Monday was such a long day, and Kathy was so tired, that I thought I'd give her a sightseeing break. Instead of getting up at the break of dawn to visit another monument, I thought that she'd enjoy doing some washing instead. (Actually, that was her idea; I'm happy just to wear my clothes forever).
We'd heard such horror stories about the European washers and driers, and the instructions left in the apartment seemed so contradictory, that it was actually kind of anticlimactic (in a really good way, though), when all she had to do was put in the clothes, turn the dial and press the start button (which looks like a VCR).
Once the washing got going, we headed out to do some real Paris shopping. On Becky Dente's recommendation, we started with the underground mall in the traditional market district Les Halles.
We looked in all the windows (according to our guidebook the French call window shopping, "window licking"). I wanted a linen jacket, but none of the stores had anything my size.
After Les Halles, we walked through the shopping district, looking at the little exclusive shops. The prices in some of the the boutiques were really amazing (2-3,000 Euro for an outfit). Instead of taking out a loan, we went to the "temple of shopping", Lafayette Galleries, and took in the view from the roof, which was great (and free). This is the back of the Opera.
The cafeteria on the top floor is really popular and was packed. It wasn't that inexpensive. I had a small soup and Kathy had a salad bar, just to hold us over until dinner. The food was OK, but not really memorable. (Certainly not worthy of a picture.) Instead, on the way back, we picked up a few more ingredients for dinner, which I cooked.
Here's dinner; a pesto pasta with garlic shrimp, along with a green salad and fresh French bread from the Boulangerie downstairs.
After dinner, we felt revived and went and did some subway exploring. Our first thought was to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower. The line was pretty long (we thought) and so we just looked around. We were afraid that we wouldn't get in before dark, so we made plans to get up early on Thursday and beat the crowds.
As the sun set, we walked over to the Tracadero, and looked back on the Tower from the top. Then, we walked down across to the Arc de Triomphe.
By this time it was dark and hard to hold the camera steady, so the pictures are a little blurred.
Underneath the Arc is France's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Leaving the Arc, we walked down the Champs Elysees and found a Starbucks. Then, home to bed.
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