Nick made a special effort to get up early and picked up pastries & a lemon tart which he brought to our apartment. This went down very well with a couple of mini bottles of champagne shared between us.
We also enjoyed a Skype with mum and dad....showing off the rooms of our apartment.
Feeling happy & relaxed I headed off on the metro by myself (feeling very brave...but Cam had written me instructions of which trains to get, where to swap & in which direction). I easily found the shops I was looking for and enjoyed 2 hours of incredible shopping....missed my shopping buddy Debbi though!
Meanwhile the boys chilled at the apartment and then caught the metro to Bastille where they walked along an old disused train track through what is now gardens.
My shopping got off to a slow start as I first went into Printemps
....a 5 storey department store that I thought I would enjoy....but it was way too upmarket for me and I just felt uncomfortable, and certainly wasn't able to buy anything. There were a ridiculous number of shop assistants for relatively little spaced out stock - obviously high value items. After a brisk walk through there I crossed the road to Galleries Lafayette. 
This also seemed very high end at first...and is an amazingly beautiful building. 
There were lots of very expensive handbags on the ground floor, 
which were nice but not something I wanted to spend lots of money on. I went down a floor and the complete enormous floor was women's shoes
....some incredibly trendy and out-there styles and far too many to possibly choose from. I decided this would be too difficult anyway with my lack of french language skills. I was starting to feel a bit despondent that my one chance at shopping in Paris was going to lead to nothing when I got to the 4th floor - contemporary fashion - and then I was in my element. There were so many gorgeous clothes and more in my price range. the only problem was I was short on time, so couldn't try everything I liked, needing to make quick decisions (not my normal way of shopping). The sizing is really confusing and each brand seems different, so I only tried a few items on, but was very pleased with success with some Desigual dresses. I have only ever seen this label at one store in queensgate and most items cost several hundred dollars. Here the dresses were 99euros but there was 50 percent off making them real bargains. I made a hasty decision and bought 3 dresses and one blouse...all quite summery which is strange considering these were winter sales.
Now it was time to meet the boys and we went into the men's building of Galleries Laffayette looking for some boots and a trendier uni bag for Nick. Not such a great selection for men and nothing stood out. I then dragged them into another store where I had seen good value shirts and bought 2 new ones for Nick...to give him a change from what he's got over here.
We now needed to find a quick lunch so he could get to uni. We found a pret manger across the road and had very nice healthy wraps and coffees.
I then had to persuade Cam to come back into Galleries Lafayette as I had spent enough to get tax back on my purchase, and there was a tax back counter I needed to go to. Unluckily for him we struggled to find the tax back counter and on our search I came upon a jewellery counter that had lots of gorgeous things. Amongst them I spotted some blue earrings with tiny gold Eiffel towers on them and I knew I had to have them. They were so me! Then the shop assistant pointed out the matching necklace which I didn't think I wanted but took a look and it was stunning....so thanks to my birthday money from mum and dad I didn't hesitate. When she packaged them up into cute little pink bags with flowers inside I was even happier. Cam pulled a few faces at me but I think he was secretly pleased for me (perhaps). 
I now had even more reason to find the tax back counter....which we did soon after.
We then took the metro to where the river cruises start....which luckily for me was at the Eiffel Tower. It was such a beautiful sunny day that I had to take quite a few more photos as it looked markedly different to our 1st visit.
We got on a boat and took an hour long cruise down the River Seine.
We had commentary via a phone type thing which was good as it gave us a lot of background information....and you could choose not to listen at times. 
Didn't get great photos as it was too sunny...but we'd seen most the sights already anyway in the previous days. 
It gave us a good perspective of the city (you don't always realise where things are in relation to each other when using the underground metro). It was also very relaxing. They were selling photos of us after the cruise and I wasn't intending to be taken in....but I liked that it had my birthday date on it, so spent the 10 euros. Was a bit surprised to see how alike we look in the photo...don't usually see it myself.
We didn't have much time for rest before heading out to dinner. We had a booking at a place "Restaurant Paul" in Place Dauphine which was recommended by Jane from my book group. We came upon Nick in the street nearby so arrived together. 
As we crossed the bridge to the restaurant the Eiffel Tower was lit up and the revolving light on the top was brightening the sky.
Started off with planned Maison champagne (70 euro but worth it) and decided we needed to somehow consume all 3 courses tonight. For entree I ordered tarte fine legumes (a vegetable tart which was basically a sheet of pastry with fancily prepared vegetables on top & a dry cured ham on the side)
Nick had salad de mâché (salad with beetroot & confit duck gizzards) 
& Cam went for the escargots de Bourgogne. 
Much bigger snails than last time! All very happy with our choices.
For main I had souris d'agneau (roast knuckle of lamb on creamy mash), 
Nick had risotto aux champignons (mushroom risotto with guinea fowl stuffed with foie gras), 
and Cam had raie pochee (poached skate with white wine & shallot sauce with baby potatoes).
When it came to dessert we couldn't decide as they all looked so good so we settled on 4 desserts between the 3 of us and rotated them.....a very good decision as they were all incredible. They probably thought we were mad as the desserts were all pretty big, but so what if we are paying.
The desserts we got were creme brûlée (the biggest we have ever seen and I never thought I liked creme brûlée but I certainly did this one), 
tarte fine pommes (Apple tart with salted caramel butter sauce & vanilla ice cream),
ile flottante (floating island in pistachio cream with coconut - probably our favourite), 
and then we finished with mouse au chocolat Maison (a delicious smooth dark chocolate mousse). 
So after over 2 hours of feasting we were done and very very satisfied. The boys then surprised me with a gift and lovely card. Didn't expect anything and was touched by what they chose as I like it very much....
the lovely maxims bag contains various yummy treats in cute little tins....will bring it home to share.
We got back to our apartment quite late for us, said goodbye to Nick until we see him in Berlin....and finally got to bed very near midnight. An early start tomorrow for the Eurostar.
What an incredible day I had - couldn't have asked for better (except perhaps meeting a gorgeous tall rich french guy who wants to move to NZ -as if!).
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