Saturday, 16 November: Paris

Our day began with a trip to Angelina for breakfast. Found on the Rue de Rivoli, Angelina is a Parisian icon.

While it is known for its sweets, it is famous for its chocolat chaud (hot chocolate) that makes the angels sing (and my purse strings weep). If you have ever wondered what an €8 cup of hot chocolate looks like, you're about to find out...

It was, indeed, delicious, as was my crêpe avec crème de marron (crêpe with chestnut cream...and there was a little hot chocolate to pour over it).

It was certainly a once in a blue moon kind of treat! Before we left, I snapped some shots of some of their other beautiful pastries and items for sale.

I was going to be a nice maman and buy my kids a tin of their hot chocolate, but once I saw the price (€20 !!) I knew Swiss Miss was without a doubt the hot chocolate of choice for the Switala family!!

After breakfast, we went to the Musée Picasso but I resisted the urge to take photos...I just wanted to wander and look and ponder.

As the day went on, more and more Métro stops closed down and more and more sirens wailed in the streets. We knew the Gilet Jaune protests were today, but only later in the day did we become aware as to how out of control things got. Thankfully, the violent rioting was no where near where we were staying, but the police were out en masse, for sure.

We metroed to our dinner spot by the Hôtel de Ville (great Alsatian place where we devoured Flammkuchen).

Photo Credit: Julie Tulba of The Red Headed Traveler

However, by the time we were done, our entire Métro line was closed down, so we walked back to our hotel. We saw a couple of yellow vests, but they were just chatting. The one thing I observed amidst all the chaos was that the Parisians were completely nonplused. Although, considering their history, I suppose they are pretty used to it by now...

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