PARIS!: Day 4

Mamma Mia pants.

This day, we slowed down with the pictures. Partly because we were inside places that pictures couldn't capture and partly because we were in places that pictures WOULDN'T capture.

What do I mean, you ask? I mean, we went to the Opera Palais Garnier and tried for an embarrassingly long time to get one, single photo in front of the stage/seating area, and we were completely unsuccessful. First of all, the other people trying to get pictures were extremely impatient and pushy. Like literally pushing us. But also, the lighting simply would not work. So this is what we got:

Yep. Pretty bad quality there.

But I've gotten ahead of myself! I didn't tell you what we did before this! We woke up the morning of day four and chose to officially switch our inner clocks to Paris time. That means breakfast-ish meal whenever you feel like it, lunch around 3 or 4, and dinner anytime after 8.

So, when I woke up, I walked around our little town looking for coffee. I tried 4 different shops but only one was open. I ordered some coffee for Dad and I while I pondered the fact that one of the very few things I did not like about Paris was that the coffee is not sweet. They don't do the whole syrup, flavoring, milk, cream, sugar, almond milk, oat milk, foam thing. And as lame as I know it makes me, I LOVE the whole syrup, flavoring, milk, cream, sugar, almond milk, oat milk, foam thing.

After coffee and an OOTD, we shared a sandwich on the metro as we headed to the opera house. We spent some time exploring the marble hallways and staring at the ceiling art.

After the opera, we spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Paris's largest department stores --- Printemps and Galeries Lafayette. These stores are like whole malls in themselves. I'm talking like 9+ stories of clothes, jewelry, home goods, etc. It's crazy. We were there for hours.

We looked for kids' shoes for me, a linen shirt for dad, loafers for Macrea, and a dress for mom. Shockingly, we didn't find anything we were looking for, but we did find plenty of inspiration.

The closest we got to buying something was when we found some AWESOME New Balances that I loved. We asked the employee to bring out a size 1 or 2, and dad finally got to experience what it's like to shoe shop with me. It always ends in disappointment, and this trip was no different.

She brought out my size, and there they were... The dreaded straps. Not laces. Velcro straps. Just as I had expected. Cute tennis shoes in my size always have straps because 7-year-olds (the primary wearers of that size of shoe) aren't good at tying their shoes. I, on the other hand, am very good at tying my shoes. A professional, some might say. But the shoe companies don't consider that. :(

Dad was probably more disappointed than I was. But he isn't used to the devastatingly constant result of shopping for shoes for Emma.

So, after dad recovered from our defeat and we had hit every floor of both mall-sized stores, we ventured back toward the bookstore I'd wanted to visit.

On our way there, we stopped by the most colorful road that I'd found on the internet: Rue Cremieux. We had a mini photoshoot there and got some phenomenal shots, including one of the best pics of the trip that everyone on TikTok and Instagram raved about when we went viral (we'll get to that in PARIS!: Day 7). This was ironic to me considering how bad our first pictures of the day in the opera were, haha.

After the street of many colors, we shared a charcuterie board (duh) and finally made it to Shakespeare and Company. It was so, so cute inside just as I thought it would be. Dad bought a copy of "Goodnight Moon" to read to his future grandchildren (it was always my favorite to have him read to me as a child), and I got a copy of "Hamlet" because I LOVE "Hamlet." I think Hamlet's character is hilarious, and he's awesome, and I've written multiple essays about him. Anyways.

Outside of the shop, there was a man sitting at a small table reading a book. He didn't speak to anyone or even look up. Next to him was a sign that read, "Rainer Maria Rilke wrote about the little shops of the latin quarter with their shop windows filled with old books & etchings. Where nobody seemed to enter & the proprietor could be seen reading peacefully, indifferent to worldly success. Beside him lies a dog or perhaps a cat."

I couldn't help but think (and hope) that this man was supposed to be a real-life demonstration of this description. I guess if that's what he was to me, that's all that matters. Perception is important. (Maybe I'll write about that another time.)

We didn't eat much throughout the day so as to save room for lots of pastries. Once we were done with all of our adventures, we walked to the closest patisserie. They were closed, so we walked to the next closest. Also closed. Suspicious. And discouraging.

After 45 minutes of walking --- more like wobbling because of how tired our legs and feet were --- down numerous streets trying to find an open patisserie, we discovered that they all close by 2 p.m. Devastating.

With no pastries in our bellies, we took the metro back home and grabbed some gelato from down the street. It was good, but it was no chocolate eclair. That's for sure. We made a note to get a new pastry every day --- before 2 p.m. --- for the rest of the trip to make up for our loss this day.

Then, we took a bunch of ibuprofen and fell right to sleep.