I had lofty plans of completing my France posts before we made it through July. I figured I would pump out a post a day, particularly since I'd already composed most of the written part for days 13-19 while we were traveling. For that reason, I never did document the events of days 20 and 21, figuring my memory would serve me well enough.
Well, it hasn't. Neither Graham nor I can remember much of these two blurry days of travel. I will do my best to recall the major high points but this is bound to be a shorter post (much to some of your excitement, I'm sure).
We packed up and hit the road early as we had to make it all the way from Eguisheim to Paris, more than a 5 hour drive without stopping. I don't remember what we did for breakfast or lunch (gasp!) We had a little bit of trouble finding our hotel as our Google directions were unclear and the road names were not easily visible. We sort of guessed our way, knowing generally which direction to head. I think we earned couple extra pats on the back seeing that we actually found the place in all of Paris! The other magical (or unbelievable?) part was that we made it there by about 1 PM! A miracle!
Our hotel was awesome. It was a little further down the metro line from downtown from our previous Paris hotel (and was in a slightly shadier area) but we literally had a metro stop right outside our door, which was our main goal. Oh yeah, and it was ridiculously cheap. We were given a room on the 4th floor (the top) of an old brick building with rich carpeting and a wide staircase lined with books. I couldn't believe how big our room was, particularly given the price.
It was Father's Day (Father's Day in Paris!) and so Isla and I gave Graham the little gift we'd picked up in Chamonix (coasters with vintage-looking pictures of skiers and scenes in the Alps). We left our room almost instantly so as to maximize our last half-day in Paris. It was Graham's pick and so we caught the metro and headed to the Museo d'Orsay where we saw paintings by the most famous impressionist artists including Van Gogh, Renoir, Monet, Manet and Gaugin. I was blown away by the impressionist art (which I didn't think I liked). The colors are so much brighter in person! The pieces just pop. Graham has always loved the work of Van Gogh and his pieces definitely were my favorite too.
Ah ha. Lunch is coming back to me now. After making it halfway through the museum, I was about to keel over with hunger so we grabbed a quick sandwich and coke from the museum's cafe. Nothing fancy, but food nonetheless.
Rejuvenated, we returned the art, whizzing through the rest of the paintings just before closing time. Outside, a small crowd had gathered to watch a roller skating/blading duo who were doing all sorts of speed skating tricks with cones on the sidewalk. We sat and watched the entertainment for awhile which also included a really creepy crazy man who kept following oblivious people and mocking them for all the crowd to see.
I was really glad that we'd spent our larger chunk of Paris time at the beginning of our trip when it'd been 90 degrees out. Only 2 weeks later, the weather at plummeted more than 30 degrees to the chilly 50s. The locals were even sporting winter scarves for warmth. What a contrast!
We went on a long walk along the River Seine and then spent a good while trying to figure out where we would go to eat (the stakes were high as we wanted our last meal in France to be a good one!) After going to a couple places only to find them closed (it was Sunday), we finally decided to head back to the trusty Rue Cler neighborhood, first stopping at the Eiffel Tower for a classic "Father's Day in Paris" picture.
We got a little distracted by the screaming and cheering coming from the steps of a nearby building so we wandered over. World cup games were being broad casted on a gigantic screen and people were going crazy. Such fun. Anyway, so we walked back to Rue Cler and I'm really glad we did. We had an awesome dinner at Tribeca Italian Restaurant! Again, I don't remember the details exactly but we started with a salad topped with the most amazing log of goat cheese tucked inside puff pastry. Next, Graham had a delicious and creamy mushroom pasta dish and I had who knows what but I'm pretty sure it was amazing. We sipped glorious French Rose for one last time while making friends with our table neighbors who were fellow American (Rick Steves!) travelers and who had taken a liking to Isla.
Of course we stopped for one last helping of gelato on Rue Cler following dinner before climbing on the metro and making our way back to the hotel. Graham really wanted to do some touring of the city at night but I was beat and so was Isla and we knew we had a long (and early!) day of traveling awaiting us in the morning so we opted to hit the sack.
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