Day 45: Arc de Triomphe, Champs-Élysées , & Eiffel Tower

Thursday, October 10th

We awake in Paris. What a dream. We slept in due to the time change. We then venture out to see the Arc de Triomphe. It’s just a couple minute walk from our place. We journey down Avenue des Champs-Élysées. This is where all the shopping is. We popped in and out of a few stores. We had breakfast/lunch at Le Deauville. It was just an overpriced restaurant right off the main strip, but we were starving. It was okay, but nothing special! The little hole in the wall restaurants are always the best.

Next stop, the Eiffel Tower. We take a back street, where you can get some of the most beautiful photos walking down the middle of the street. I stumbled across this spot almost 10 years ago, and apparently so did many others, and instagram has probably blown it up, so it was pretty busy on the corner, but if you walk down a little further, you can get some better photos! We exchanged photos with another couple, and they turned out great. Around the Eiffel Tower is a big park and open grass, but due to the Olympics, this is all closed off. We were bummed that we couldn’t have out in the park and fences were up everywhere, but it was still a neat experience, and I am glad Christopher got to see it.  This made the pictures on the side streets much better.

We head back towards the Arc. We pop through a cool little drugstore right on the corner. It’s fancy inside, full of souvenirs, macaroons, and other goodies.

We do another walk down Champs-Élysées.  A little insider tip, be sure to walk up Champs-Élysées at sunset. We got so many beautiful photos. We ended up coming back to grab a snack at the Le Drugstore restaurant. Yes, this is what the restaurant is called, and it’s quite fancy! Christopher got some rock shrimp and a beer, and I got a glass of wine. We also got served a bunch of bread, which no one ever complains about complimentary bread.

We ended up going to dinner at a place just around the corner from us called La Flamme. It has so many gorgeous flowers on the outside, and inside is a fun retro vibe. Christopher got a pizza that was nothing special, but my Parisian salad was amazing! Of course after not eating all day and getting over 20,000 steps, we were still starving. We then went on a cold evening walk to Franprix to grab some more snacks to have in the hotel. We also got some dessert at Hagan Diaz on the way home. Salad + dessert = BALANCE ;) I love my dessert and will definitely save some calories for a little treat. We just shared two mini scoops of ice cream! It was the cherry on top to a great day.

Back in the room, we watched a little bit of Rings of Power before we both fell fast asleep.

My highlight today was taking silly videos at the Arc. We would show our faces gasping, then flip it around to the arc. We always have so much fun making silly videos together. Some people think it’s silly to “be on your phone” and not actually enjoy it, but we do enjoy it, and when we make content we both truly love taking artistic photos & Christopher finds so much joy in enhancing/editing photos. When I look back at all our photos I can see the love & joy in our eyes and on our faces. So personally, I never find that us snapping our live moments of happiness to cherish a lifetime takes away from the moment. There’s definitely times where we even forget to take photos and wish we did! My favorite is when we take certain pictures “just to show our kids” We never regret all the photos we take.

Christoper’s highlight today was “laughing at my expense”. Christopher was a little stressed out and cranky this morning, and I started fake pouting about my jeans being way too big (they have gotten lose from not washing & drying them as much) and being so cold. I loved that my discomfort was making him laugh and smile so much. We always joke & mess with one another saying, “I laugh at your expense.” but it’s just another way to actually cheer the other up.