Paris! Day 2

Our Day 2 happened to fall on a Sunday, and we had read that most of Paris was closed on Sundays. So, we decided to take the recommendation of my aunt (who used to visit Paris when she was living in London) to go to La Vallee Village, a factory outlet mall in Paris, near Disneyland. So, off we went on the RER, from Auber station, which was nearest our hotel and just outside Printemps/Galeries Lafayette ...

Interestingly, the train was a double-decker train!

There is a shuttle service from the RER station Val D'Europe to La Vallee Village, but the shuttle turned out to be rather a small car which couldn't accomodate all of us. Fortunately, the driver was exceedingly helpful and gave us walking directions, so we got there in about 5 min ...

While it was nowhere as huge as the Premium Outlet Malls in USA, I still rather liked it cos I sometimes felt the American Malls were too overwhelming when I only had a day to spend. So, the size of La Vallee Village was perfect for a day of leisurely browsing, and I managed to cover practically every shop.

As we got there close to lunch time (it's about 40 min away fm Auber RER station to La Vallee Village), we decided to grab a quick lunch at the nearby food court .... and came upon this stall offering Lebanese food! Falafels!!!! One of my fav foods!

I got a falafel wrap/roll ...

Hubby got a chicken kebab wrap/roll ...

And our set came with a dessert ... it was a coconut-y dessert .... interesting ...

Now, on to the shops in La Vallee Village ....

Here's a snapshot of the Ralph Lauren store ... beautiful, isn't it?

(I managed to nab a smart blue and white striped shirt here.)

Celine Boutique ...

(I also picked up a certain something here ... :))

After covering virtually all the shops, I bought some time to consider whether getting the abovementioned certain something from Celine by queuing for some delicious gelato ...

Hubby's pick: Lemon and raspberry sorbet ...

My Gelato: Chocolate (ohhhhh .... this was amazing!!!!!) and pistachio ...

Now, a post about shopping in a Paris factory outlet wouldn't be complete without showing the buys I picked up, yes? **wink wink** ... so, here's my buy from Celine!

A Celine Boogie Bag

(I was told that Celine has stopped making Boogie Bags since Phoebe Philo was hired as designer to revamp the fashion house.)

Also managed to nab two pair of Ferragamos ....

After over ten years of hearing so many people rave about the shoes, and watching so many friends prancing around in them, it's finally my turn!

Later that night, we dragged our tired feet to Laduree on Champs Elysees ...

I wished we had been able to see it during the day, as I'm sure that based on what we saw at night, it would've been absolutely gorgeous!

As the restaurant was full, we made our way to the bar on the other side of the ever-so popular macaron counter where never-ending lines of people were queuing to purchase these famous desserts!

Check out the fancy chairs at the Laduree Bar ...

Our delicious bread platter served with special Laduree butter! I've never ever seen butter presented like this ... and it tasted so different too! Easily one of the best butters I've ever tasted (echoing the sentiment of a fellow diner), and so exquisitely wrapped in the unique Laduree paper ...

We shared a starter: Smoked duck breast with mushrooms salad ...

Beef with shards of cheese served with risotto rice ...

Prawns with shards of cheese and risotto rice ...

For dessert, we were told that ordering the macarons direct from the counter outside the bar would be more inexpensive, so we decided to try something else from the bar, and line-up for the macarons after dinner. I chose to try a dessert that I thought was distinctly French - Mont Blanc ...

After dinner, I was all ready to join the queue for my highly-anticipated macarons when, to my dismay, I found that there was very little variety left!!! As such, we decided to forego the macarons that night, and instead buy them the next day ... our last day in Paris.

And as we were stuffed from dinner, we took a stroll down Champs Elysees to see the Arc de Triumphe up close. Along the way, this is what we saw ...

Yes! The mother of all Louis Vuitton shops worldwide! Impressive!

I was also attracted to the Boss window display ... I liked the floating notes ... and the old gramophone ...

Some beautiful old buildings lining Champs Elysees ...

Even HSBC is housed in such a grand building on Champs Elysees!

And finally, the Arc de Triumphe!