Paris: Day 5, or "Au revoir, Paris!"

Paris Travel Journal

Day 5

I tried to sleep in, as we had been out late (by Parisian standards, anyhow) the night before, but it’s hard to sleep when Paris is right outside your window, and pains au chocolat are right downstairs!

Although it was raining, after breakfast we returned to the Quartier Latin, this time for the “literary walking tour” outlined in one of our travel guides. The entire tour would have taken three hours, but because of my ankle we decided to just do a few highlights: the Hemingway stuff. I had read “A Moveable Feast” in preparation for our Paris trip, and was excited to see the places where “Papa” lived and worked in Paris.

74 rue Cardinal Lemoine, where Hemingway lived with his first wife, Hadley, and their son

37 rue Descartes, where Hemingway wrote. This building is also where the poet Paul Verlaine lived (and died).

Place de la Contrescarpe -- a very pretty plaza once described by Hemingway as a "cesspool"... lol.

For lunch, we stopped in at a little pizza restaurant and shared a pie with salami and mortadella, and I had a glass of the house red. Everything, of course, was delicious, and it’s fun to hear French spoken with an Italian accent!

After that, we walked across the Seine to Notre Dame, the famous cathedral immortalized in Hugo’s “Hunchback.” We walked around the outside of the building first, admiring the gothic architecture.

Then we went inside, and in this church, we were actually allowed to take photos (I suspect they got tired of telling people not to!)

One of the little "chapelles" around the perimeter of the cathedral

Matt tries to blend in with the spooky gothic-ness of Notre Dame, lol

We left Notre Dame and crossed back to the Latin Quarter. There were so many cute little shops, and it was time for souvenir shopping. And, when my ankle pain became unbearable, a stop in a boulangerie for another café crème and pain au chocolat ;)

Rue de la Huchette, an old, winding street full of places to eat and shop

We topped off our day with a boat ride along the Seine. We walked along the river to get to the boat, and saw a few cool things along the way:

Le Grand Palais, an exhibition hall

I love these teensy little French cars!

Just thought this tree outside Le Grand Palais was really cool-looking

The Pont Alexandre III bridge

The sky looked so pretty!

The boat ride was a nice, warm break from the cold and rainy streets of Paris, and along the way we we got an extra-special treat:

Un arc-en-ciel! Très beau!

After our boat ride, it was time to say au revoir to the sights of Paris, because our flight would be early the next morning. On the way back to our hotel, we saw a fruit vendor and stopped and got some fraises:

They had some competition from the pains au chocolat, but strawberries are still my favoritest food ;)

I really wish our trip had been longer, because there was so much we didn’t get a chance to see or do (or eat, lol). If – no, WHEN I travel there again, I would love to rent an apartment for two weeks, although I suspect that still wouldn’t be enough! I’m trying to convince Matt that we could live very happily in a little farmhouse outside Paris, but he’s not yet convinced that he could learn enough French to survive…

I cried a bit when our flight took off. Although I missed Jacob, I really did NOT want to come home. Life is so much better when you’re traveling – no work, no cooking, no bills to pay, and someone comes in and cleans your room for you! Add to that the magic of Paris and… I’m surprised they didn’t have to drag me kicking and screaming into the airplane.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my attempts to take you with me on my travels!