Aux Champs-Elysees

Last weekend my friend Sara and I spent a day walking up and down the Champs-Elysees eyeing all of the famous shops and restaurants. Most of it was just wishful thinking and window shopping, but hey, there's an H&M there too!

In the middle of our exhausting shopping spree we did the touristy thing and stopped by the absolutely GIANT two-story McDonald's for lunch to refuel. Full disclosure: I wanted to make sure I ate at a McDonald's while in France (even though it's obviously something I could get on just about any corner at home) just to order a Royale with cheese because of Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction.

Folks, this is a big deal. I used to eat at McDonald's fairly often all the way up through about the 9th grade, by which point my mother had gotten food poisoning TWICE from their cheeseburgers. So I swore off McDonald's burgers, and in fact almost off McDonald's entirely. This was easily my first MickeyD's cheeseburger in about six or seven years.

And yes, I was "that person" who took a picture of her food. Just be happy I didn't Instagram this stuff, okay?

I can hardly contain my excitement...

It was just as disgusting and delicious as I remembered it. Seriously, it was pretty gross. But that doesn't mean that I didn't eat every last bite. Fun facts about McDonald's in France: the straws are bendy, and they put this funky sauce on their burgers, like a combo of dijon and honey mustard. Which was tasty...but would be better suited for dipping my fries than topping my burger.

Sara and I of course made a point of stopping by the Disney store:

Also I just realized this makes it looks like Spider-man is ALL up in my business. Awkward...

When we reached the end of the street we went through the underground passageway to get right up close to the Arc de Triomphe (although we didn't go inside and up to the top because you have to pay. Although I will do that at some point). 

(Told you there was an H&M...)

The view down the Champs-Elysees. Place de la Concorde is waaaayyyy in the distance.

After that we made our way down the opposite side of the street. We really wanted to go into the Louis Vuitton store, just to look around since obviously if I wanted to buy anything I'd have to blow my whole budget for the semester, but we realized that THERE WAS A LINE TO GET IN. LITERALLY A VELVET ROPELINE TO GET INTO THE LOUIS VUITTON STORE. The store didn't even have that many people in it; they were just being super snooty about how many people they let in at a time. So Sara and I decided we weren't going to stand for such snobbery, and just took pictures of the cool window display instead:

There are also a number of car showrooms on the Champs-Elysees. After our disappointing encounter with the Louis Vuitton store, Sara and I wandered into the Toyota showroom. It was pretty neat, especially when we went upstairs and they had this uber-futuristic concept car up there:

This is a car. Not the driver's seat of a car removed from the rest of the vehicle, this is the WHOLE CAR.

Like cross between a droid soldier from Attack of the Clones and Dr. Evil's loveseat...

Me in a Smartcar! Roomier than I thought it was going to be.

Super cool future car that I was unfortunately NOT allowed to get into...

Wandering further down the street we came across the three-story Haagen-Dazs and, well, how could we not stop in? We just got our stuff to go, but actually what we should have done was go up to the second or third floors, which is all  a sit-down restaurant (but of course the only thing on the menu is ice cream). Oh well, guess I will just have to go back at some point...

A good end to a good day. :)