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Other entries in Paris

Au Vieux Campeur

I was up at not a bad hour this morning. Julie had been quite tired, so I tiptoed around the apartment and worked on my blog to keep things quiet so she could sleep until she was ready to get up.

Once she got up, we talked for a bit, then we did a walk around the block to do some errands and stopped at the bakery across the street where I got a very good croissant and a chocolate éclair. It's a good thing I don't live close to bakery like this, or I'd be eating the pastries all the time and probably be twice my current weight!!

After that Julie went over to a friend's place to babysit for the afternoon and I headed downtown to the specialist camping/outdoor store Au Vieux Campeur. Talk about an interesting store. Or make that about 47 stores. It turns out they are just south of Notre Dame in downtown Paris. I think they must have started as a small store that grew over time. The problem is their is no larger stores they could use. So they are spread out over a few blocks with lots of small stores carrying individual things. It was quite the store and hard to find what I was looking for. I wasn't sure exactly what I was looking for, but knew I needed either an overbag, a warmer sleeping bag, or a warmer sleeping bag insert to give my bag more warmth at cooler temperatures. I walked right by the sleeping bag store without seeing it, but ended up in a clothing store where I found another couple of shirts. I then wandered back to the "main" store where I was able to find a map listing the locations and what they had in them. Then I was able to find the sleeping bag store - which was right next door and I had walked right by earlier. Anyway, after having to translate all the sales ads, I came down to buying a fleece or Reactor Thermolite liner for my sleeping bag. The fleece took up a lot more room, so I settled on the Reactor Thermolite liner from Sea to Summit. I hope it works and has the temperature gain that they say it should. But with my various layers that I now have, I think I should be good, but only time and cool weather will really tell.

After that I took the train back to Julie's to pick up my camera as I had forgotten it. Well, this was my first my rush hour train ride and it was not fun. I had to push my way onto the train and squish in to allow the door to close, but by the time we got to my stop, I was able to sit. I grabbed my camera, dropped a couple things, then headed back into the city where I was to meet Julie at 7:30 at the Champs Elysées roundabout, which isn't really a roundabout in the sense that it is around a circle. It is about half way down and since I had been looking for a full roundabout, I walked right by it, but shortly realized I had gone too far, so backtracked. I arrived around 7pm, so was early, so wandered back up the street into the Adidas store. Talk about fairly upscale - they had Porsche design clothing that cost way too much for what you got, as well as team jerseys and such. Nothing that enticed my interest. I wandered further up into this shopping arcade that was completely upscale with uber-expensive everything. I still can't fathom why someone would spend so much on clothes and so on, but that's just me. I would rather spend money on experiences like travel or learning to rock climb or something, but others obviously don't feel the same.

I wandered back to the roundabout around 7:30, but Julie was nowhere to be seen. I was positive I was on the right side, but started to second guess myself and did a full circuit around both sides looking for her a couple of times. It turns out I had been in the right place and she had gotten stuck in rush hour traffic and was simply late. Sometimes there are drawbacks to not having a cellphone.

Anyway, we then went to a Japanese (Japonaise) restaurant similar to Sakana Grill in Calgary or the Samurai in Saskatoon. Basically, you order your food and they cook it right in front of you. This is a very small restaurant, but was excellent and just like at home. It is one of Julie's favourite places, and I can see why. It was about the perfect size meal that took all of 30minutes. We then headed up the street to the Macaroon place we went to the first time I was here called Laduree. Again they were excellent. Another reason I shouldn't live in Paris :-)

We then went back to where Julie had parked and headed to the Eiffel tower to watch the light display. The tower is currently coloured blue at night (only for the 6 months that France is head of the European Union) and they also have a sparkling light display a few times in the evening for 10 minutes. It was quite the display. We then headed over to the tower itself and I bought a ticket to the top as I had never done it at night. Julie begged out (and I didn't blame her) as she has done it numerous times, so she stayed in the car and waited for me. The line to get to the second level was non-existent and I was up in no time, but the line for the top level was much longer and slower. It took quite a while to finally get the second elevator to the top.

Once on the top the views were spectacular and I think I have some good shots. I spent a fair bit of time up there, but the wind was biting, and I was still wearing only shorts (my clothes had gone over to Julie's parents to be washed and I didn't have them back yet, so didn't have any pants to wear) and it was cold. Good thing I had my new fleece coat with me or I would have froze. I tried to take a couple goofy photos, but not sure how well they came out.

Going down took even longer than going up, so all in all I was gone for a fair amount of time (maybe an hour or so) and felt bad leaving Julie sitting there that long. We headed back to her place where we both went to bed as we needed to be up relatively early as we were babysitting her nephew Mylo all day (no school on Wednesdays).

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