Celebrating 30 Years of Bliss: Hop On, Hop Off. . .

Today was the day to ride the big open topped red bus around the City for a quick orientation. A touristy thing to do I know, but it is a great way to find out where all the famous sites are for a later visit. Plus it's a great deal - only 24 Euro for two whole days. So after a coffee, tea and pastry at the cafe across the street we were off to catch the bus at the Eiffel Tower stop.

Here are a few sights from the bus:

Beautiful Pont Alexander

Notre Dame

Boats on the River Seine

The Ritz Carlton Hotel - Where Princess Diana was before her fatal car crash

Hotel des Invalides

We only "hopped off" once today at the Champs Elysees stop to marvel at the Arch de Triomphe and walk up and down this famous avenue. The street itself was impressive with it's wide, tree-lined sidewalks. However, the shops...not so much...to me anyway. Many of the shops are the same that we have at home including the Gap, Disney, L'Occitane, H&M. There was also a Sephora shop but it was much larger than any of the stores at home.

Louis Vuitton Store Window

Cheesy picture

One store that we definitely do not have at home, but I so wish we did is the wonderful Laduree. This store is filled with wonderful pastries, chocolates, and those beautiful French macaroons. Unfortunately, they only keep for 4 days in the fridge so I won't be able to bring any home - sorry! There was also a wonderful Tea Salon that looked like the perfect place to rest after a long day shopping and some sort of very fancy bar in the back of the store - lovely!

Thinking that the cafes on the Champs would be overpriced we took a side street and found a little bistro - Le Chateaubriand - that was almost empty when we went in but filled quickly within 15 minutes. We ordered two plats du jour that included a starter, main course and dessert all for 17 Euro. Scott started with the French onion soup, a chicken dish for the main, and chocolate mousse for dessert. I started with a tomato salad, the the duck confit, and the special house tart. All delicious! The duck was tender with lots of crispy skin and both main dishes came with french fries or frites as they say here.

Terrine de Lapin (Rabbit pate with salad and toast)

Home for a rest and a skype call with Briana, Diego and Bella. Diego, being the smart kid that he is, figured out all kinds of things to do with Skype so he kept sending me rows of emoticons long after I was done talking to him. We've created a monster.

We had dinner reservations at 8:30 for a restaurant across the street from our apartment called Au Bon Accueil. It was recommended in Ina Garten's Paris cookbook and now I know why. I had heard that it was under new management and not as good but we thought it was fabulous! A very nice restaurant with wonderful service and the food was well prepared.

I warned you all that there would be lots of pictures of food so here's what we had tonight: