This morning we sat in on a 50-minutes movie summarizing 2000 years' culture and history of Paris. Thus boosted we crossed the street and spent some time in the luxury department store Galeries Lafayette, named after the French general Gilbert du Motier de Lafayette, who fought for the Americans in the Independence War against the British forces in the early 1780'ies.
Lafayette's interior was absolutely stunning.
Especially impressive was the vast glass/cast iron cupola.
However, too many items at too high prices were exhibited, so we said Bonjour to these Parisian models and ascended to the 7th floor to enjoy the view.
The Paris Opera looms over the cityscape with Gustave Eiffel's iron tower in the background.
To the north of Lafayette: the butte de Montmartre with its Orient-inspired Sacré-Coeur basilica.
We then walked towards the Petit Palais but were passed by this lazy pedestrian using a Segway One S1, a self-balancing personal transport device with mobile app control; that's apparently the future if you don't want to stay fit.
Weather is still very pleasant and Café Madeleine – and the 7000 other cafés in Paris – are busy places.
We stopped briefly in front of 9 Place de la Madeleine to pay tribute the childhood home of Marcel Proust –
– and considered having lunch at Proust's personal table in Maxim's plush restaurant.
Instead, we opted for a walk in the park along the Champs-Élysées avenue –
– before we spent some hours in Petit Palais where we enjoyed a splendid exhibition of Dutch painters in Paris 1789-1914.
Afterwards, the cafés gourmandes in the beautiful garden terrasse of the museum were thoroughly relished.
Today's last item on the agenda was the Dôme des Invalides where the ashes of Napoleon Bonaparte are kept in a huge red sarcophagus at the basement level of a humongous church.
The rather small emperor had a rather big megalomania, even after his Waterloo, downfall and death.
On our way back to the flat we spotted these two fast cops on rollerblades.
– and this airy convertible Smart Crossblade.
We made a mental note of the address of this patisserie that we definitely must visit another day to check out some of the products.
