Au revoir…

We’re not finished yet. We have to get home.

Memorial Day Monday. As much as I enjoyed my time in Europe I was very happy to be flying back to the United States. After all, there is no place like home.

We were up early. Our flight was 1:10 p.m. out of Charles DeGaulle airport. Our transfer was picking us up at 9:00 a.m. (this was confirmed on Saturday), so we were in the hotel lobby by 8:45 a.m.

9:00 a.m. came and went. I was starting to check the time every 30 seconds. I like to be at the airport early, remember??? I also had no perception as to how long it would take to get to the airport. At 9:15 the hotel clerk came over, took our confirmation and called to see where they were. Apparently the shuttle was stuck in traffic so they were going to send a private car. Ok. Just get here soon.

A car was there literally 7 minutes later. Go figure.

We made it to the airport and started the process of actually getting to the gate.

We checked our luggage where we had to show our passports and tickets. We went through immigration where we had to show our passports and tickets. We had a bite to eat at Starbucks where we had to show our passports and tickets (just kidding about that one). We headed to the escalator to get to our assigned gate and had to show our passports and tickets. We finally got to the actual security check, where I was once again singled out and patted down, quite thoroughly I might add.

Once you are through security you are at the gate. There was a bathroom and a quick mart type of place for last minute water and snacks. That was it. It isn’t like Newark Liberty Airport where you can shop and dine. All of that was outside security.

We settled down to wait when I saw the people I would be sitting next to on the plane.

How did I know? They were a young couple and between them they had 2 very large carryon suitcases, a full-size backpack, a large tote bag and a large purse. Yes, they were THOSE people bucking the carryon rule system. I just knew they would be my seatmates.

Time to board, we are group 5, waiting, couple is waiting. Group 5 is called and they proceed with us. At this point they made the announcement that any one who wanted to check additional luggage could and thankfully, they did. So it put them in line behind us.

We board. Lauren and I have aisle seats across from each other. I don’t get comfortable because I am waiting for the others in my row. And I see the couple coming. Looking. Moving. And bingo, they were my seatmates. Fortunately they ended up being very low maintenance. As in they didn’t get up once during the 9 hour flight.  And it was a looonnnnng flight.

We landed on time at 3:30 p.m., got our luggage, went through customs and we were home. Well almost. I still had to drive home.

This was where Lauren and I parted ways. She was taking a taxi to her apartment and I had to go to the parking lot where my car stayed all week. I was a little sad, after all we had just spent every moment of the last 11 days together. I am not being sarcastic here, I was sad, we travel so well together and we had such a nice time. This also marked “getting back to reality”.

Off she went, my shuttle picked me up to take me to Park Plus where my car was. I was home about 45 minutes later.

As I pull into the driveway what do I see? My neighbor leaving dinner for me! Thank you Lynne!

And reality was waiting for me when I walked in the door.  Mail and bills piled on the dining room table. My cat wanting my undivided attention. A lawn that needed to be mowed. Plants that needed watering. A suitcase that needed unpacking and laundry that needed to be done.

What did I do? Had some of the dinner, looked at the suitcase and pretty much went to bed. My body was still on Paris time so it was about 1 a.m. for me. And I had to go to work tomorrow…UGH….

But this isn’t the end people. I have a few more thoughts and observations to share, so stayed tuned.

Merci Paris...

Our last day. This is it, walk 'til you drop, day. And trust me by the end of today we were going to drop.

Before we went to the metro, we stopped here for some chocolate croissants. We had been in this pastry shop a few times this week. My sister's name was in the shops name, so we knew everything they sold would be délicieux.

Our stomachs satisfied we headed to our metro stop. If I haven't mentioned it, our stop was "Cambronne". It was above ground but did make it's way underground eventually.

First stop of the day. Sainte-Chapelle. Sainte-Chapelle was founded by the ultra-devout King Louis IX of France, who constructed it as a chapel for the royal palace and to house precious relics. The palace itself has otherwise utterly disappeared, leaving the Sainte-Chapelle all but surrounded by the Palais de Justice.

The building itself was not all that huge. After paying the admission fee, they offered guided tours in a variety of languages. We took advantage of this and got a good overview of the chapel. It contained some of the most beautiful stained glass windows I have ever seen.

Next stop? Notre Dame, which was right around the corner.

Just a side note here. A lot of the places we saw on this trip were under renovation, Kensington Palace, the Pantheon and Sainte-Chapelle had scaffolding on the buildings, both inside and out. Notre Dame was no different.

There was no admission fee, it reminded me a lot of St. Patricks Cathedral in NYC. Being Sunday, there was a service going on. Silence was in order and people wandered around the perimeter of church taking in the architecture, stained glass windows and statues. Photos were allowed in here.

After leaving there we continued walking and stopped for a snack. Our own freshly-made Nutella crepe.

We made our way to the Centre Georges Pompidou. It houses the Bibliothèque publique d'information, a vast public library, the Musée National d'Art Moderne which is the largest museum for modern art in Europe, and IRCAM, a centre for music and acoustic research.  It is named after Georges Pompidou, the President of France from 1969 to 1974 who commissioned the building.

The architecture of the building is the big draw. It is one of the more modern buildings in Paris.

Centre Georges Pompidou

We hopped on the metro to our next stop, the Père Lachaise Cemetery. Yes, cemetery. We went here at the suggestion of a friend (thanks Suzy!). One could spend hours here exploring the crypts and headstones. And in the end, we were here for hours.

A number of famous people are buried here, among them Jim Morrison of the Doors.  So being Americans our mission was to find his resting place.

My research indicated that you could purchase a map of the cemetery from a street vendor or view the directory at the entrance of the cemetery. It was recommended that one print out a map beforehand, which is what I did.

So Lauren checked the directory for Jim Morrison’s plot, section 30, plot 6. I referred to my printed map for section 30, plot 6 and off we went.

It was a bit of an uphill hike to that area, we took our time, wandering in and out of the tombs. We wandered up and down the roads in the cemetery…many times. We met up with 2 girls who were also searching for Jim Morrison’s plot. We joined forces to find it. We looked. We referred to the map. We wandered. We got swarmed by bugs. Lauren was afraid she was going to get "a French foreign bug disease". We walked the same paths over and over and over and over.

We. Could. Not. Find. It.

Which was odd to me. I thought there would be some sort of crowd or flowers or sign because he was a pretty famous musician.

I was ready to give up. Our 2 other cohorts had had enough and we parted ways. It just wasn’t that important at this point. But Lauren, who didn’t even know who Jim Morrison was, was determined to find this. So we kept searching and searching and searching.

Finally Lauren relented. We admitted defeat. If we were in the Amazing Race, we would have been eliminated from the race.

Before we left the cemetery Lauren wanted to check the directory one more time. She was irked. I hear her go “Ohhh, I read it wrong, its section 6, plot 30. It’s right over here…let’s go.”

And off we went. And it was right there. Fenced off. With a crowd. And flowers. And a Jack Daniels bottle.  Ta-dah!

Exhausted was how I could describe us at this point. There was one more thing on our agenda though for the day, Sacre-Coeur. The Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris, commonly known as Sacre-Coeur Basilica, is a Roman Catholic church and minor basilica, dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It opened in 1914. 

So back onto the metro we went. We got out of the subway station and looked up. There was a lovely hill with all sorts of souvenir shops and questionable people trying to hawk there wares. 

Did I mention we were exhausted at this point or rather our feet were. We trudged up the hill. At the top of the hill we again looked up. There were about 200 more stairs to enter the Basilica (at least they were not spiral stairs!). We just kind of looked at each other wondering how we were going to do this. 

Fortunately we found this. A "funicular".

And it took us right to the top.

Sacre-Coeur

We went inside, there was no admission fee. There was organ music playing. We sat and took a few moments to enjoy the beauty of the church, enjoy the music and reflect. We were also being amused by all the people being reprimanded for taking photos inside. No photos were allowed in here and it was clearly stated in numerous languages. 

We sat for a while because, quite frankly, our feet were at their breaking point. I walk, and I walk a lot at home, but this trip really did a number on our feet. Somehow we managed our way back to the metro.

When we got back to our hotel we had dinner again at the Café Cambronne (it was so good the first time!). We were greeted by the same waitress. The meal was once again delicious. It was the perfect way to end our trip.

We went back to the hotel to pack.  I was apprehensive when we first arrived in Paris, but I have fallen in love with it. Merci Paris. I was sad to leave but tomorrow we will be home in America!

C'est un beau jour

Saturday we woke up to a beautiful day which was nice after all the rain we had the day before.

We gathered our stuff for the day and headed out. Our first stop was a small fruit market across from the hotel. There were three of these on our block alone. In addition to fruit, they had all sorts of groceries inside. The thing I found interesting was they didn't open until 9ish in the morning but they stayed open well past midnight.

Our first destination for the day was the Pantheon. No, not the one in Rome. Paris has its own pantheon.

It is a building in the Latin Quarter of Paris, France. It was originally built as a church dedicated to St. Genevieve, but after many changes now combines liturgical functions with its role as a famous burial place. Our admission also included access to the crypts. Among those buried here are Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Emile Zola, Louis Braille, and Marie Curie. The architecture inside was incredible and the crypts were very interesting to explore. This is Victor Hugo's crypt.

On the way out we stopped in the gift shop and saw this book. Le Petit Prince (just for you Kelly).

We had lunch at a cafe (where we ordered tap water!) I have to say Paris has some of the best pizza I have eaten.

We were spending the afternoon in Giverny, the home of Claude Monet. In case you haven't figured it out yet I am a big fan of Monet. This was a planned tour booked through Cityrama tour company. We checked in, met the bus and off we went. It was about 1.5 hours to Giverny. We were given history and information on the way (in both English and Spanish).

When we arrived, the first part was a guided tour of the gardens where Monet painted. They were breathtaking. I could picture him painting water lilies all day. We then meandered to the planned gardens which were just a beautiful. Access to his house was also included. Monet didn't move Giverny until his mid forties with his second wife and their 8 children.

After the bus ride back, we did some souvenir shopping. In this area which was near the Louvre there were numerous shops.

We ended up having dinner at McDonald's again just because it was close and it was easy. Remember it was in the shopping mall/food court by the Louvre. The weird thing was the food court looked like it was closing for the night. It was only 7:30 on Saturday night. But we were able to get a meal before they closed.

We went back to the hotel for a bit and then headed out about 10:30 to view the Eiffel Tower at night. They do an hourly light show from 10pm until 2am on the hour. The Trocadero was crowded and filled with people trying to sell cheap souvenirs. Note the full moon to the left of the tower. Amazing!

Tomorrow is our last full day in Paris. Where will our adventures take us? We still have alot to fit in!