Mum, La Défense, and the Champs Élysées

Mum arrived in Paris this morning. At 7am. This meant that I had to make my way to the airport to meet her. On a Saturday. This was cruel.

After returning to my apartment and having a cup of tea, we headed over to La Défense, specifically to go up to the top of La Grande Arche. Photos are here. The view from the top of the Grande Arche is magnificent, and the weather was fantastic, which also helped. Inside, on the top floor, there are several exhibition spaces. One of these was occupied by a museum of computers and IT. It was really well-done, and interesting. It's amusing to note that many of the "old" computers date back to the 80's, or even earlier - ancient history in the computer world!
Another space was host to a gallery of cool paintings of the sort that you look at for 30 seconds and then look away, at a blank section of the wall, to see the real image. It was quite effective, and a novelty at first, so I tried with many of them, but I couldn't be bothered doing the whole collection.

After La Défense, we caught the métro back to Charles de Gaulle-Étoile, which is the top of the Avenue des Champs Élysées, which we proceeded to walk down, heading back to my apartment. This walk went down the entire avenue, then through the Tuileries Garden, and then along the Seine before going grocery shopping (how exciting!) and back home. Photos taken during the walk are here.