) time after all, which was 1½ hours later than planned! After waiting for at least 30 more minutes, I could finally see the Thalys arrive in the distance! I walked up to the train, looking for someone wearing a hat and a striped shirt and finally I found my mom~! ♥

My mom! I missed her so much!
Of course we hugged and a Thalys staff member asked us if we wanted a picture together. Yes please! ^^ We also asked him where to get a form for delay and went to get it at the Thalys desk. I was still pretty pissed off, but I tried to not let it bother me. Despite having missed some extra time together, my mom and I made the best of our day anyway. Eventually, we got some money back from Thalys (although not enough in my opinion).
I had already charged my mom’s Navigo, so we could immediately take the metro to the hotel. My mom was so happy to be back in Paris! She had missed it so much!
We arrived at the hotel (my mom loved the view from our window, as usual) where my mom dumped her stuff. I asked her where she wanted to go first and we decided to start at the Arc de Triomphe! We freshened up a bit and then went on our way!

In the metro. I really like this picture!
We got out at Charles de Gaulle Étoile and went up the escalator, from where we enjoyed the view upon the Arc de Triomphe. I love the Eiffeltower to death, but the Arc de Triomphe is the most beautiful building I have ever seen! I always forget how big it really is and the sculptures are magnificent!

The Arc de Triomphe. Need I say more?
My mom was really happy about the weather. It was just perfect! During our previous three times in Paris the weather wasn’t bad, but never really beautiful. Now it was!
We took a lot of pictures of the Arc and our surroundings, but we decided not to take the tunnel to the building itself. We had done that before already and we didn’t feel like doing it again this time. My mom had taken our Paris bear Amélie with her, the little plush she had bought during our previous trip, to take pictures with!

Amélie and I with a Champs-Elysées sign!
We decided to proceed to the Eiffeltower. You’re not really in Paris until you have seen it! ;)
We took the metro to Trocadéro and got out. We walked up the stairs, went around the corner and looked upon the Eiffeltower bathing in the sunlight. So pretty!
Unfortunetaly, Trocadéro wouldn’t be Tocadéro without its fences. It was not possible to walk up to the Tower straight from there. Oh well.
We took some lovely pictures of the Eiffeltower with the incredibly blue sky background.

My mom and the Eiffeltower. Try to ignore the fences in the distance. ;)
We also took some jumping pictures. We kept the tradition intact. ^^
Since we couldn’t walk straight to the Eiffeltower, we walked all around Trocadéro. There were some big rocks placed next to the sidewalk and since my dad loves rocks and stones, my mom and I joked about taking one with us. Of course this resulted into a funny picture of me trying to drag one of the rocks along. XD
We crossed the street and walked up the Pont d’Iéna, in front of the Eiffeltower. The Seine and the banks looked so pretty in the sunlight! I do have to add that it was also very hot, haha! I made sure I used enough sunscreen. ^^
We walked underneath the Eiffeltower where the long lines of tourists were. There were a lot of people, but at least the elevators were working! We hadn’t planned on going up, so my mom and I walked up to the park behind the Eiffeltower, Champs-de-Mars. Of course, more fences here (they were building a stage for the 14th of July concert), but a little further away we we could sit on the grass. We took a lot of pictures in front of the Tower with different poses!

The colours of our pictures really change with the light, haha!
We sat down in the grass and drank some water. You have to stay hydrated on days like this! We saw a cute old couple taking a self picture, so sweet!
We left Champs-de-Mars again and walked back underneath the Eiffeltower again, but instead of walking up the Pont D’Iéna we walked down the stairs to the river Seine. We really wanted to have a crêpe there, but we also really wanted ice cream. Solution: we bought two normal sweet crêpes and two ice cream cones! XD My mom took chocolate vanilla, I took strawberry vanilla.

The result: my mom putting her ice cream on the crêpe.
The idea was essentially briliant, but because we didn’t have spoons it kind of went wrong. XD I managed to eat my crêpe quite elegantly despite the melting ice cream, but my mom made a total mess! It was quite funny. The crêpes were quite nice by the way. :)
After we finished our meal, we decided to do a river cruise! Yes I know: we’ve done that twice before already, but now was the perfect weather and my mom loves river cruises on the Seine so much!< br> We bought our tickets, paid a visit to the toilet (literally) and browsed the souvenir shop for a bit. Then we went to stand in line and after a little waiting we could enter the boat. Initially we sat down at the back of the boat downstairs, but I suggested to sit on the upper deck after all. We had quite a nice view from there. The boat photographer snapped our faces (I squinted quite a lot against the sun, ahem) and we went upstairs. After I lend out my sunscreen to a friendly grandma and her grandson the boat departed.
We passed many beautiful sights in Paris. While we looked around, guides in French, English and Spanish told us facts about the buildings along the Seine. Despite having done this river cruise twice already, I had forgotten quite a lot of things already! We passed the Pont Alexandre III, Musée d’Orsay, Musée du Louvre, île de la Cité, the Nôtre Dame, the Conciergerie and so much more!

Some sights from the boat!
When the boat turned around, we went to sit downstairs after all, to have a different view (and it was hot upstairs). It was quite nice there after all. ^^ There were more people sitting there, including a couple with two children. The guy had a huge camera, but after I took a picture for them and he took a picture of us, we discovered a big camera doesn’t mean great camera skills. XD
The boat arrived back at the starting point and we went to check out our picture. We rarely buy pictures like this, but my mom liked it so much she bought it after all!
Since we were really hot, we decided to sit down at the Seine to let our feet rest in the water to cool down. Of course, just my feet wasn’t enough for me. XD

You need to go at least knee high into the water to properly cool down! ^^
I knew the Seine is not exactly the cleanest river out there, but it was refreshing! *_* I was really hot!
We decided to go on to Hôtel de Ville. The last time we had been there was by accident and the weather was extremely gray. We wanted to see it again in the sun! We walked up the stairs again and walked up the Pont d’Iéna, where I took some lovely pictures of my mom.

I really like this picture~! ♥
Suddenly I noticed a big cloud of gray smoke! There was probably a big fire quite nearby! Since we couldn’t do much about it, we took some jumping pictures and when I looked again, the smoke was gone! Later I heard about an old building in Paris that burnt down…
We walked all the way back to Trocadéro and took the metro from there to Hôtel de Ville.
We exited the metro and found ourselves at the square in front of Hôtel de Ville, which looked ten times more beautiful than last time! There were lots of fountains and since I had gotten hot again, I was very happy about that! ^^
We took some pictures of the building and the fountains. There was a guy sitting on the edge of one of the higher fountains, which inspired me to climb onto them too! My mom stayed on the ground and took pictures. ^^

The fountains in front of Hôtel de Ville!
The fountains were sooo refreshing! The skirt of my dress got all wet, but I just didn’t care at all, haha!
We decided to cross the square and take pictures at the fountains on the other side. I walked on my bare feet, but the ground was really hot! I had to sit on a bench to take my feet off the ground at least three times! XD We arrived at the other side and I climbed onto the fountain again. I wasn’t really sure if it was allowed, but then I saw a sign that said ‘No swimming’ and a little further away kids were swimming (fully clothed!) in the fountain. Then I didn’t feel so guilty anymore. ^^
We took more pictures and my mom dipped her feet in the water as well. It was so nice! *_*

Hôtel de Ville in the sun! Such a beautiful building!
We decided to walk on to Centre Georges Pompidou, to see if it looked better in the sunshine as well. We put our shoes back on and crossed the square, after looking at the beautiful flowers planted all around.
I filled my water bottle at a special tab and we left the square. We crossed the zebra and quickly visited the Lush (my mom loves that store). We kept on walking and quickly noticed the big, colourful pipes of Centre Georges Pompidou. We walked around the corner and sat down on the pebbled square across from the big building. Despite the fact my art books always went on and on about this ‘wonderful’ building, it doesn’t appeal to me all. I like the escalators on the outside, that’s it.

Center Georges Pompidou. It’s just not my cup of tea.
While we sat down I realised how tired I had gotten. I suggested to go back to the hotel (it was around 5:30 pm by now) and have dinner. My mom agreed, so we got up and went to look for the nearest metro station.
We rested for a bit in our hotel room and then went to eat at Café d’Albert, the restaurant across from the hotel we loved a lot during our previous trip. I had dreamed about eating one of their salads with potato chips for over a year now and now I could finally have one!
My mom and I both chose a ‘Salade Loisir’, a salad with green salad, tomatoes, smoked salmon, crème fraîche, olives and potato chips roasted with garlic. Even though they forgot the olives (boo!) it was so good! ♥

Dinner from heaven~!
After dinner I wasn’t tired at all anymore, so we walked down the Rue Ordener for a bit. After we almost got bothered by a weird guy in a convertible, we suddenly saw Sacré Coeur in the distance, which inspired us to go see it while it got dark! My mom waited at the entrance of the metro station, while I went to get her camera. When I arrived at our room, I noticed the door was open! I immediately checked all of our stuff, but nothing was gone luckily! We probably hadn’t closed the door properly. Stupid us!
We went to station Anvers and walked up the street to the Sacré Coeur hill. Despite the fact it was quite dark already, the church wasn’t illuminated. Suddenly I heard someone say the lights would go on around 10:30 pm and it wasn’t time yet, so we took the Funiculaire up the hill and waited there for a while. Lots of people were sitting on the stairs in front of the church, enjoying the view. The view on the city was amazing: the houses and buildings seemed to be dark blue and there were lights everywhere. Finally, the lights on the church slowly switched on, setting the church in a dreamy, yellow light.

Sacré Coeur, the home of Angry Jesus. XD
We decided to go back to the hotel. We took the Funiculaire down and returned to the metro. Back at the hotel we took a shower and went to bed. Even though we had told ourselves to take things easy, we clearly did not. XD But it had been a fun and exciting (and hot) day, so it was worth it! ♥