Aux Champs Elysées

Posted 5/4/2014

A few days ago, I visited the Orangerie Museum, which is home to the large Monet water lily paintings, done very late in his life, and quite a few other works of interest.  I went in the afternoon, and there was not much of a line at all. 

Afterwards, I decided that I would take the Metro to the Arc de Triomphe and then walk down the Champs Elysees, because it must be done.

Many of the pedestrian crossing signals in Paris (at least they have them) have you cross in two stages, so people are briefly clustered on a small island in the middle of the road with cars whizzing by.  But this allowed me to get this head-on shot:

The Champs Elysees is actually very well suited for urban walking, because the sidewalks are incredibly wide.  Of course, consumerism and capitalism are predominant themes.  (The best part was at the end, so don't give up.)

For example, here is a massive bank building:

I wonder if the Toyota Aygo will make an appearance in the US?  They do seem to have a different selection of cars over here.

Of course, there were also much fancier dealerships to be seen, but one car photo is enough.

I saw a crowd of people waiting to get into Abercrombie & Fitch.  (I had seen a crowd of a somewhat different demographic waiting to get into Louis Vuitton.)  I assume that you have to be a special person to use the big-ass fancy entrance in the foreground, which was being guarded by two guys wearing jeans and/or hoodies:

 Here is another fancy entrance, this time being guarded by guys in suits:

 And yet another, being guarded by... a rocket ship?

Ok, so I was getting jaded, but I did walk down Avenue Montaigne, which has many of the big-name stores, YSL, Chanel, etc. etc.  I saw two young women outside of Gucci, one giddily holding up her two Gucci bags while the other took her picture.  They looked like regular people, so it was actually pretty cute.

But my best sighting was on the other side of the street.  Across the Champs Elysee from the Grand Palais, there is a park, and concealed behind a bunch of shrubbery, so you would barely know it was there, you can find this:

I am pretty sure that this is the puppet theater that was featured in Charade (which I have seen many times).  There was a show going on and children watching!  And the teddy bear in the front row!!!  OMG.  My day was made.

I was pleased to see that the puppet shows seem to have gotten less violent over the years (still a lot of physical humor, but less slapstick bashing).

I also liked the action on top of the Grand Palais, back over on the other side:

I then caught the Metro and returned to my cozy little abode.