paris when it sizzles

i arrived in paris on a beautiful friday afternoon. the girls were waiting for me at our cozy little apartment in marais.  we were right in the heart of the city and couldn't be more excited about it. i put on a clean shirt and we headed for the town. first stop, the beautiful gardens at the royal palace. birds were chirping in the trees and children were running around filling balloons with water from a fountain. we exit the garden and we realize where all the other screams were coming from: a beautiful square is filled with children playing on some black and white cylindrical pillars of various heights. i fit it immediately as i am wearing only black and white. moving on, we arrive at yet another beautiful garden, le jardin de tuileries  followed by le jardin du carousel, where we cannot pass the opportunity to ride the carousel. we then take a walk down the well know champs elysees where we stare at the beautiful window displays. we walk back to the metro and have dinner a cute little place by our apartment called les tetes brulees (the burned heads). saturday morning we get up bright and early, well not really, and head to le marche aux puces aka the flea market. it's not quite what we expected. it's full of antiques and vintage at some very prohibitive prices. we stare and we stare and leave quite dissapointed as we cannot afford the beautiful chanel vintage dresses ranging from 600 to 4000!!! euros or the beautiful jewelry or the beautiful chandeliers and sofas. we drown our sorrow in some exquisite clams served with french fries and white wine and we head off to see the beautiful river seine, les bouquinistes (used-book sellers) and the notre dame cathedral. we eat some ice cream at berthillon, where they supposedly have the best ice cream in paris. supposedly, because that's the only ice cream i tasted while in paris but it was finger licking good. we pass by the city hall, oddly enough called hotel de ville, and the george pompidou center. we end the day with some shopping at h&m (i am addicted to this store) and dinner at home. a demain!