‘Giggling makes me floppy’

Carli did a sterling job of leaving the hotel at 8am in an attempt to miss the crowds at the Eifel Tower as Tuck and I slept in.  Both turning our alarms off (some of my habits have obviously rubbed off on her) and waking instead at 9.30am. 

We made our way to the Champs Élysées as Tuck had some serious shopping in mind (her dream, my nightmare).  Luckily we were late because Carli had been crushed in the crowds of the Eifel tower and had taken 3 hours to wait in line, climb it, decide that going right to the top was not worth it due to crowds and then meet us.

I saw ‘Art vs. Science’ play in London and have had their song ‘Parlez vous francais’ stuck in my head, I have been attempting renditions of it for the girls since we got here.  It goes something like this ‘The Champs Élysées is a busy street...Parlez vous Francais, Parlez vous Francaise (repeat)’.  The girls had been begging for me to either shut up or at least a sing a few more lines of the song but as I proved to them by playing the real version, it’s just so obviously amazing it doesn’t need any more lines and by the time we were walking on the Champs Élysées I had at least one of them singing it. 

There was a pair of shoes that Tuck had been trying to find in Longchamp for about 300 euro.  Carli and I were prepared to allow the purchase if she could prove their worth.  After the words ‘ballet flat’ came into the conversation, we immediately staged an intervention (luckily they also didn’t have the colour she wanted otherwise we may have had to buy her quite a few crepes as consolation).  

We all ended up buying something from the Champs Élysées.  Tuck bought some sunglasses which finally forced the security guard in Rayban take a step back. Carli got a sunglasses case and I bought another jump suit (even though I had promised myself that any unnecessary purchases were not allowed on this trip, especially on the Champs Élysées).  But it’s a short jump suit, and almost as fun as my happy pants. 

We decided to give the Louvre another chance and began the long walk, stopping only for another nutella crepe for Tuck and Carli.  We walked through the Jardins de Tuilleries which were beautiful, although annoyingly (like every park in Paris) the grass was fenced off to disappointingly ensure a ban on frolicking. 

We left Carli to see the Louvre and Tuck amiably came with me to see Le Pere Lachaise cemetery.  I have a strange affinity to cemeteries which I’ve had since I was young, I don’t know why it is, my mum is the same.  But for me they are quiet, lonely and introspective places. 

I had been to La Pere Lachaise cemetery last time I was here and just felt the need to go back.  But it was hot and we had walked all day.  So we made our mission to see Oscar Wilde’s grave and then head back to the hotel. 

I forgot to leave a kiss this time

Walking home got a little ridiculous, counting the minutes and kilometres, having power walking spurts to help get it over with, and then falling into giggles about nothing (this did not help our already compromised co ordination). Giggling makes you floppy and a Frenchman rudely shushed us.

We had a rest at the hotel but the picnic idea had caught on and we went on a mission for our second picnic of Paris.

The trip to the supermarket involved cheese, bread, meat, olives, dip, sundried tomatoes and wine (we had to choose the only screw tops there because none of us had a bottle opener).  I think it’s interesting that all the wines, no matter their price, are still all corked.

We got the metro to the river and found a tiny bit of grass to sit on and spread out our picnic.  It was one of the most enjoyable evenings. We sat, talked, ate and transferred wine into our water bottles (no glasses).  And by the end of the evening were getting a little silly, from the wine and also from the fact it was our last night together in France

Late in the evening we started walked back to the hotel, we may have been a bit happy on the wine and we smashed the walk even with the giggling. 

There was the decision of going out or not...inside the hotel we looked at maps and places to go, but as Tuck and I looked over to our left, Carli was asleep and we decided it was best not to drag her out. We also had to get up early in the morning and had had such a great night that going out wasn’t necessary.