Friday, April 23, 2010: Arc de Triomphe

(Karannina) After breakfast we 'Metro it' to the Arc de Triomphe with bagets in hand. We climbed another set of scary steps because we had to climb going up in circles and the steps were warn out from the thousands of tourists that have previously climbed it. I got to do some interactive statue viewing, where it helped me see close-ups of the stone statues telling the history of civilization during Napoleon's time. It was great to see traffic, the many streets connecting to the round-about from the very top of the Arc de Triomphe. The statues that used to be on top of the tower no longer are standing on top (we discovered two sets of the statues on top of the two towers of the Grande Palais). Mom and I had some fun in the ladies room with the mirror. After climbing down the scary stairs we find the memorial of the Unknown Soldier and played bouncy ball. Then we walk down the Champs Elysees and discovered a wonderful souviener shop among many other expensive high end upper class shops (a watch with a ring of diamonds around 129,000E). Among the many upper scale shops are car dealerships, but not like in Canada. For example, the Citroen showroom displayed seven concept cars (prototypes) stacked one above each other with the top one SURVOLT (Mike, wouldn't this be a cool car to ride), a full electric sports car. This is one car of my dreams. Dad and I got 'oxgenated' with four different Citroen aromas. At the bottom of the stack, was a Citroen rally racing car which had won three races. I experienced the racing sound of rally racing in a simulator. I captured mom and dad kissing within a modern art statue of peace. Alexander spotted a Lamborgini with scissor doors (hey Mike, what about this car?). Mom and I dragged dad and Alex into Sephora, a expensive perfumery. I felt very out-of-place here with all the make-up and perfumes. During the time we were there, we heard music that was especially composed for this store call Sephora. At another souvenier shop, Mom and I purchased chic berets and wore them on the Champs Elysees feeling like a real Parisian. Alexander bought a whistler and caught the attention of many Parisian women (oohlala). Cool bike rentals. And we saw a sculpure of "life and death". We finished with chocolate and raspberry ice-cream with fresh strawberries - I need to stop writing before the ice cream melts.