Des Fotos de Paris! - third entry

For your info...: I'm sick (tummy? maybe a tummy-flu?), I'm at home and crawling around... but at least I'm managing to upload some more photos.
I got a doc's appointment for Friday as he's not around on Thursday at all... guess that means I'll be done for the rest of the week with not going to work at all.
I can't see myself going to work tomorrow right now anyway...

ANYWAY...
Paris!

At the Champs-Elysées Le tigre and the leopard wanted to have pics taken there, too!	And this explains... ... how the *little travellers* got so high up... LOL Daniela was holding them up. Ah yes, and those two are HER travelleres. The *battle mouse* (right) and the wolf dressed up as a sheep (yes... and on the left).
La Pyramide inversée Inside the Louvre where you can see these two special pyramids. If you've seen the movie The Da Vinci Code you might remember them? And that would be my mum and le tigre and the leopard. :)	The Louvre ... in the evening :)
Louvre and the Pyramids Details...	Métro Station I love those *old* stations, art-nouveau style entrance...
Cheers! And that would be beer... yes, they do have some beer-foam on their noses. :D	Sushi! I. Want. A. Sushi. Delivery. Here!!! Or good sushi at all, that is!
Ice cream!!! As you can see I *always* have to share my food and drink with that little one... *sigh*	Zzzzzzzzz They all shared the spare bed in Daniela's hotel room... :D
Roseline... ... one of the marks, near the Louvre... again... seen Da Vinci Code? Then you will definitely know what this one is about. :)

A bit of a smaller entry here...
Here we went to the *Carousel du Louvre* which is the underground area there - there are shops, little cantine-like restaurants and it's the entry to the Louvre museum. We went there for something little to eat and had those FAB French *macrons*... YUM!
We strolled around the area, spotted some of the *Roseline* marks... took photos... shopped in the crafts area of the Virgin store (no, no virgins on sale there, not that I'd know of... it's mainly a media store, but also sells lots of books, paper stuff... etc.) which is small but has some nice goodies...

The Champs Elysées we visited a couple of times...
Also once in the late evening as it's beautiful lit up in the night... and there are cafés and restaurants you can go to as well as shops which are open until 11pm, so you definitely won't get bored there.
Besides... I love walking down the Champs Elysées from the Arc de Triomphe, down to the Louvre. It's a longer walk and really nice. :)
We dashed into *Sephora* twice which is cosmetics, make up, perfumes. Many brands, but also their own stuff which all three of us like a lot. Mum was looking for a certain eyelinger, special green-ish metallic gold colour which is the exact colour of her glasses (frames!) and which she once had bought there... and she got a similar one. :)
The ladies at the shop are really friendly and helpful. Yeah, sure, they're trying to sell as much stuff as possible, but I found they weren't pushy or anything - it was really nice to be able to ask about something and to actually being shown stuff in a friendly way, they were taking their time for you and even if you ended up only one thing that wasn't expensive at all - it didn't matter.
Can someone please teach sales people *here* such behaviour?
Here I prefer not to ask at all as I either just get a *dunno* (if lucky with a carefless shrug) or some unfriendly comment. GRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!

Hmh... my next Paris entry will be a real treat - Opéra Garnier visit. :D

Des Fotos de Paris! - fourth entry

By popular demand - here's the first Opéra Garnier photos entry... *waves @ Nicole* ;D
There will be another separate one - I've just too many pics of the Opéra and can't decide. LOL

Hidden in the Opéra Garnier... ... are many beautiful corners... :)	Salamander This one, so I was once told there, was placed there to protect the Opéra from fire...
Lights... I *always* take pictures of those... It all just looks so dramatic and beautiful.	Night...? ... nope, it's just the difference between taking the photo using a flash or not... as you can see in the next picture. :)
Light! And without using a flash... :)	And once again... ... view from the grand stairway...
Christine... Christine... ... those of you who are familiar with the story of the Phantom of the Opera: I found this picture hung up on the 1st floor I think... her name is Christine Nilsson, and here she's shown as Juliette in Romeo et Juliette... Unfortunately no dates were given here. But it DID make us go whoooops... Christine... Nilsson being a Swedish name... and her being a dancer (as it's presumed she was a dancer and not a singer)... Um?	The Dancer... ... Daniela! :) Unfortunately most of my pictures of her turned out not too well, but this one's a fine one. :) We might just have to go back there and do another little photo shoot... :D
Plotting by the Phantom's Loge We were checking out either the métro map or the map of Paris when Mum took this photo... :D Sitting near the loge number 5, the Phantom's loge (it's the one by the corner).	Waiting... ... for Eric? Daniela in front of loge number 5. :D
Waiting, too... ... and me in front of loge number 5. Well, me and a couple of orbs?	Inside... ... the grand chandelier is so bright it's really difficult to take a good photo of it...
Especially for Nicole... ... because there's a pidgeon. LOL	Hunting... ... this is a gobelin. It's absolutely fantastic, it looks like a painting really, but it's all gobelin. Trust me, I peered at it long enough. There are a couple of those in the Opéra.
Fairy! I'd never noticed this painting before! Duh!	Gold! Gold! Gold! It's all gold in the Opéra. Almost all. :)

We spent a nice long time inside the operahouse... and enjoyed it very much. :)
Didn't take a tour as we really know all there is to hear on those tours by now. We walked here and there and explored every corner. Mum sometimes stayed at a place and did some drawing while Daniela and me walked on, then came back for her... and at some point we did the ballett-photo shoot with Daniela.
I hope her pics of it turned out better than mine. *argh* But I've at least one good one!

This operahouse is the one where the story of *the Phantom of the Opera* is set.
You may have heard about it due to the famous (and beautiful) musical, or the musical-movie, or some of the other movies that have been made (in my opinion the one with Charles Dance as the Phantom is the best one there - it's the only one that catches the characters, the mood and that was actually filmed in this very operahouse. It differs from the original story, but that doesn't really matter to me... as it's a good *other version* of it.).
The original story came from he book (same title) by Gaston Leroux. :)
I can proudly say I chose exactly that book for my French diploma at DMS. *grin* Obsessed? Moi? ;D
Anyways... there have always been hints about that *something* once has happened there... like there *did* exist someone named Christine as well as some man who was disfigured, etc.
There are no proofs I guess, or none that are known of, anymore.
Mum and me once were given a private guided tour by an ex-ballett dancer of the opera. It was luck (...) really that we met her there and she offered it to us. She worked there anyway and seemed to like the idea of it, plus she spoke some German which made it easier for us. She showed us many hidden corners there that nowadays you'd never get to see (well, back then actually neither) - and it's something I'll never forget!!!
And before I go into too much detail: She said that once there was a room found in one of the very thick walls of the building, when renovations were made, and that it was like a room where someone had lived or at least stayed in secretly. There was some furniture and some such. But it hadn't been entered in years. And that a grave was found in the stone-floor where they found the remains of a male with a disfigured face. There were no papers that could have said who he was, what his name was, etc, the only thing that had stayed intact was a golden wedding ring with the name *Christine* engraved into it.
Now you can make of this whatever you like. I can say that our *guide* didn't seem the excited story-telling kind, she kind of told this matter of factly and shrugged like... well, that's what happened. And she only ever told us after we'd asked her, at the end of our tour...

Hmh!