Paris put on all her finery; she draped herself in peach, mauve and pink as the night sky approached, finally putting on her diamonds. Oh, she was lovely. We sat in a little seating area on Pont Neuf as the sun was setting and watched her show. As I watched I felt tears well up in my eyes. Joey was teaching Courtney the Electric Slide in the background and Jodi was caressing the bottle as she imbibed in the last of her “big” bottles of cider.
Today we drove back to Paris from Avrranche. We got up, all had breakfast in the breakfast room at the hotel and were on our way. I failed to choose a major road, and my excellent “map reader” did not correct me! It seemed to take us forever to get back to Paris. We would just gain speed and hit another small town and have to slow way back down! I just wanted to get back so we could do a couple of things before we left. Joey wanted to see the “Thinker” and I failed him there too! At least there was a mock “Thinker” in the Varenne Metro station!
We drove back into Paris without major incident, argument or strife! We both think it was our place of sincere prayerfulness as we approached Paris. Regardless we also both felt very blessed at our simple return. We returned the car with relative ease and found a taxi quite easily as well. Our Hotel was one that had been recommended on a list serve I haunt. It was the Hotel Palais Bourbon, it had a family room and breakfast at a reasonable price for Paris. It is not a do over, but it was not horrid. It did have a bidet, which was cause for some discussion with our two adolescents. We dropped off our stuff as quickly as four people can and headed out to do some ultimate last minute souvenir shopping, dinner at Boullion Racine (Joe wanted Steak Tartare and I was thinking him wise) and to watch the sunset over Paris. We wandered near Notre Dame and along the Seine, getting a chance to hear this band playing and goofing off there just as a person approached, they packed up and split. One has to have a license to play street music in Paris and apparently they did not. We encountered them about a half hour later not very far away near boulevard St. Michele.
Dinner was another good meal, Joe and I did have steak tartare, Jodi and Courtney and I had some raviolis that were actually an appetizer (I had the prix fix), and we all shared the dessert that came with my Prix fix. My food was all very good, this restaurant, unlike Bofinger gave us the same good service en familie as I got when I was alone. We hit up a few more shops on our way to Pont Neuf. We sat down and relaxed just in time to see her last seduction. I was ready to go home, to see my people, to see how my garden had fared, to take a bath in my tub, even to go back to work. But I was also sad to be leaving Paris. My long awaited trip was now memories rather than anticipation. Au revoir freedom, gastronomy, activity and new friends. Au Revoir Paris, That translates literally into “Until I see you again”!
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