day 19 - Paris (part 4)
I realized today that I’d been sick for the past 3 days
It never really kicked in full tilt
I just thought I was tired
Today
Our last day in Paris
Was the only day I really felt 100%
I felt great though
Which was good
Because we did a ton of things
Jayme and Gavin went to see if they could climb to the top of Notre Dame
Around 10am
I stayed in the apartment to wait for the leasing agency guy
So he could inpsect the place and tell us how to check out
I took the alone time to catch up on my tour notes
And emails
Around 11 the buzzer went off
“I am at zee door – buzz me in pleaze”
I pushed the button outside the front door
And the doorbell went off
BUZZ!!!!
“I am ztill here! Hang up the phone to let me in”
so I hung up the phone
BUZZ!!!!
“Push the phone like you are hanging up!!!”
what?
Like this?
It seemed to work
Next I hear the clomp clomp clomp of this guys racing up four flights of stairs
He rushed into the room out of breath with a motorcycle helmet tucked under one arm
“You didn’t break anything right?”
he said as he looked hurriedly around the living room
“No…” I said
“Ok, you are fine to leave…”
that was casual…
at 11:30 J and G came back
they said the line for Notre Dame was 2 hours
so they passed
G was merrily clinging to a toy Eiffel Tower that Jayme got him instead
I have no idea how you actually play with an Eiffel tower but he seemed to have grand plans for it
We decided to do some exploring next
We walked to the Pompidou center to have lunch
Along the way we stopped and got some street food
A sandwich at a place I noticed was always crowded (a good sign?)
Plus my new favorite
An almond croissant
At the Pompidou we sat on the cobblestones and ate out lunch in the sun
While surveying the scene of people all gathered there
Afterwards we headed to the doll museum to meet Maureen (Cody wasn’t feeling well and had the same symptoms I had earlier – sorry Cody!)
The doll museum was amusing for Jayme
Especially the extensive retro Barbie collections
The rest of the afternoon was a flurry of activity
We took the metro to Sacré-Cœur
The church on the hill
We’d been there on the last trip but I wanted to see it again
It was really crowded so we didn’t go to the top
We just sat on the grass near the bottom for a bit then left
Next stop was the opera house
Then we walked to the park near the Louvre
And sat at a café there for something to drink
Maureen got some more classic Parisian lack of service
With a waitress who completely ignored her request for food
Then wouldn’t look at her for 45 minutes
She finally had to get her to come to the table by firing a flare gun at a small child (well almost…)
By the time we took the metro back home it was already 6:30
We spent an hour packing our bags for our flight home tomorrow
Then walked to an Italian restaurant to meet M and C for dinner
I was hoping for a nice last dinner here
We didn’t really get that
But what we did get was a waitress who completely screwed up our orders
Then ignored us for an hour while an untouched pizza sat on the end of our table – in plain sight
After Maureen asked them politely 3 times for the check we finally paid
And then chef chased after us yelling in French because I dared to take the receipt
The manager then scribbled something on a piece of paper with another restaurants info on it and handed that to me as the official “receipt”
I wasn’t too thrilled with the lot of them but it didn’t ruin my mood
I felt great and happy to be with my friends and family in this beautiful city
After dinner we hopped the metro to take G on a boat ride
Finally - Paris by night!!!
Our son was in awe of the Eiffel tower
Literally giggling with excitement every time we caught a glimpse of it
It was pretty spectacular seeing it lit up
Definitely one of the most awe-inspiring things I’ve ever seen
Everything was serene and beautiful until a teen peeing off a bridge drenched half the boat and jolted us into the reality of human cruelty
Luckily I narrowly avoided it
But I felt really sorry for a young Japanese couple who got hit
I wanted to throttle whoever did that to them
It was so barbaric
That incident aside
It was a great finale to the trip
Now tomorrow morning we have to get up at 7 to catch our taxi to the airport
It’s already 1am
Time for bed!!
It never really kicked in full tilt
I just thought I was tired
Today
Our last day in Paris
Was the only day I really felt 100%
I felt great though
Which was good
Because we did a ton of things
Jayme and Gavin went to see if they could climb to the top of Notre Dame
Around 10am
I stayed in the apartment to wait for the leasing agency guy
So he could inpsect the place and tell us how to check out
I took the alone time to catch up on my tour notes
And emails
Around 11 the buzzer went off
“I am at zee door – buzz me in pleaze”
I pushed the button outside the front door
And the doorbell went off
BUZZ!!!!
“I am ztill here! Hang up the phone to let me in”
so I hung up the phone
BUZZ!!!!
“Push the phone like you are hanging up!!!”
what?
Like this?
It seemed to work
Next I hear the clomp clomp clomp of this guys racing up four flights of stairs
He rushed into the room out of breath with a motorcycle helmet tucked under one arm
“You didn’t break anything right?”
he said as he looked hurriedly around the living room
“No…” I said
“Ok, you are fine to leave…”
that was casual…
at 11:30 J and G came back
they said the line for Notre Dame was 2 hours
so they passed
G was merrily clinging to a toy Eiffel Tower that Jayme got him instead
I have no idea how you actually play with an Eiffel tower but he seemed to have grand plans for it
We decided to do some exploring next
We walked to the Pompidou center to have lunch
Along the way we stopped and got some street food
A sandwich at a place I noticed was always crowded (a good sign?)
Plus my new favorite
An almond croissant
At the Pompidou we sat on the cobblestones and ate out lunch in the sun
While surveying the scene of people all gathered there
Afterwards we headed to the doll museum to meet Maureen (Cody wasn’t feeling well and had the same symptoms I had earlier – sorry Cody!)
The doll museum was amusing for Jayme
Especially the extensive retro Barbie collections
The rest of the afternoon was a flurry of activity
We took the metro to Sacré-Cœur
The church on the hill
We’d been there on the last trip but I wanted to see it again
It was really crowded so we didn’t go to the top
We just sat on the grass near the bottom for a bit then left
Next stop was the opera house
Then we walked to the park near the Louvre
And sat at a café there for something to drink
Maureen got some more classic Parisian lack of service
With a waitress who completely ignored her request for food
Then wouldn’t look at her for 45 minutes
She finally had to get her to come to the table by firing a flare gun at a small child (well almost…)
By the time we took the metro back home it was already 6:30
We spent an hour packing our bags for our flight home tomorrow
Then walked to an Italian restaurant to meet M and C for dinner
I was hoping for a nice last dinner here
We didn’t really get that
But what we did get was a waitress who completely screwed up our orders
Then ignored us for an hour while an untouched pizza sat on the end of our table – in plain sight
After Maureen asked them politely 3 times for the check we finally paid
And then chef chased after us yelling in French because I dared to take the receipt
The manager then scribbled something on a piece of paper with another restaurants info on it and handed that to me as the official “receipt”
I wasn’t too thrilled with the lot of them but it didn’t ruin my mood
I felt great and happy to be with my friends and family in this beautiful city
After dinner we hopped the metro to take G on a boat ride
Finally - Paris by night!!!
Our son was in awe of the Eiffel tower
Literally giggling with excitement every time we caught a glimpse of it
It was pretty spectacular seeing it lit up
Definitely one of the most awe-inspiring things I’ve ever seen
Everything was serene and beautiful until a teen peeing off a bridge drenched half the boat and jolted us into the reality of human cruelty
Luckily I narrowly avoided it
But I felt really sorry for a young Japanese couple who got hit
I wanted to throttle whoever did that to them
It was so barbaric
That incident aside
It was a great finale to the trip
Now tomorrow morning we have to get up at 7 to catch our taxi to the airport
It’s already 1am
Time for bed!!
posted by salim nourallah at 11:57 PM
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