Champs-Élysées

On Sunday we took the metro to the Charles de Gaule Etoile stop. That's where the Arc de Triomphe is. We checked out the Arc de Triomphe for a while and then walked down the Champs-Élysées. If you're having a hard time pronouncing these names, join the club. But here's a website that helps: http://www.languageguide.org/francais/grammar/pronunciation/. And here's another that teaches you some French: http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/. The Champs-Élysées runs from the Arc de Triomphe to the Place de Concorde. There are a bunch of shops along there that sell stuff we'd never buy. But there was a cool Puegot store that had some race cars. Check me out in front of my favorite. We walked all the way to the Place de Concorde (a little over a mile) and to the Jardin des Tuileries just beyond Concorde. The Jardin des Tuileries is where the Louvre is. It's a cool park even without the Louvre, but having the Louvre there doesn't hurt. We didn't go in, but we checked out the big I. M. Pei pyramid out front. Mama thought it was cool. Daddy thought it didn't fit in. I thought it was an interesting juxtaposition of the old and the new. (By the way, happy birthday Grandpa. He's 70 today. I can't count that high, but Daddy says it's a really big number.)