Left late, going to do the touristy stuff; Eiffel Tower, Champs-Élysées, Seine etc. The weather was not great, a bit overcast and about 14c, but forecast to brighten up so I didn’t bother with a jacket. Stopped off at Starbucks.
Got the metro to the Eiffel Tower, past the Australian Embassy (quite an ugly building), turned the corner and there it was, always impressive. It’s amazing to think it was supposed to be temporary.
Song took about 3 million photos, then we started to walk towards the Champs-Elysees and got approached by the first scammer, a woman with a clipboard. This is either the “please sign this petition for something and while you are distracted my accomplice will steal from your backpack”, scam or the “please look at these poor orphans and donate to them, honestly the money goes to them and not to me or my Albanian boss I promise” one.
After a few minutes a guy walked towards us, bent down and picked up a ring. I must say he was very good, the ring appeared out of nowhere. Ah, the famous Paris gold ring scam where he offers to sell this very valuable gold ring to me for only 20 Euro, it’s a bargain. Of course, the ring is worthless.
Walked along the river, arrived at the Alexander 3 bridge, took more photos then walked to the Champs-Élysées to find somewhere to eat, but went back a few streets away from all the tourist restaurants.
Walked past The Élysées Palace, where the French president lives, every corner of the streets nearby had at least 2 police, some armed with assault rifles. There was also a couple of ministry buildings there.
Tired of walking, we found a nice bistro and sat down. I had a starter of prawn cocktail, Song had melon and jambon. I had turbot encased in potato with salad, Song had duck with a potato thing and we swapped halfway through. I also had a glass of white wine. The place was pretty busy and I suspect was a haunt of the government workers because the meal was 96 euro ($170 AUD), probably the most expensive lunch we’ve ever had.
We walked up the Champs-Élysées, past the Louis Vuitton building site that was done up to look like a suitcase, then Song realised we still hadn’t spent all of our money and went to buy a couple of handbags (not LV thankfully) but we didn’t have our passports to get the tax back so we’d have to wait until we got to the airport.
Feeling tired, got the metro back to the hotel but picked up some bread and a couple of cakes for dinner.
Tomorrow is the flight to Singapore where we stop over for a day, not sure if we’ll just crash or go out.