Early morning start, wanted to be at Trocadero before sunrise to capture Eiffel pics. Were up at 6am, and out of the hotel before 7am. Sunrise was at 7:30am, by the time we got to Trocadero, sun was just breaking the horizon, not that we could see that, it had been a wet night and morning, as a result a lot of cloud cover, atleast there was no rain for the time being. A big big bonus, the cranes that were there a couple of days back were now gone!! Woohoo!! I thought we may be the only crazy ones there this early, was surprised to see 2 brides there for photo shoots and many other photo shoots taking place!! We were not the only crazy ones to wake up early for this .

Time to setup my tripod to snap away, creating memories to mark being in Paris after 20 years, last time we were both here was in Sept’98!

Trocadero done, ordered a UBER to Rue de Universite, the street with amazing views of Eiffel! Nita had identified the street through her instagram followings. The weather was playing games with us, light drizzle than stopped and than start again…. somehow we got lucky with a few pics.

Back to the hotel, it was past 9am by the time we got there, Neha & Pooja were still asleep, time for them to get up and get ready for breakfast. Plan now was to get to Galleries Lafayette – a massive department store in Paris, similar to Selfridges but bigger.

Asking the concierge for directions, he recommended the easiest and fastest way was the subway which was just opposite our hotel. Headed that way, first the tickets and then a bit of walk to get to the correct platform. Unlike London, subway stations here are not as clean – well it looked clean but smelled bad, smell of urine!! Also a few homeless people sleeping on the benches. Pooja was definitely not enjoying this and wanted to get out asap. Luckily the train came in the next minute and we were in that. The trains here were bigger but again not as clean. Got to our stop in no time, and were at the entrance to Galleries Lafayette – concierge was correct, this was soo efficient. Time to enter shoppers paradise!

Nita and Neha were having a ball at Galleries Lafayette – lots of ladies stuff there, me and Pooja were looking around, to be honest I was a bit over the place, there was only soo much window shopping I could do. Pooja located a Macaroons counter, why not, lets get that in us.

Roaming about in the mens department, we ran into Vik & Dian, decided to all visit Angelina – a famous dessert place. They had a store in Galleries Lafayette! Vik also mentioned the amazing views from the top level, you could see Eiffel tower. Me and Pooja headed there, Nita had already been there….

Next was Angelina, the entry counter  had the best cakes and macaroons …

Got seated, ordered a club sandwich, couple of cakes and chocolate drinks for all. Apparently their hot chocolates  is supposed to be the best, ladies skipped their mocha’s and also got hot chocolates. Drinks and food came soon, whilst the food was good, the drinks were all below par! Infact it was not worth drinking, all the hot chocolates and ice chocolates remained untouched. The chocolate tasted as if it had been watered down!!
Told the wait staff how very disappointed we were with the chocolate drinks, they were gracious enough to take this off our bill.
Time to head back to the hotel, stepping out, the rain was heavy!! Quickly got into the waiting cabs and off we went. Me and Vik decided to have an early dinner, it was just past 4pm, and since we all had skipped lunch, early dinner was looking like a good option.

We headed back to La Perla italian near our hotel, we had such an amazing experience on the first night, we were ready for a second round! Nita, Meeta, Vik and I all ordered the same dish – Gamberi Pesto Prawns – the best dish!! Kids had a mix of pasta and pizza, finished it off with a nice Tiramisu.

Markus at La Perla must have enjoyed us visiting him again, he gave us all a round of Limoncello shots! This is the best drink I have had in a while, soo refreshing!!

By 6pm, we were all done and there was still soo much daylight. Kids were all more than happy to get to the hotel by themselves, the four of us took off for a stroll along the market street.

Stopped by a cafe for some espresso and more chit chat.

We may have been there for more than 30 minutes just chatting, than it was time to head back to the hotel. Time for an early night, tomorrow was an early start heading to Disneyland Paris!

Neha’s vlog