Paris My Cherie Amour: Day 5

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They say all great things must come to an end and our vacation to Paris ends after today, sure I'll miss the taste of warm buttered crossiants, sitting at the sidewalk cafe enjoying beautiful 70 degree weather, walking down the sidewalk looking at boats go down the Seine River and of course the cognac. Since today is our last day we decided to just enjoy the day and soak it all in, today we would go up to Montmartre to see the Sacre-Coeur Basilica and then to the Champs-Elysees so my wife could do one of her favorite things in the world, shop for makeup. It was a beautiful day so I got up and got us some breakfast then we ate, relaxed in the room before we decided to head out on today's journey. We really did relax, we relaxed until it was lunch time so we walked over to Bercy Village and stopped at Eric Kayser before we began today's adventure. Don't laugh but I ordered a hot dog, yes I went to France and ate a hog dog, but this isn't your normal Oscar Meyer hot dog, this is a French hot dog, they toasted the bun added sauker kraut and mustard, then the meat was delicious, they cut it in half and presented it on this lovely plate, this sure beats that hot dog your uncle gives you at the family bbq on the 4th of July. My wife enjoyed my hot dog more than her salmon tarts, we finished our drinks and I paid the bill, told the waitress merci then we headed to the train station. The ride up to the Sacre-Coeur wasn't that long, we got off the the train and made our way up the stairs, the Montmartre area is a hill in North Paris. It is actually the highest point in the city, from this area you have an amazing view of the entire city, Moulin Rouge is also located up here and some other adult areas, kinda funny that a church is here but you have to go somewhere to wash away your sins. Okay let me get back on topic now we have to find the Sacre-Coeur, so I asked one of the vendors they know where everything is located. He points me toward the right street, he said go down the street and you'll be there in five minutes, so that's what we do. While walking down the street we pass a French school, it's actually a university some of the kids are hanging out, smoking cigarettes and having a good laugh. We make it to the corner and on the left we saw a park then a stairway, we look up there hill and their stands the Sacre-Coeur, it's a beautiful white church with Roman-Byrzatine architecture. Once again its about 200 stairs to actually get up to the church but this time their is a lift to get to the top, why not take advantage of modern technology and take the lift? So that saves us walking up to the church but their are more stairs leading to the front of the church but before we walk up, we take time to admire the view of the city. It is a breathtaking view of the city and the sky is clear so you can see nothing but the beautiful architecture of Paris for miles. A few vendors are out selling trinkets and water, I get two bottles of water then I give him two euros. We make our way up the stairs to walk thru the church, no cameras are allowed in Sacre-Coeur even though some people dont respect this request but I don't take any pictures while we're in there. We walk thru slowly admiring the grand archways, beautiful paintings on the ceiling and the many statues of historical religious figures. A few worshippers are in there praying so we quietly keep walking thru and head back outside, we take the lift back down. We walk thru the area looking in a few vintage shops seeing what kind of fashion they have, we stop in this light store and they sell lights on a string in many different colors, so my wife wants to check it out. This saleslady is really cool, her name is Isabelle, she says oh I love Outkast, talking about my t-shirt that has Outkast on it, so while my wife is looking at lights we chat about music. We spend about 30 minutes chatting with Isabella then my wife picks her colors, I pay for lights, tell Isabelle merci beaucoup and we make our way back down to the train station so we can continue on to our next destination. Next stop is the Champs-Elysees, we get off the train at the Champs-Elysees stop and head up the stairs. We come up the stairs right at the beginning of the street you can see the Arc d Trimophe at the other end of the street and just seas of people every where. So we begin our journey strolling down the street, doing some window shopping checking out the fine Parisian fashions, we walk a few blocks before we get to my wife's first destination the Mac store, she browsed for a few minutes then we leave. Next on her agenda is Sephora, its conveniently only about two stores away, she goes one way and I go the other way, I'm checking out the men's cologne. So after a few minutes I find her, unfortunately they didn't have what she wanted, so we leave the store disappointed but not defeated. Her dream is to go to Coco Chanel's apartment but I did some research online, it's only used for interviews and photo shoots, we thought about just showing up then asking if we can go upstairs since it's located above the Chanel store but we decided not too, even though it would have been fun. We decide to head back to Bercy Village since we have to get our things ready cause we have an early flight in the morning, we make it back then we stop at one of the children clothing stores cause our niece's birthday just passed a few days ago. It's time to go the room and unwind, we lay around relaxing, I get my things ready for the next day, after that it's time for our nightly ice cream. I walk back out to the ice cream stand on the corner, I placed our order then waited for our ice cream, it's a family there with two little kids and ice cream is a universal sign for kid's happiness. The kids are their anxiously waiting for their cones of ice cream, they get their ice cream then they smile, I have the same reaction when I get ice cream. I happily walk back to the hotel eating my ice cream and carry the cup that my wife wanted, I'm waiting on the lift to take me up to the room and this couple walks by, the wife is checking out my ice cream, I'm not sharing you can get your own. I make it back to the room, give my wife her ice cream while we unwind after another fun day in the City of Lights. The next morning we get up, get our things together then we check out of the hotel, of course we stopped at Eric Kayser for our last taste of hot, fresh, buttered French crossiants, you can tell we loved those crossiants. The train ride to Charles De Gaulle airport is about 30 minutes from Bercy Village, we get there in plenty of time to check in and make it thru customs. We have enough time to get some French candy to take back home with us, finally it's boarding time and we board the plane on our way back to Houston. The wheels are up, we're off heading home then after we reach our desired altitude, the flight attendants serve us lunch accompanied with a nice glass of wine, international flights are wonderful, so I finish my meal and enjoy a movie after a few minutes it's off to dream land. Even though the flight is 9 hours lomg, the time seems to fly by and before you know it we're landing at Bush International Airport. I knew I was back cause the temperature was 97 degrees when we got back, humidity I didn't miss you. Paris is defenitely an experience I will not forget, hopefully it won't be long before we return but who knows where the next adventure will lead us, South America, Asia, Europe again but where ever we go I'll be sure to share my adventure with everyone until the next time, au revoir.

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