Notre Aventure Française, 2013: 12th November, Paris Day 4

We are getting pretty good at using the public transport system here and it is really great. There are 109 different bus routes alone in Paris and although some of them cross over each other at times you can really get to anywhere you want. Add the underground Metro train system and moving around this city is a breeze. We haven't used the Metro as we get to see more from the bus.
We are using the bus as a "door to door" tourist bus. For example this evening we caught the Number 69 bus 10 meters from our door and toured through the city, past the Hotel de Ville, Le louvre then St Germaine and past the Musée d'Orsay, Les Invalides and finally Champ de Mars, the park leading to the Eiffel Tower. All of these buildings are lit up at night and can be seen in all of their glory from a public bus. We got out at the Champ de Mars and walked down to the Eiffel Tower and, although it was partially clouded in, we were able to see it "sparkle" as it does for the first 5 minutes of every hour until 1 am. After a 30 minutes' visit we boarded the 69 for the return journey to our door.

The French also love to shop and there are some very impressive shopping extravaganzas here to satisfy that urge. Perhaps the most impressive is the Galleries Lafayette, described as Le grand magasin capitale de la mode, (The department store capital of fashion). The "store" covers several buildings and anything and everything fashion wise can be purchased there. But the displays of the individual fashion brands is incredible but not as much as the store itself. Victorian readers will know the Daimaru store in Melbourne - it would not hold a candle to this place. The dome, glass, mobile display and presentation overall is far beyond what we have seen anywhere.