The Galeries Lafayette is an upmarket French department store chain. Its flagship store is on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris but it now operates in a number of other locations in France and other countries. In 2009, Galeries Lafayette recorded earnings of over one billion euros.
Wikipedia Link
Only two reasons for coming to this site. The obvious would be for the high end, name brand shops. There be lines of
customers waiting just to be served by a saleperson for something as simple as a name brand bag. The other reason is to take a few pics while standing on the
glass walkway a few stories of the main floor. It is not for those who
fear heights, but it is great for
couples pics.
The La Maison le Gourmet
is the food market/grocery store of the Galeries Lafyette with the ground floor serving cooked food and the basement serving as a grocery store....the finest in Paris
www.salutfromparis.com
This is a totally separate building from the high end goods store that is the Galeries Lafyette. The place is nothing more than a high end grocery store akin to the quality of foods once found at the Westfield Mall in San Francisco, serving
high end meats and vegetable/fruit. Granted the food is high quality stuff, but seriously over priced. One can even eat onsite at the many eateries in the complex. We chose not to.
The Tuileries Garden is a public garden located between the Louvre and the Place de la Concorde in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France. Created by Catherine de' Medici as the garden of the Tuileries Palace in 1564, it was eventually opened to the public in 1667 and became a public park after the French Revolution
Wikipedia Link
For our group the Tileries Garden was nothing more than a
scenic path to get from one end of Paris to another without taking the Metro. Granted we wisked on by the Lourve
and the nice
picnic spots
all along the park, but while I stopped every now and then to take pics
of the
Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel (the smaller version of Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile),
statues and foliage, we didn't really spend the time we did at the Luxemburg
Garden at our first stay in Paris. We did however take in a nice lunch at the
Cafe Des Marronniers in the cener of the garden. I broke
down and had a fairly expensive (17,50€) "Cantal" burger which came with fries.
Nothing like getting one's hands on an expensive burger and enjoying the
decadent goodness. Sitting across from us however was a family of four
with papa wolfing down his burger using a knife and fork.
The Musée d'Orsay is a museum in Paris, France, on the Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1914, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography.
Wikipedia Link
We had to choose between the Louvre or the Orsay. We decided on
the Orsay because we felt it would leave a better impression on us. That and
we didn't have the time or patience to wait to get into the Louvre. As I
have not visited a museum in a very long time, the wow factor of visiting one
in a foreign country was just that....WOW. There was so much to see from
the paintings of the great masters to the sculptures and private donations.
I found out there are three statues of liberty. The original one sits
in NYC, one on the Promenade in Nice and one in the Orsay. A shame
however that my phone ran out of juice.
The Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile is one of the most famous monuments in Paris, France, standing at the western
end of the Champs-Élysées at the centre of Place Charles de Gaulle, formerly named Place de l'Étoile — the étoile or "star" of the juncture formed by its twelve radiating avenues
Wikipedia Link
One can't simply cross the street to the island of a roundabout to get to the Arc....at least not a safe way to
get there. There's actually an
underground tunnel access. Within the tunnel is the
admission entrance that will permit the visitor to wander to the top as
well as an exit onto the roundabout island. As with the Eiffel Tower,
the Arc De Triomphe is another one of those marvels of architecture and art.
The sculptured faces of the Arc displayed scenes from famous events in
French
history which included the
Roman influence.
The Avenue des Champs-Élysées is an avenue in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France, 1.9 kilometres long and 70 metres wide, running between the Place de la Concorde and the Place Charles de Gaulle, where the Arc de Triomphe is located.
Wikipedia Link
The famed avenue is what you'd expect a downtown main street
to be. The big name stores could be found here, but for the most part, they
were THE Paris stores to visit. One notable store was
Louis Vuitton, aka the LV store.
We apparently passed by the store before opening, but even then there was a
line a half a block long just to get in. Also seen were
Disney,
Five Guys and
McDonalds. And yes, there was the Champs-Élysées branch of the
Galeries Lafayette. They had a uni-sex restroom which consisted only of
toilet stalls...no urinals. Two rows of faucets draining into a sloped
counter served as the entrance.
BTW, did you know there's a
song about
this famous avenue?