Paris, our last full day

---

We decided to catch the 8:15 train from Epernay back to Paris. We had an early breakfast at L'Interface and before leaving Didier asked to take our picture for his digital picture frame display. He said he will also email us a picture. We took a picture of Didier and his wife as well. It was easy getting on the train today as we didn't have to cross any tracks! The trip back to Paris took about 1 hr and 45 minutes. We were able to easily find our way through the Gare De l'Est back to the subway and find Metro 4 to take us back to Metro 1 and our exit at the Tuileries. We went to the Renaissance Paris Vendome Hotel and were a little too early to check in so we walked on Rue St. Honore trying to find an outdoor food market. Of course the hotel sent us off in the direction to a marche that we couldn't find. We walked past Place Vendome and then past all of the Haute Couture flagship stores all the way to the Palais De L'Elysee and then turned back and walked to Place De La Madeleine and the Ste. Marie Madeleine church. From here we found our way to the Opera Palais Ganier where we wanted to see the ceiling painted by Marc Chagall but there was a rehearsal going on and we could not get admittance to see the ceiling. We decided we would try to get back later in the day to see if the rehearsal was over, so we headed back towards the hotel to St. Roch where we found the small marche (the one we set out looking for earlier) and looked at the fruits, vegetables, cheeses and pastries for sale. When we got back to the hotel our room was ready (again we were upgraded!) and we received our confirmation for reservations at Aux Lyonnais for 9 pm, a Alain Ducasse brasserie not too far from the Opera. After we got settled we ventured out for lunch to Au Pied de Cochon (the foot of the pig) restaurant that is open 24/7 and known for their delicious onion soup. It was about a 20 minute walk from the hotel and we decided that by the time we navigated through the Metro it would be faster and easier just to directly walk there. We each had onion soup (and it lived up to its reputation). Michael had the Pied de Cochon special (which resembled a shephards pie) and I had steak tartare with pommes frites. After lunch we took the Metro to Madeleine to find the Maille mutarde store. We brought our empty ceramic Maille jars all the way from Florida back to this store for a refill. We chose the mutarde vin blanc for the refills.
When we finished we walked to the largest malls in Paris, just across from the Opera Garnier - Printemps and Galleries Lafayette. I cannot explain how busy this area was - the streets were so full of people that you had to fight to hold on to your space. The entrance and escalator into Printemps was packed - we had to fight to stay together and not get separated! There were seven floors of shopping and the place was packed! Each designer had their own boutique. The entire 5th floor was just for shoes! There were no sales, just signs that said NEW fashion. We took the escalator all the way up to the top floor and then back down before exiting and finding our way to the Galleries Lafayette Gourmet where we wandered for almost an hour looking at athe fromage, charcuterie, fois gras, black and white truffles, poisson, fruit and vegetables, champagne bar, sandwich area, chocolats, mutardes, sushi....we bought some cute Eiffel Tower pasta for gifts and some Evian. We left the gourmet store and crossed an outdoor walkway to the mall Galleries Lafayette store where we bought a kitchen towel that had the entire Metro system on it. This will always be a reminder of our travels through the Metro system of Paris! This store was just like Printemps, equally as busy and people were buying! We found some perfume for Maxy; Ricci, Ricci just released on August 24th and made our purchase just before leaving to find our way once again to the Opera Garnier with hopes to see the Chagall ceiling. Now the rehearsal was over but the tour was closed. I guess some things are just not meant to be. As we walked to the front of the Opera house there was a huge crowd on the steps watching some local break dancers performing for tips in their hats. We rested our weary feet for a while watching the performance before heading off to Aux Lyonnais where we thought we would see if they would accommodate a request for an earlier reservation. We found our way to Rue St. Marcs (and didn't get lost until we turned the wrong way - of course this was the way the concierge told us to turn!) and we had to stop at another restaurant to ask for directions. He used his iPhone to google the map to send us off, just a few blocks behind us to the restaurant. We got there at 19:15 and they were preparing to open at 19:30. They were very friendly but were not able to accomodate our request for an earlier reservation stating that all their tables were confirmed. We asked to look at the menu to decide if we should try and wait it out and we decided that since we still had to pack for our journey home that we would cancel our reservation. We returned to a little zagat rated bistro that we passed looking for Aux Lyonnais, Le Gavroche where we had a bottle of house wine, Cote de brouilly. Michael had Blanquette de veau and country pate (fois gras) and I had brochette de gottes (lamb) and millefleuill (Napolean) for dessert. Michael had a baba rum for dessert and boy was it loaded with rum!!!! We found our way past the Hard Rock cafe on Grands Boulevards to the Metro station where we transferred trains at Franklin D. Roosevelt to Tuileries. This was our last night in Paris.
I packed for almost an hour trying to get everything safely into the suitcases for our trip back to the US.

---

Photos

Galleries Lafayette
Look at the ceiling!

Gavroche
Look at the menu