Skip to main content

Day Six / last full day :-(

 Well, here it is...my last full day :-(

The day started out great, the guy who is always at the front desk in the morning asked me if I was from Canada!  I said that I was from California, and he was surprised because I always speak French to him!  That made me feel pretty good!  I may be the only American here, I'm not sure.  I only hear German, French and Italian being spoken of in the breakfast room.  Breakfast is served from 6:30-10:00 and I'm always down there at 7:00...if there are other Americans they must eat later than I do.  I like this desk guy because one night when I returned "home" from dinner, he was standing outside having a cigarette (of course!)...he told me to just go behind the desk and get my own key!  I feel like I have been accepted as a "regular" and that makes me so happy!



I love reading books about the French Resistance and the other day in the Metro I saw an ad for a special exhibit of Women of the Resistance at Les Invalides (where Napoleon is buried).  It was in an area of Paris I had not visited on this trip so it seemed like a fun thing to do.  I headed off in that direction.  FYI, for anyone traveling I urge you to use the app called Rome2Rio.  My friend Chickie turned me on to it several years ago and it is so great for directions.  For example I entered my hotel name and Les Invalides and it told me exactly how to walk to the appropriate metro station, which train to get, where to get off, and then walking directions to the final destination.  It also shows driving directions, trains, etc.  It SO useful for planning any trip!  OK, back to my day...I paid for my ticket and for the headset for English guidance...walked all the way to the other side of the huge building and started my tour, only to discover that my headset didn't work.  I was too lazy to walk all the way back and swap it out, so I made do with just reading the info on each display.  The exhibit was quite good, but I decided it was too nice of a day to stay inside for more "museum-ing" so I grabbed a bite in the museum cafe (Gary and I have found European museum restaurants are usually quite good. They had a nice little terrace where I enjoyed a perfect citron tart and a cup of tea.

The gold dome of Les Invalides, now a military museum.  Napoleon's ashes are buried in the golden dome!  His will asked to have his ashes sprinkled on the banks of the Seine, amongst the French people he loved...the King chose Les Invalides as his final resting place to honor his military glories.

One tasty little lemon tart!


Seriously, how did my 70 year old Oma walk in her stacked-heel pumps on these cobblestones?  I could hardly do it in my sneakers without looking down and watching every step!


Next up was a little metro ride over to Galeries Lafayette, the big beautiful department store.  I love the big beautiful dome  there and thought I could buy a few trinkets in their gift shop, which I had read was quite nice.  I also wanted to stop in their food hall and buy some French butter to bring home.  While on the metro I overheard an Australian woman speaking quite loudly to a group of young French people.  She was telling them all about her 3 week Traffalgar tour through Europe.  The tour ended yesterday so she was now on her own for a week in Paris.  When we got off the train she stopped dead in her tracks and I ran right into her.  She told me she didn't know where the exit was so I told her to follow me.  She asked where I was going and I said Galeries Lafayette...well, wouldn't you know it but that is where she was headed!  We walked a few blocks, she never stopped talking...I heard about her kids and grandkids (and I didn't even ask!).  She has 2 sons, 3 grandsons, and twin baby grand daughters, one has a club foot, they live on a farm and have a river on their property, and on and on and on!.  She decided we were twin/soulmates since our kids and grandkids are of similar ages.  And I got a great big hug from her!  We got in the store and she said she needed a cup of coffee before soldiering on and she asked me to join her...well, it wasn't so much as "ask", it was just sort of assumed, she basically grabbed my arm and pulled me on the escalator!!  She was quite a hoot...steping behind sales counters to get the perfect camera shot of the lovely dome, etc.  We finally ordered our beverages and while she went to grab 2 seats for us, I waited for our coffees.  The nice young guy working behind the counter (ironically Australian also), said to me "wow, your friend is quite a lot. isn't she?!"  I said, "can you believe I just met her 1/2 and hour ago on the metro?! I'm just not sure how I'm going to ditch  her!"  He suggested I just excuse myself for the restroom and run out the front door!  But I couldn't do that to her.  So we sat and enjoyed our beverages, while sharing family photos (oh, I also saw ALL the photos of her tour 😳).  We went to the gift shop and she asked where we should go next...I had to tell her that as it was my last day in Paris, I preferred to just wander alone for a bit, but that I had really enjoyed our time together...(which was true, but enough is enough!). She was fine with that (of course she has already texted now that I'm back at my hotel!!)


the dome really is gorgeous! 


All this walking this week,  and I finally this afternoon, felt a little blister on my toe so I chose to head back to my hotel for a bit before heading out to dinner.  I decided that another galette (savory buckwheat crepe) would be an appropriate "last supper".  I found very small, casual Creperie about 4 blocks from my hotel...and it did not disappoint.  The savory one was filled with egg, cheese, cartelized onions, and ham - it was delish!! I wasn't planning on having dessert, but the owner suggested I try the carmelized apple/salted caramel crepe.  WOW...this might have been the best thing I have eaten on this trip - it was phenomenal!!  Not too sweet, the apples were so flavorful and not mushy at all.  When I told the owned that it was "trés bon"...he blew me a kiss! 

I think I have one more outing in me for tomorrow morning (my flight doesn't leave until 6:30)...I think I'll head down to Notre Dame and check on the progress.  It's scheduled to open in December of this year...I'm just a few months early.  Also, I remember reading somewhere that the amazing metal horse that seemed to run on the Seine in the Olympic Opening Ceremony is on display at Le Hotel de Ville which is on my way to Notre Dame...Hopefully it is still on display.

Good Night !





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ready...Set...Go!

It's finally travel day!  My flight from SFO to Paris is a "red eye", which is great, I can usually sleep a bit on a plane...however the problem with this timing is that the flight doesn't leave until 8:30pm!  That means a whole lot of sitting around, anxiously waiting to go, once you are packed and ready!  Oh well...c'est la vie! I flew on FrenchBee, a budget airline that we have flown 3 round trips before...no frills, but the planes are nice, new AirBus planes.  The planes are spotlessly clean (in fact, last time we flew FrenchBee, I saw the flight attendant clean the bathroom twice  on the flight!), I checked in online from home, got my digital boarding pass, and we headed to the airport.  Once we pulled in to SFO, Gary headed to the International Terminal to drop me off...I looked at my boarding pass and said "no...I need Terminal 1" so that's where he dropped me off.  I grabbed my backpack and suitcase, gave G. a kiss and started to walk off....
1 comment
Read more

Kathy goes to Paris...alone!

Well, I'm doing it...heading to Paris ALONE for one week!  Am I excited (YES!), am I nervous (YES!), am I crazy (I hope NOT!), am I counting down the days until September 28 (YES!).  Lot's of people have asked why I'm doing this, and I'm not sure I can really answer that other than to say I just feel that it is something I NEED to do (and I have felt that way for a while).  I think Gary was tired of hearing me say I wanted to go solo to Paris, so one day he just said "stop talking about it and just book it!"  I didn't waste a second...I ran right to the computer and booked that flight! I love Paris so much, and feel so comfortable there...I'm not sure I'd consider traveling alone to another city that I didn't feel so comfortable in.  But I "get" Paris...I feel comfortable navigating the Metro (in fact, I LOVE the Metro!), I understand how the city is laid out...and I have enough French language skill to get around, be understood, and ...
5 comments
Read more

First full day...here we go!

First full day…here we go! After sleeping great (although I did wake up at 2:30am very very confused…my room was light but my phone said 2:30…was it the afternoon…did I sleep all day?!?)  I eventually realized that it was light because I had left the bathroom light on, and I went right back to sleep until 6am. I headed down for breakfast in the basement breakfast room.  There was a great spread…fabulous baguettes, 2 types of great French butter, 6 kinds of jam, baskets full of croissants and Madelines, granola, sliced meats and cheeses, yogurt, hard boiled eggs, 25 different kinds of tea, a Nespresso machine…everything I needed…and more!  They even had a whole gluten free section with 3 kinds of GF bread and 4 kids of GF granola…it made me feel a little bit guilty that Gary wasn’t here to enjoy it with me. As it was quite dark out still, I was in no hurry to head out, so I hung in my room a while and read, trying to decide what to do on my first day.  Eventually I he...
4 comments
Read more