Favourite Photo Friday 8/11/13

In the newborn sleep deprivation haze I only just realised this morning that tomorrow is our 11 year 'dating' anniversary. Antony still maintains it's not a real anniversary, but we do usually try and do something nice like go to a movie or out for dinner.  Last year for our 10 year anniversary we were in Paris so we went up the Eiffel Tower the evening before (technically our anniversary Aussie time) and then went to Laduree for breakfast on our actual anniversary. There was even a dozen red roses from a Parisian florist. Very posh! You can read about our Tour Eiffel  and celebrating an anniversary for old times sake.

This year, I fear, will not be as exciting with an overtired 2 year old and a newborn! So in the spirit of remembering a much more fun anniversary here are today's photos.  A few from when we visited the Eiffel Tower.......

The impressive Tower, looking up from underneath:

 

D80 with Tokina 12-24mm f4.0 

ISO 400, focal length 13mm 

Exposure: 1/30 @ f/9.0

A very small Astrid and I at the top of the Tower (Anto obviously took this one):

 

D80 with Tokina 12-24mm f4.0 

ISO 1000, focal length 16mm 

Exposure: 1/40 @ f/10

The Tower all lit up as we headed home

D80 with Tokina 12-24mm f4.0 

ISO 1000, focal length 12mm 

Exposure: 1/60 @ f/4.0

9 November - Celebrating an anniversary.....

'Twas the 9th of November 2002 and a warm Spring night in Canberra. Anto took Nic to see a dodgy Vin Diesel movie at the Tuggeranong cinemas.  Ten short (or long?) years later, with a few more wrinkles and grey hairs, we happened to find ourselves in Paris.  While Anto debates the validity of a 'dating' anniversary given we have a 'wedding' anniversary, I claim 10 years is worth celebrating.

Since we couldn't find a Vin Diesel movie showing anywhere - admittedly we didn't look very hard - and the grandparents aren't here to babysit, what to do to celebrate? We had already completed the requisite visit to the top of the Eiffel tower the day before. Which we noted was actually completed on the 9th of November Australian time, so kind of counts as an anniversary celebration. Given we were in Paris and all, we decided to go have brunch at Ladurée on the Champs-Élysées.

Astrid slept in to the blissful time of 8am and we had a leisurely couple of hours before heading off on the metro towards the Champs-Élysées.  While waiting for our first metro we saw the metro heading in the other direction, on the same line, turf everyone off and go off in the wrong direction, before another appearing a few minutes later (from the correct direction). Given there doesn't seem to be any room in the tunnels we aren't sure where it went but we are sure the person left inside sleeping would have gotten a rude shock upon waking.

Once we arrived at the Champs-Elysee and wandered down to Ladurée, noting it was very cold and crisp, we were happy to find they had a free table for brunch. We figured brunch was probably going to be over-priced and average but we were pleasantly surprised. The dining room is very swish and you can't beat any brunch where you get velvet chairs, pastel and gold crockery and cutlery and the baby highchair is green leather and polished wood!

I ordered the French toast and Anto had dejeuner, which consisted of 3 different pastries, 3 breads, orange juice and bacon and eggs. The pastries were yummy and Astrid tucked in.  We discovered their rolls of butter and the blackberry jam were divine and went fantastically well with the bread. Astrid also approved!  My maple syrup came in the cutest little bottle. Of course there was also the requisite hot chocolate served in silver jugs that is pretty much straight chocolate.  We thoroughly enjoyed our breakfast but ate way too much.  We forgot our pocket camera so were surreptitiously trying to take photos with the big camera.  A lovely lady nearby did offer to take a photo of the three of us together.

We were so full that we passed on buying more macarons and headed out for a walk in the (still cold) air and a quick look at the shops. It was getting late so we headed back to the apartment where Astrid had a lovely long sleep and Anto managed to head out to a train station and book our tickets for Le Mont St Michel.  He also managed to find me some red roses, which were selected and wrapped appropriately for a gift. It is nice having multiple flower shops in your street (and a lovely husband)!

We were trying to have a quiet day so in the afternoon we headed down to some shops for a quick wander. It was still cold (8 degrees all day) but exceptionally hot in the shops. It was also peak shopping time so we didn't last long before heading back to the apartment.  We did see yet another dog out wandering the shops with it's owner. We still can't get used to dogs being allowed everywhere. We noted on our Chateau visits that most of them allowed dogs, although some areas were restricted to dogs on leads or dogs being carried.

Since we weren't going out for a big night of celebrating we had dinner in our apartment and put the munchkin to bed before tucking into some of the many types of alcohol available at our supermarket (where their home-brand wine and liquor is superior to our 'good' stuff) and this delicious dessert., a St Paul which is layers of cake, mousse and meringue topped with almonds.  Tomorrow we are off to Luxembourg so we are hoping for a good nights sleep.

22 October - The Avenue des Champs-Élysées and the Arc de Triomphe

Unfortunately Astrid now has the nasty cold of death and had a bad night.  The poor little munchkin looks so unhappy and has snot pouring out of her as well as watery eyes. Luckily she is still in good spirits and enjoying her outings, even if she does look miserable.

The weather forecast was for a sunny day and low 20's so we thought we should make the most of it and do some sightseeing.  We headed out early and planned to walk down to the Champs-Élysées. We decided to take the scenic route along the river.

The last time we walked along her it was pre-sunrise, so things looked a little different today.  We noticed some of the funky street art opposite the Louvre:

The Seine was also looking pretty impressive yet again:

We finally made it to the start of the Champs-Élysées and slowly wandered down.  We didn't go into the shops but enjoyed seeing the grandeur of it all. We did note that the Cartier store doesn't bother opening before 10.30am!

It was quite warm out and we were getting a bit sweaty carrying an Astrid.  Regardless of the temperature French people seem to wander around in boots, coats, and scarves. Very odd, given that at these temps at home we would have on shorts and a T-shirt.  In need of a break we headed to Laduree for morning tea.  That place is seriously impressive.  Instead of our morning coffee we elected to have a hot chocolate. I'm not sure what Anto ordered us but it turns out it wasn't hot chocolate but a delicious cold chocolate drink that was probably about 90% cream. Astrid was also a huge fan! We also loved the silver jugs they came and poured it out of.

We admired the selection of scrumptious looking cakes and decided on a selection of macarons to take home with us for dessert.  They aren't cheap but by golly they looked good.  We decided it was time to escape before Astrid trashed the joint, and walked back up to the Arc de Triomphe.

Being such a nice day there were quite a lot of tourists milling around, but it still didn't take us long to make our way underneath the road to the Arc and buy our tickets to go up. As we had Astrid in the carrier we were allowed to use the lift up to the main area, meaning there weren't too many steps. The lift had a glass roof and it was quite an interesting ride up.  Once out on top of the Arc, we had a fantastic view of Paris. It is interesting seeing all the avenues radiating from the Arc.  Astrid also enjoyed running around and waving bye-bye to all the tourists.

''

We headed back down the spiral stairs, not good for my vertigo but an interesting walk. We walked around under the Arc and got some good snaps and looked at the tomb of the unknown soldier. The detail in the Arc is quite impressive and photos don't do it justice.

It was getting late so we caught the metro back to our apartment for some lunch of fresh baguette and let the sick munchkin have a sleep. She was in a good mood still considering how sick she was.

After her nap we headed to Jardin Des Halles for a play. It is much more pleasant there when it's 20 odd degrees and not raining! Astrid enjoyed her play. Every time we are at a playground we note that French mothers (and nannies) don't pay much attention to their kids. Kids are constantly falling over, hurting themselves, screaming and generally getting up to mischief and being ignored by their carers.  They look at us like we are weird for supervising her on the equipment and not allowing her to go face first down the slide.

Back to the apartment for some packing for Switzerland and some dessert of Laduree macaron........ yes they were delicious. We think the Salted Caramel was our favourite with honourable mentions to the vanilla and citron.