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Published: October 18th 2015
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Our last few days of our trip we headed back to Paris. We took the highspeed Thalys train back through Brussels and reminisced about how wonderful the trip had been thus far. The train ride was very fun up to the last 40 min's when a 20 year old Asian lady decided to call out her dad very loudly for the last leg of the trip. We got to hear all about their family dynamics and her logic around her bad behavior. I was about to get involved and tell her to stop disturbing the peace after about 30 mins of her conversing loudly, then more quietly, in English, Chinese and then English again. Her brother was crying and her mom as well, who also said she was sick of being put in the middle. I started to stand and realized we were about 5 min's from Paris so let it go, but I was quite bothered by her selfishness and not caring how she was disrupting others. We exited the train after I paged Dr. Phil and recommended family therapy to them, and met up with Eric. We fought some Paris traffic (by we I mean Eric) and parked at
the Louvre to grab some food (not what i expected to do there lol). Once our blood sugars leveled we headed towards some very high end shops and treated ourselves to coffee and macaroons from one of the finest cafe's I have ever been in called Laduree, founded in 1862. It was beautiful and extremely tasty. Coffee was served in silver carafes and fine china cups, very elegant and they happen to deliver all over the world. Sylvie then met up with us and we went to a beautiful tea shop, chocolate shop with amazing sculptures made of chocolate decadents and a few other stores. We headed down the Champs-Elysees towards the Arc de Triomphe and eventually all got tired so headed to the car and then to the village for sushi. The next day we decided to head to Versailles but they were on strike so we went to another village and looked around there. It was beautiful with an old church and graveyard. We looked into doing the catacombs as well, but the next tickets available were a week and half away, I would suggest to anyone wanting to see the catacombs that you prebook a few weeks
in advance if possible as almost all of Oct was sold out.
Versailles was back to allowing public access on Sat, so we headed there. It was a beautiful day and the line up to get into the palace was unbelievable. As per Sylvies suggestion, we did the gardens first and enjoyed the sunshine. It was spectacular. The fountains were beautiful and there were so many hidden treasures. Classical music played throughout and we witnessed a water show to classical music in the gardens. Jackie and I played romantic tourists and went on a row boat on the water near the palace. It was so classic. The swans, the people, the music. We could have been in our own movie.
Around 430 we headed into the Palace and the line up was almost gone, however inside was wall to wall still as we all tried to funnel through the open parts of the Palace. We got pushed and ushered and squeezed by all the other tourists and unfortunately it took away from the experience. It was overwhelming the details and beauty in this place and what we did see was astounding. The amount of detail in every room,
every corner, every ceiling was stunning. I would recommend this as a place to go for sure.
Sunday we went to the Market in Paris. it was acres of open vendors and name brand stuff. there was much i wanted to buy as the prices were good. It was definitely a different feel there and it reminded me more of Mexico and bartering. We spent a few hours there, had a great lunch by the antique shops, which had the most beautiful furniture. And then Jackie and I headed to our hotel to spend our last night in Europe. We decided to head to mass at Notre Dame and it gave us goosebumps. We walked in just as there was singing and the organ played. The chandelier lighting and incense burning was a spiritual experience. It didn't matter your faith, you could feel the energy of this place and history it held. I could hear past choirs singing and the aweness of why this place was built was evident.
After soaking it in, we strolled out along the canal and we found a little space to put our lock and threw away the key in the river Seine.
There were thousands of locks on the bridge, but we were able to find a spot off the beaten path as it were. The night street lights came on as we finished out locking ceremony and we headed back to the hotel area for dinner. We stayed in a hotel that was in the area of left bank, where historically artists hung out. We saw where Hemingway had coffee and worked, as well as Fitzgerald. We had a beautiful dinner at a very high end seafood restaurant and took in our last moments. It was a wonderful trip. Everything I had hoped it would be and more.
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Mom
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So happy for you!
Your trip sounded absolutely wonderful and I am so envious of all the places you got to go to and see. Loved your story about the Spa - don't know if I could have run around naked with a bunch of strangers! And Jackie's family sound wonderful - and very generous! I am so happy that you go to realize this dream of yours and that all went so well. Welcome home! Love you!