Monday, July 26

Monday, July 26
Our last full day in France. :(
Left the hotel by 8:30 am, heading for Rue Cler for breakfast with my unused ladder in hand. The store wasn't open when we arrived so we went to the Cafe Marche for coffee, juice, and tartines. After breakfast the store was open, but they would only give me credit which was pretty much useless since they had absolutely nothing we could use or home. There was a woman and her. Young son in the store, so I gave her my store credit and told her to buy a toy for her son. She was near nears,so it completely took the sting out of losing money.

We walked toward Les Invalides where we could get a cab, grabbing an almond croissant and a cinnamon & raisin sweet roll along the way. We took the cab to a toy store to buy some cycling figures that we had seen last night, but the store was closed until 1 pm, so we then walked over to the Isle de la Cite, the larger of the two islands in the Seine where Notre Dame is located. Listening to a Rick Steves podcast on my iPhone, we followed his historic tour of Paris in reverse order, stopping at the Conciergerie prison where 3000 people waited to be guillotined during the French Revolution. Our tour included Saint Chapelle, the oldest clock in Paris, a flower market Which wasn't operating, Place St. Michel, St. Severin church, the Shakespeare book store, and of course, Notre Dame. We had a wonderful lunch in a small restaurant on Isle St. Louis, which is the smaller, more residential of the two Seine islands. Joni and I had the same meals, onion soup, penne pasts with vegetables, and a 1/2 bottle of a Cote du Rhone red wine.

We stopped for an ice cream, considered a speciality item on the Isle St. Louis, along the way to the toy store, and then took a cab back to our hotel, arriving around 4 pm, exhausted and with very sore feet. Siesta time.

Our final evening was perfect. For our last dinner in Paris we chose the Cafe Bousquet which is on Avenue Bousquet, about a ten minute walk from our hotel. Joni and I chose the same menu: escargots, chateaubriand with bernaise, green beans, fries and a cheese plate. Our waiter was very friendly and even helped me understand the difference between "etre termine" and "avoir termine" when you want to say "we are done with our meal". We even discussed cycling with me and the importance of making an attempt to speak the language when in another country.

After our fabulous dinner' we strolled down the Rue Cler one final time and stopped at Amorino for ice cream and coffee. We got back at the hotel in time for the 11 pm light show at the Tour Eiffel, a true marvel every time we saw it.

So that ends our vacation narrative, Tuesday we travel, hopefully arriving in Boston around 4 pm, we could not have had a better trip and a can't say enough about Joni's research, it made the 16 days perfect!

Oh, la, la!