I have never walked so much in my entire life as we have done so in Paris in the last week! 7 hours yesterday! Naturally there are frequent coffee stops to boost the meanderings. We left the apartment and took a route down the most incredible cobbled streets of amazing cheese shops, next to gorgeous patisseries.. You name it, I could have eaten it! One of my favourites was a stunning florist called 'Happy'! I had researched the ancient passageway arcades before leaving Oz so we headed through new fab neighbourhoods to explore those, they are a wow! Tiny exquisite shops specialising in all sorts of goodies from contemporary Art to ancient maps, the specialty shops we just loved in these arcades included a wooden cane walking stick shop, a shop selling gramophones, a cotton reel shop, and a shop selling everything you need for dolls houses, all beneath these amazing arcaded ceilings. We stopped in the passageway specialising in food, of course, for lunch (rabbit) and glass of rose wine, more sustenance before culture over load set in ha! Very funny moment at 1 point, we asked a suited gentleman to confirm a street and he replied 'I dunno luv I'm from the Gold Coast here on a conference!' We all roared laughing! When we emerged from these amazing arcades we were suddenly in the trendiest area ever! My fave shop in that neighbourhood was a stylised black shop selling only white orchids and also a baby clothes shop called 'Not so Big' . The hairdressers in these groovy parts all look like 21st century night clubs. No matter where you go in Paris every bar, cafe, brasserie, restaurant is constantly buzzing! Our body clocks have completely re-set themselves too - we ate at 1030pm after seeing the divine Paris Opera ballet 'Giselle' and had to wait for table. Needless to say that the Paris Opera House left me breathless, especially Chagall's painted ceilings! A completely full house at the ballet too - with even pull-down aisle seats. I would hate to imagine if someone called out fire! And wow are Parisians in to their ballet or what! Such an enthusiastic crowd with men in dinner suits calling out bravo after each pirouette, fantastic! Home to our gorgeous rented flat in the Anvers district (9th arrondissement) after dinner and guess what, from the lounge we can see the very top tip of the Eiffel tower! The night markets set up tomorrow night outside our apartment, more food temptations to come! Saturday night we are heading to the famous Buddha Bar and Sun is lunch in St Germain at Coco and Co with my dear Parisian girlfriend. Apparently Coco and Co is set up like a farm as they specialise in eggs! Mind you brunch is at 3pm! Rodin's sculpture gardens today as we ran out of time yesterday, oh boy when am I going to shop??! panic! This trip is all about discovering new neighbourhoods moment by moment... ah!
