Paris Day 2: Le Shopping, Le Quick, Le Queen!

Friday Morning, we decided to head out kind of early and have a fun-filled morning of Paris shopping and wandering...which meant we had to go to the two biggest department stores in the city, Printemps and Gallerie LaFayette.

We headed across the street for an early breakfast-- I went for the very Parisian Croissant with Cafe au Lait. It was some of the best money I spent there. The coffee was delicious, the crossant was warm mm mm good. After we filled up, we headed down the metro and jumped off at Boulevard Haussmann which was bustling with shoppers, families and lots of street vendors selling "Le Cadeux parfait pout Noel!" (the perfect gift for Christmas). And of course, one of them was the perfect gift for a few of you....


Inside the stores, we were bombarded by fashion and glamour. The women's section in these stores is divided by designer, and each part has it's own unique design, planned by the designer. It was really awesome to see and touch the clothing that I had seen in all the magazines over the past few months -- Dior, Roberto Cavalli, Gucci...it was neat. The clothes were brilliant. But of course, we couldn't buy them, so we headed out of Printemps pretty quickly to find some more reasonable shopping areas.

In the Gallerie, we witnessed one of the biggest, if not THE biggest christmas tree I have ever seen in my life. It was so beautiful, and the building it was in was decadent and excessively opulent. It was so cool to go up each floor and get a different perspective on the ornaments. At the top top floor, Jules and I started to get into shopping mode, and I ended up buying a very special gift for my grandmother! (I hope you like it Meme :) It was a great time! Everything was so holiday-like without being totally insane, which was perfect.


After the Haussmann was finished, we headed back to the Champs Elysees for some French Fast Food, which we had seen the day before and wanted to try. It was from the chain "Quick" which I knew very well, as every French reader in middle school mentioned the chain, teaching you phrases like "let's meet at le Quick" and "hamburger avec fromage." It had to be done. Plus, we're students who want to eat cheap cheap cheap. Photos were taken, legs got a nice rest from the walking...a good time was had by all. Until I read that my burger was 637 calories. That killed the mood a little.

Then, we headed back on the Champs and went in and out of some stores, waiting for our movie to start! We were going to see "Scoop" by Woody Allen. I would have loved to see a french movie, but Jules doesn't speak french so that would have really sucked for her. Meantime, we headed into Sephora and tried perfumes and shopped for gifts again. The new Dior perfume for women was especially lovely-- we had seen ads for it all around the city and had to try it. Delicious. We also went into fnac, the French equivalent of Best Buy, and listened to french cd's on those head-phone stations for a while. We even came across the new Jay-Z cd, which is AMAZING and I'm definitely giving it to ______ for christmas.

Finally it was time to head to the movie, which was actually a pretty big disappointment. Apparently I'm not in tune with the Woody Allen humor. Hugh Jackman was a pleasure to look at those. *swoon* (Didn't you meet him Uncle Dave? My jealousy factor just spiked a little bit)

Post movie, we headed home for a while and waited for a call from my friend Reo, who is studying in Paris this semester. Around 9pm, we got a call and headed out to the "Bastille," a very very cool part of the city that is pedestrian-friendly and full of great nightlife. We met up and headed for a late dinner at an italian restaurant for some Pizza, then walked down the street for drinks at a place called "Havanita" that was a cuban-themed restaurant/bar. It was packed and had very cute waiters wearing tight shirts. We then decided to head back to the Champs and go to one of the greatest clubs in paris, called "Le Queen" (BIG BIG WINK). Yes, friends, it's a drag club.

Le Queen was, in a word, fabulous. The men were well dressed, respectful, and, well, gay. The music was french techno all night long and the DJ was very good at mixing and everything. We danced and danced until we couldn't feel our toes. The Club only got started around 1:30am, and we stayed until about 4:15. There were two big blocks in the middle of the dance floor, each of which served as a dancing stage for a demure guy in drag and an austentatious man in a very small pair of shorts. They were great performers and we ended up grabbing a free CD from Mr. Small pants (the music is terrible, of course). We made the decision to hang out with Reo until 5:30 or so, when the metro opened and he could get home again--nobody should walk home alone. And yes, you read correctly...when the metro REOPENED. What on earth were we thinking?

I'll tell you what we were thinking! The same thing that everyone else in Paris was thinking == dessert at 4am! As you can imagine, the restaurants all along the Champs stayed open as long as the clubs were to accommodate the late-night tourists and Parisians who needed a place without loud music to have a second to recollect themselves. It was fun, even though we were bleary eyed wanderers at this point. I swear my chocolate cake was the most delicious thing ever, though. After we finished the sugary creations, Reo walked Juliana and I home, just a few blocks away, and hung out with us in our room until the metro was open again. What a night. It was about 6am when we finally hit the hay. Needless to say, the next morning did not begin as early. In fact, I believe my final words to Jules were "hell no, we are not setting an alarm."