Walking along Champs-Elysees

5/16/2012 04:56:00 PM |

While my mom was here last week, one of the first things we did is to walk along this famous street. Okay, I'll admit that I hadn't heard of it before, but once we started to research and talk to others about Paris, we heard that we just had to walk down this street. It's known for huge sidewalks, fancy shops, and even celebrities have been known to hang out here. No, we didn't see any celebrities. While we enjoyed our walk, it wasn't quite as fancy and exclusive as I thought it would be. We saw several chain stores and even a McDonald's. But it was still fun, and great for people watching!

We started our walk at Place de la Concorde, which was THE place to be during the Revolution (or not, depending on who you were). This area is the spot where the guillotine was, and over 2,000 people were beheaded!

The gold topped tower, the obelisk of Luxor, in the picture above is 3,300 years old! It was brought to this spot back in the 1830s to commemorate those people who died here.

I had to include this picture so you can see how huge
the lamp posts are. Notice Justin at the bottom of the picture!

The end of our walk will be at the Arc de Triomphe. We were there on a holiday, V-E day (which is the day they celebrate Victory in Europe from WWII), so the street was closed off when we first got there. I'm guessing there was some event going on, but we weren't sure what it was. The French flag looked so majestic hanging inside the Arc de Triomphe.

We stopped for lunch at a yummy cafe - the adults had quiche,
and the kids were happy with a baguette!

I guess the pigeons wanted lunch too! No, Anna didn't chase
these pigeons away. We had to set some rules for her
about pigeon chasing, after she chased pigeons, the pigeons almost hit some
people nearby!

One of my favorite places on our stroll was at Laduree. This is a fancy patisserie (pastry shop). Our guide book said it was a restaurant and tea room also, but they appeared to be renovating, so it was just a shop. But fine by us! We still enjoyed some yummy desserts!

We've learned about and started loving macaroons. They're like soft sandwich cookies
with icing in the middle. It tastes better than it sounds!

pink meringues for Anna

decadent chocolate/praline mousse cake

I can't remember what Kevin got, but you can tell he's
enjoying it!

I got a Mont Blanc, which is named after a mountain in France. The dessert was
kinda like a fancy cupcake with caramel like icing on top. Besides
the desserts, I loved the care that was taken with the packaging!

Horse display outside the huge Louis Vuitton store

Love the picture of the tiny car in front too. We've seen tons
of these small cars all around town.

When we arrived at the Arc de Triomphe, Kevin gave a brief history lesson to the kids. Basically, Napoleon had it built to commemorate one of his battles back in 1809, and now it's dedicated to the glory of all French armies.