Hunting for a cafe for Amelia's birthday dinner

This was meant to be a simple task, preceded by a quick visit to the Post Office to send the box to NZ (otherwise known as getting rid of the evidence before Paul arrives on Friday).

Champs Elysees with the Arc de Triomphe

We had narrowed dinner down to 3 options by previous experience, walking our neighbourhood and reading guide books. Wouldn't you know it, Amelia found a rue Amelie in the 7th, so we decided to check that out as a possible venue also.

Fabulous buskers on the metro today

First up, we considered a café on a corner of our local area. Nice, reasonable menu, but not really special - and as this dinner is the primary purpose of our whole trip, with family  coming from London and NZ, special is important. Next was a Metro trip to rue Amelie. The Paris Metro is superb - fast, frequent, reliable (usually), and cheap - just over 1 Euro to cross Paris - once you're in the Metro you can change as many lines as you want until you emerge back to street level. Pretty darn good, and Dove Myer Robinson must be turning in his grave at the powers that be dismissing his goal for the same kind of system for Auckland in the 70's. Today we had one change - but when we swapped lines way underground we found our second leg had been cancelled due to a 'grave accident to a passenger'. Rather sobering.

Wonderful decor, pity about the food.

Instead of waiting indefinitely we switched and went to Champs Elysee to check out the second option - a lovely quaint café where Lynette and I ate last year. Ambience was wonderful, service superb, food disappointing. On with the search.

Rue Amelie booked for dinner.

Metro now clear, we headed towards Tour Eiffel, and hunted out rue Amelie. What a gorgeous little street, full of wee shops, cafes, restaurants, hotels. We entered chez Pierrot and loved the atmosphere - seating about 20 people, it is intimate and has a great menu. Decision made, we booked for dinner for Saturday 7th December and heaved a sigh of relief. We took the 10 minute walk from rue Amelie to the Tour Eiffel and planned where to come for photos.
Amelia's foot was pretty sore by now, so we  took the Metro back across Paris to our own little neighbourhood.
Home for cuppa and a rest! Blue skies today, hope they continue until Paul arrives. 2 more sleeps!