Champs-Elysées

There's no better day in Paris that cruising some memories - love this city.

We're not at breakfast until after 10am, partly because I'm out of Cologne, we've just made an excuse to visit Chanel up the Rue at number 31. But no perfume, just handbags and glad rags in here :( They've purchased all the way back to the corner of Rue Saint-Honore and already have the remodelling underway, we're certain that means a return trip will see a bigger home for Gabrielle. I managed to snap a photo of Gab out the front of the Notre Dame de l'Assumption with the new Chanel and a Twizy in the background - what an omen!

We wiggle our way through Madeline to the park and up to Champs-Elysee. Staring right up at the Arc Gab bets me not once, but 4 times, that the world is back to front. Somehow this gift to directions is completely back to front, I'm offering her the $5k bag she's in love with from Chanel against just two wishes for me, she not only doubles down on her certainty, but two more than that she repeats her bet - I have 8 wishes in the bank :) We cross in front of the US Consulate on Ave Gabriel when I try to snap my trio dead in front of the street sign, the smiling guard must have been trained at Disney - she directs me to an alternate sign of the Ave without the US Consulate in the background, I wouldn't be that polite with that sort of hardware in my hands.

We quickly scope Adidas, but the Disney store is their real target, there isn't any new exciting combination of Disney & Paris worth owning so I'm across the road to sit over some Biere and fromage while the shoppers do their damage. They eventually follow me into the Cafe for a round of brunch before we cross back to the L'Occitane / Herme cafe. Between rounds of chemists, H&M and the tourist shop we're here for another hour before we hop an Uber to Jardins de Luxembourg.

Bliss! There is nothing better than scoring a recliner on the pond, a few bieres whilst fiddy man pushes a boat around the pond - love it. There's a storm threatening so we head back into Saint Germain in search of some old failures. I have a list of places I can never pull a table at, des Deux Magots and l'avant Comptoir de la mer. Tonight we're in luck, normally a queue around the corner and picky family palette keeps us away from l'avant comptoir de la mer, but tonight we're here just in time for the oysters to start getting shucked, we sneak a table at the back and I have a ball ordering tapas seafood to die for. Gab & Fid love the noodle friend prawns, the yuzu oysters and the un-touched ones are delicious but the deviled eggs with crab are my favourite - Bux digs on the heaping lump of beurre on the counter and big slab they cut her off to accompany her slabs of sourdough - she's still a committed any seafood princess, wouldn't even touch the delicious little pork sausages because they came from the same kitchen. Five year quest completed!

The Bux held it together through my seafood tapas odyssey so we're off to Galleries Lafeyette, they have bag she is busting for that wasn't at the Disney store earlier today. She's wanted it since she saw it last year in Tokyo. I also need to get that cologne we failed at this morning. We pick up both within minutes, very impressive shopping for this family. Now where?

We wander back towards the hotel and decide to relive our dinner at Cafe Paris-London, we're even greeted by the same waitress that served us our last breakfast here two years ago. She feigns a memory of us, but we all genuinely remember her. I can't find a picture of us here from 2016, but a 2015 picture of Fiddy man & Bux having the exact burger they're having tonight reveals both that the cafe has fallen victim to the fashion of the brioche, but more importantly these two little things have turned the corner from babes to annoyballs, I shed a tear at the transition.

We're home, a day of rekindling our shared memories of this wonderful city is the most I could have asked for, I fall asleep a totally lucky bastard.Lue lisää