Iceland/France/Italy Day 12: Shopping and Wrap-up

May 10, 2011
France Day 12: Shopping and Wrap-up

We got up early today and took off to the Ile-de-la-Cite. Starting with a walk inside Ste-Chappelle and a view of the glorious stained glass windows, we quickly remembered we were in Berthillion territory and got a quick gelato before lunch! Notre-Dame was awesome as always, and we took a short walk around inside before splitting off for the afternoon. Mom, Norm and Dad went on a cool boat ride around the city and I went off for a few hours of shopping.

I had Googled the famous Pull-In Underwear brand in advance, these were the pricey-but-amazing boxers that Ans and I couldn't afford last time when we were poor students. But now that I'm a real person, I figured it was about time to pick some up. Pull-In is a French brand and so I figured they would sell them in a lot of spots, but turns out there is actually a Pull-In concept store in Paris. Sweet. So my first stop was Étienne Marcel subway station and the store was just as epic as I expected. I guess it was the middle of a weekday so it wasn't very busy. I arrived at the store and the guy working there was so excited to have a customer, it's in a very busy boutique shopping area but I guess no one in France shops for cool underpants on a quiet Tuesday afternoon! They had some super awesome and weird and fantastic designs. I looked at a bunch of cool options and zeroed in on a Kiwi one and a "Twitter"-style Bird one. They are so super awesome. I wanted a pair sooooo bad in '07 but I was a poor student then, so it was good to come full circle now :)

I then took the Metro to Charles de Gaulle Etoile, right at the Arch de Trioumph. It was time for a nice wander along the Champs d'Elysees. There was a McDonalds there and anyone who knows me knows that I love visiting McDonald's in foreign countries and seeing how weird and strangely localized their menus are. Sadly, this Mc'D's wasn't weird AT ALL!!! Nothing out of the ordinary except for a boring Big Mac on whole wheat bread and Kronenbourg beer as a drink choice (seen that before). Aw. So that was not as exciting as usual so I moved on and had lunch at Brioche D'Oree, a "chain" restaurant of Parisian pastries, but man do they ever make a mean Tartlette Framboises!! It was soooooo good. I had that and an Espresso and then moved on to Celio, another favourite store than Ans and I really liked when we last visited Paris.

Celio was so badass as usual. They had such awesome stuff and I shopped around for a while. It's a bit like Zara was in Italy, about 10000 times better than Zara in the USA. So much cool stuff for guys and a lot of nice fancier business pants and suits too, some sharp ties and striped shirts as well as just really sharp and great casual clothes. Very cool. Kindof like the "Gap of France" or the "Uni Qlo of France". I got a cool turquoise shirt and a nice pair of jeans on sale. Further along the street there was a Zara there and I went to check it out. Not bad, but not as cool as Celio. So kept rolling and then took a Metro to Madeline to go pick up some more Maiie mustards as gifts for friends back home. After a lot of walking, I took a nice break and chilled out for a bit.

After a nice relax I kept rolling and took a Metro back to the apartment via a Nutella-Banana crepe place. Lots of walking again today so I had a good relax and then started packing up my stuff for our travel onwards to Italy tomorrow. Mom, Dad and Norm got back from their boat trip and we had salmon, potatoes, white asparagus and peaches for dinner. We took a nice evening walk and found ourselves at Amorino again for another ice cream. Hilariously, I ran into someone with a crazy connection to me! The guy in front of us used to run a Post-Production facility in LA and his son goes to Waterloo! He noticed my Lucasfilm Animation shirt and said that his son was currently at a game studio in New York. What a small world. We had a good chat and then said bye and continued our walk. Back at the apartment, I wrapped up my last minute things and prepared for our trip onward to Italy.

Stained glass at Ste. Chapelle

Ste. Chapelle main window

Don't sit down unless you've got something to confess

Quick stop by Notre-Dame

Cite, my favourite Subway station

Pull-In Underwear concept store

Arch de Trioumph

Lunch on the Champs d'Elysees

Love the design of Concorde station

The glorious new underpants I bought!! I was joking with a friend earlier on Facebook that the one with the little birds must have it's own Twitter feed :)

Sweet new shirt and jeans from Celio