Summer Vacation - Week 4 - Day 7 in Paris

By all accounts looking back at the pictures, Day 7 may have been our busiest day in Paris.  We were out all day long and into the late evening but man did we have a good time.  Our day included a tour of the Opera (Palais Garnier), shopping at Galeries Lafayette, an evening at Musée du Louvre, followed by some hanging out and playing in the parks in Jardin des Tuileries.

Lily and Raquel have discovered a true love for baguettes by have realized the Boulangerie patisserie's are only open in the mornings on most days.  So now they just buy there baguette for walking around town.  It really is funny to see.  Lily is also on a once every two day x two macaroon habit.  Her favorites continue to be the macaroons from the famous Laduree, which by the way are the MOST expensive in town, but man are there shops cute.  We have tried many other shops by the way, but she continues going back to Laduree. 

It is probably a good time to also mention how cheap some things are compared to the U.S. (while others remain very expensive like a soda).  The cheeses may be the winners here.  You can get a big round of brie at the supermarket for 1 euro.  Maybe not the best, but the good stuff is only 2 euros.  So cheese, baguettes, rose and an occasional crepe make the world a really happy place for all of us.

Here are some pictures from our very busy day.  Also important to note, we walked everywhere. No metro for us!

Outside the Paris Opera (Palais Garnier) - built in an Italian style in the early 1900s which is quite new by all standards, but amazingly beautiful.  They show operas and ballets on a regular basis still here today.

Ceiling inside the main stairway

Costumes from previous Operas

Inside one of the amazing halls in the Opera

 Amazing ceilings

 The cool thing about the ceilings was that they were themed something different in each room

This ceiling might have been my favorite

And Lily loved feeling like a ballerina

Lily and Raquel in the balcony seats

Next up was some quality time at Galleries Lafayette which is the famous and very large department store in central Paris (very near the Opera).  We decided to go in and have a look, especially since they were having one of their city wide two times per year annual sales.  They actually had some good deals.  The name brands were off the charts.  They had all of them for women, kids, and men.  They also had an entire floor devoted to women's shoes.  It was a little overwhelming but fun none the less.  They also have an amazing food court on the sixth floor where you can get food from all over the world and sit and watch the views of the Eiffel Tower.  Not a bad gig at all.  Below are some photos of the inside of the Galleries Lafayette.  It was worth it just to see the beauty inside. 

After a brief break back at our apartment to recharge our feet, we hit the Louvre finally.  We were waiting until Raquel could get in for free and Friday evenings are the perfec time.  The other bonus was that the crowds had died down and we could even get up close and personal to the Mona Lisa.  Although she is behind bullet proof glass so the pictures were a bit challenging.

We wrapped up our evening with some play time in the Jardin des Tuileries (beautiful gardens just outside of the Louvre).  Lily met some nice French children at the playground and played until well after 9pm at which point we finally headed back to our Paris apartment.