Paris Day VII

Playing: When It's Time-Green Day
Rereading: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket

On the seventh day of my vacation to France with my family, we started out at the Place Vendôme. For some reason, everyone there was lined up along the corners in a checkerboard fashion, so I decided to blend in and stand in one of the empty corners with them. Afterwards, I walked along La Rue de Faubourg Saint-Honoré to look at all the designer stores that I don't have in California along with taking a side trip to the most famous Chanel store on Rue Cambon.

The Palais Garniére is fairly close by and since I'm a fan of Phantom of the Opera, we decided to visit it before finding lunch. It's absolutely splendid inside and the building is very intricate with its internal decorations. Like Versailles, it would be a complete dream to have a huge ball here with everyone going about in their ball gowns and tuxedos. Even though it was hard for us to find a time when the opera house was open, I highly recommend checking up on it whenever you walk by because it's really something you should see.

Since the Galeries Lafayette was close by, we stopped there for lunch at the cafe, which had a lovely view of the city. Out of all the restaurants I had been to, this cafe offered the widest arrange of drinks including Blood Orange Orangina, which I have never seen before. Both the Tarte aux Fraises and the Pates au Carbonara were good, but pretty standard. It was extremely filling and if you like bacon, the carbonara is probably something you'd love.

Next on our trip was the Centre Pompidou and just for the record, the area around this museum is kind of sketchy and smells like weed. However, the museum itself is a lot of fun and is like one big fun house only you can't touch anything...It's definitely a place that focuses on fun art and modern stuff that my parents usually interpret as "bullshit," so it may not be your cup of tea. I loved it though and would highly recommend this to people interested in all that's quirky, fun, and a bit wonky.

Despite the general no touch rules in most museums, the Centre Pompidou had some interactive art that you could literally walk into. This one from Jean Dubuffet called "Le Jardin d'Hiver" was a particular favorite of mine. With uneven, black and white surfaces, it felt like you were in some cave meant for a Tim Burton film.

While walking back to our hotel, we ended up in the general area of all the designer stores we had visited that morning and decided to get dinner at Cuisine&Confidences. Unfortunately, the menu was kind of vague, so I ordered something from the portion titled "You Can't Go Wrong" and got La Grande Zaza. It was described as roasted chicken with marinated peppers, cheese, and prosciutto with a side of fennel scented pickled vegetables. I was expecting an actual chicken breast or something topped with cheese and peppers, but it ended up being more like a deli plate. This was probably the only mediocre meal I had in France unfortunately.

Since I was still hungry after the deli plate for dinner, I stopped by a deli to grab some pate baked within bread, which was surprisingly good. I tried some pate breads from several places and for the most part, they all tasted the same with the exception of some jam in the middle of some, while others had nuts mixed in. It would've been nice if the bread was more evenly mixed throughout it, so that it was a roll because the center portion of pate was very rich on its own.

PS I'm wearing an Ann Taylor LOFT tank top, an Ann Taylor LOFT sweater, a Marc Jacobs necklace, Converse Sneakers, silence+noise shorts,Givenchy earrings, and a Coach purse.