Paris, France: Day 18

Last day full day of traveling! We are keenly feeling the end of our trip coming near. How can three weeks go by so fast? We have had so much fun on this trip, and it seemed liked it has been one adventure after another, it is sad to see it ending. Around the middle of our time in Munich, I think we were both feeling the fatique of constant travel—dirty clothes, lots of walking, strange beds, and just a lot of moving around. By our last full day in Paris, I was feeling sad to be leaving so soon, especially from France. Jff and I had become a well-oiled machine at navigating cities, foreign languages, and different forms of mass transit.

We had purposely planned for a shorter time in Paris when planning the trip. We had already been there and wanted a chance to visit places that were new to both of us. I had never liked Paris all that much, and was leary about the same conclusion a third time. Well…the third time was a charm! I loved walking around in the city, being partly familiar with it, relishing chances to speak and order in French (which came back surprisingly easy, by the second day I was communicating very well with people we came in contact with), was also hard wanting to leave a beautiful apartment in the center of hip and trendy Paris. I wanted to soak up the culture and continue to speak, I was not ready to leave!!

So our last day we got a late start after spending some time getting things in order in the morning. We headed out to see the line was too long at the Musee D’Orsay and so moved on to visit the former Palace gardens. We couldn’t get enough of the outdoor sights of Paris, wanting to enjoy a beautiful second day of weather. The gardens were beautiful and very fun to see Parisians at play. Although we tried unsuccessfully then to rent bikes from the automated system on the streets, we did make it over to the area of Trocodero where we had a picnic lunch of ham sandwiches, red wine, cheese, and butter cookies while looking at the Tour d’Eiffel.

With a quick trip across town on the Metro we ended up at the Musee D’Orsay, my favorite stop in Paris. Especially after watching the series The Impressionists, it was a blast to see all the impressionist paintings. The views from the observation deck of the former train station, were also not bad. Before leaving we also took in some Art Nouveau and post-impressionist works. It was a fabulous 2.5 hours spent.

Afterwards, we rushed back to the apartment in order to make a wardrobe change and pick up Cameron’s ping pong paddles (yes, I am serious). We had planned to meet him after school in the Luxembourg Gardens to relax, enjoy the gardens and fountains, and of course to play ping pong on the outdoor tables. It was fun, I have never played ping-pong outside before. After the tournament, we walked through most of the gardens, up to the palace, and through a little sculpture garden.

This is what I like about Paris: there are surprises around every curve. More so than any other city I have ever been in… Turn a corner and there is a beautiful hidden park, or a great view of the Eiffel Tower, or a gorgeous building that you have never heard of… Even small little neighborhoods and courtyards are nice surprises. As we left Luxembourg Gardens for dinner, we found all sorts of old land marks or good views.

We let Cam decide where we should go to dinner and we ended up in the cute part of the Latin quarter on the Right bank Paris. It was a French restaurant called De L’Atlas and had a mixture of French and English food. John and Cams had burgers (Cam’s had a friend egg on top and was pretty much raw meat and no bun) and I had a Auvernigte salad which included the niciose dressing, potatoes, cheese, crudities (or raw veggies) and other things I couldn’t quite identify. It was a great meal.

Around nine we dropped Cam off at home so he could study a bit before he went to bed, and we grabbed our jackets. We headed out for a night-time tour of the Seine River on the Bateaux-Mouches (my very favorite thing to do with all the rest of the tourists). All the bridges and monuments, including the Eiffel Tower along the river are lit up. For an hour and a half you just cruise up and down the river going around the islands. We had a great time. We headed home afterwards for a late bedtime, determined to get up early enough to do one more thing before we caught our plane in the afternoon.