Paris, Day Five: Champs-Elysees et Arc de Triomphe

We know the route from the previous night: Dive into Arts et Metiers, our steampunk Metro station, and catch the 11 to Hotel De Ville to switch to the 1. Take that past Palais Royle - Musee de Louvre this time all the way to Charles De Gaulle. Emerge, and be amazed.

Repeated correction is my go-to in getting the kids to say the name correctly - (shahnz ay-lee-zay), but at the end of the day the real key to success is to play the last song from The Darjeeling Limited soundtrack and dance around singing it badly.

Griffin wants to walk there and so is battling us a bit over it. When we arrive, he distances himself from us while keeping us in his sights. We've yet to take Rick Steves' advice about getting up early to avoid the throngs, and we certainly didn't do it today, so nobody in la famile d'impatienz is standing in the line to walk to the top. I promised G I'd come with him early another day to do it. The Arc de Triomphe was built in 1809 to honor Napoleon's soldiers after their victory against Austria. Today it honors all of France's armies. We gawk; we take photos; we exit the traffic island through the underground passage to hit the Champs-Elysees.

I don't think I'm misspeaking when I say that the Avenue des Champs-Elysees is just a big ass street with expensive shops on it. We walk down the left side, buy and eat sandwiches, take money out of an ATM (in France, DAB) at a wholly unsavory rate of exchange and generally grouse at one another. Some days you need space from your family. This is one of those days.

And so Rowan, like Griffin (a free man in Paris), sets off on her own. Berit, Bennett and I find a grassy, shadey spot in the Jardin de Champs-Elysees and lie around for a bit before Rowan rejoins us. Berit lets me try the two-euro macaroons she bought. One of them was delicious.

Griffin beats us home, walking. As he has ascertained, everything here is closer than it the Metro makes it seem. We lie around a bit at l'appartement before Griffin and I motivate to get the ingredients he needs for dinner. He's been watching "Baking with Babish" on YouTube and wants to make mac and cheese. He fully takes the lead on this, and it's an even bigger adventure than the earlier part of the day as now we are in French grocery stores negotiating with clerks for what might pass for romano and American cheeses.

Back at l'appartement, G leads in the kitchen with Berit as a sous chef. Bennett plays and rewinds the video on the television and I sautee some brocolli. It's a great family effort (with Rowan on clean-up), and the mac and cheese turned out to be pretty tasty.