Paris - Day 1 - Part 5 - Champ Elysees

After spending some time at l'arc de triomphe, it's time to roam the Champ Elysees and check out the stores and hopefully some 'makan' place.

Louis Vuitton, house of leather and luxury bags

Champ Elysees, quite crowded always.

Throng of people walking, people seeing at Champ Elysees

The traffic is heavy as usual, taken middle of the road, a bit scary.

Mercedes Benz as taxi, luxury car.

Speaking of luxury car, for €89, you can have this for a ride. Not sure for how long.

Missus offered but I decline, who wants to drive a Lambo in a traffic jam ?

Right in a corner, noticed Laduree.

Laduree, founded in 1862 and undergone transformation on 1871 by Jules Cheret, a famous painter and poster artist and became the high end tea salon. Strictly no photography inside the building, I couldn't resist and snap a few. Pardon the photographs as these were taken without me focusing and looking at the viewfinder.

It took more than half an hour to reach at the end of the line.

These are the boxes for you to put the delicate and delicious Laduree items.

Google translate gave me 'Square tasting' and 'Milk, black or mix', no idea with it is.

All the different types of boxes.

Random snaps, bad focus.

There are pastries at the rack and servers packing the pastries up, exquisite painting and decor.

Laduree paper bag.

A small box with 6 exquisite macarons

Boxes for macarons, marshmallows and raspberry tart.

A choice of 6 different macarons in the Napoleon III boxes, if I remember correctly from left : Chocolate, Coffee, Pistachio, Violet, Passion Fruit, Chocolate Pure Origin Santo Domingo.

The Laduree macarons are exquisite, the crust is not hard when you bite it, it is not too sweet either. Then, you will taste the soft and spongy inner crust. The most important  is the filling, the sharp taste and aroma of the flavour melts in your mouth. The macarons have no after taste, quite surprisingly, not even a tinge of icing sugar. To me, this is the most exquisite texture and taste of macarons so far, the best !!

Tarte Passion Framboise (Passion Raspberry Tart)

Adjourned for the night after a long travel, more walking for the next day ...

Paris - Day 1 - Part 4 - The hotel and the arch

A feeling of anticipation as we headed back to the hotel to check in and place the luggage with a short rest. Hopefully we will get a nice room without much traffic noise as we had specified earlier. Check in was quick and the hotel is equipped with free wifi.

 The queen sized bed with the colour tones slightly loud.

The bath tub and the bathroom sink.

 Complimentary soap, shower gel and shampoo from l'Occitane

Overall, the hotel room is pretty nice and it is sheltered from the front traffic sound. It isn't crampy or small but not huge too. It's neat and nice. Also, at this time of the year, the air conditioning is switched off, if it gets too stuffy, just open up the window.

Took a short rest and sorted out the luggage and out we go venturing again. So far, we have not seen any famous monument, so it's time to go to the l'Arc de Triomple ( The arch of triumph ). We referred to the GPS unit to guide us there.

The arch of triumph is located at the Place Charles de Gaulle

Charles De Gaulle is famous brigadier general of France during World war II and he fled to Britain and fought against the Germans. The arch of triumph is a monument to honour those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic War with the names of all french victories and generals inscribed at the monument.

Quite heavy traffic at the l'arc de triomphe 

This monument is inspired after the Arch of Titus:

Arch of Titus, Rome, Italy

 Le Depart de 1792( The departures of 1792)

Le Triomphe de 1810( The triumph of 1810)

 Finding the underground pass is not easy, one cannot just walk across the road to the arch. One you go through the underground pass, you will see the inscribed names and battles.

Names of the heroes of army of the French Republic

The opposite wall with names of heroes.

The battel of Austerlitz

To go up to the top, you will need to go through a security check and lots of stairs, because the arch is 50 metres in height.

 From google translate, 'Jangan menconteng atas dinding'

The road on the right is the Av. des Champ Elysees and the left is Av. de Friedland.

The road at the left is Av. Marceau and the right is Av. d'lena.

The road to the right is Av. Kleber.

Av. Charles de Gaulle, the furthest end is the Esplanade de la Defense.

Another view from the top of the arch.

Souvenir shop inside the arch.

Miniatures at the souvenir shop

Marechal Ney nicknamed as 'The Bravest of the brave' named as one of the 18 marshalls by Napoleon.

 Bling bling souvenir, €35 for one, rather expensive and these are heavy souvenirs.

After the flight of stairs, we are back down at ground level.

Lot of tourists, as usual.

The famous speech by Charles de Gaulle on 18 June 1940 rallying the French people to resists the Germans

The eternal flame for the Tomb of the unknown soldier.

After visiting the arch, it's time to walk to avenue of Champ Elysees where the high end shopping and dining are.

The traffic and the amount of people at avenue of Champ Elysees.

Is the Champ Elysees the most beautiful avenue in the world ? Hmm, not sure, maybe. Check out the shops at the avenue.