Last Day in France- Traveling back to Paris

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Geo: 48.8566, 2.35097

Well, we are off to Paris again, up at 6:15 showered and ready to go at 7:15, down for our breakfast of bread and tea then off for a walk to the train station. We wanted to make sure we got there in plenty of time to make sure we knew if we had to change trains in Caen, last time I made this trip we did but the tickets said nothing of this so was hoping there would be someone to ask at the station this morning. As it turned out there was no need to change trains, again though we did not have assigned seats so we were a bit scattered. This time each train car had several little individual compartments that sat 6-8 people in each, I don't know how many compartments were in each car though. Sarah and I were together in one, Joseph by himself in another, and Brenda, Elizabeth, and Carlie in yet a third.

When we arrived back in Paris we came into the Saint Lazare Train Station, we then took the metro #14 line to Chatelet then the #4 to Cite we then were able to make the short walk to our very budget hotel on Place Daphne, behind the Palais du Justice, on the Ile de la Cite, the same isle that Notre Dame is on. Our rooms were not ready as it wasn't even 12 noon yet, so we left our bags and went to find an internet cafe so we could check in and print out our boarding passes for our departure the next day. We were directed to the one on Blvd de Sebastopol, about a 15 minute walk away, unfortunately, the connection or the airline for "technical reasons" would not allow us to do check in... 2 euro for the privilege of trying in vain for 15 minutes... oh well all was not lost, the girls had passed a Starbucks on the way so some were able to get their fix ;-) (we are from Washington State, home of Starbucks)

After some discussion about what we all wanted to do on our last day here, we did this in a nice little park called Parc de la Tour Saint-Jacques, surrounding the tower Saint Jacques. Carlie and I decided to metro over to La Madeleine Church to look into having lunch in the foyer in the basement of the church. For a 5 euro membership you are entitled to buy a 3-course lunch here for 7,50 euro, no doubt the best deal in Paris. The others decided to walk to the church as we were all going to be there for the free concert at 4 but they wanted to view Paris on the way and find another place to eat so we parted ways to see each other later. Carlie and I made our way over to the church and found the "foyer", the ladies inside were lovely to us and tried to explain the process the best they could, they succeeded wonderfully even with their limited English. They allowed us to look at the menu which mentioned Duck l'Orange (but how they say it...) so I was set to go for this, but that was not available still as we had arrived 15 minutes before they were set to close. They showed us what they did have and it looked like premade fried chicken that we can buy at Costco here, and some other choices, we decided to go elsewhere for this meal. If I go back to Paris though I will attempt to have lunch here and arrive at the start!

We went upstairs to make sure the free concert was still on this afternoon and it was, there were also other concerts that people at little tables were selling tickets to. We were pretty hungry by this time and decided we'd explore the streets around here, try to get off the main ones and find a little place with hopefully good and authentic food that the locals eat and not just the tourists. We found it! about a 10-minute walk from the church we found a Turkish place, NO English, not many smiles either, but good food and great prices. I ordered a gyro, half a plate of fries, and a Coke Light for 6,50 as the menu stated. I don't remember what Carlie ordered but she liked her choice also. I stood around for a bit waiting to pay but no one was anxious to take my money so I looked around to see what the other customers seemed to be doing. It looked like they took a seat and then they brought the food to you. So we hesitatingly took a small table and waited for a little bit. The food came and it was delicious, everyone in the restaurant spoke French, not a tourist in sight... except for 2...! when we finished we went to pay and the bill turned out to be 7,80 euro, hmmm, another cultural experience I had forgotten, you pay extra to sit, the 6,50 was the take out price.. Oh well not a bad deal plus we ate at a place where Parisians that work in this area eat, not where the menu is in English and easily readable ;-)

We still had time to spare and had noticed on the map that the Perfume Museum was close by, we made our way over there and enjoyed a free tour. They have someone personally explain the history of perfume and explain some exhibits as they show you around, it is mostly dealing with Fragonard, I do wish we had more time here as it was interesting and we didn't have time to explore the shop before we had to leave to get to the concert.

Hurriedly we made our way back to La Madeleine Church, the concert was put on by some students from a college in England and lasted an hour. It turns out that a college in England is a K-12 school, not a university as I was thinking! Love these cultural differences.... the choral singing was very good, amazing voices these teens and young people have.

After this Carlie and I decided to continue our exploration of this part of the city while the others did their own thing, we went into some sort of a discount store, walked past Baccarat and Dior. Definitely, in the high rent district here, 3 tall beautiful girls walked past and I thought they must be models... when I got home the paper mentioned that it was Fashion Week in Paris during this time period so I believe I got that one right... we also noticed that Laduree's was right before us, we went in to see what all the fuss is regarding their macaron's. We put ourselves at the end of the long line that snaked through the small but very elegant store and decided which flavor we wanted to try. At 1,65 euro each and how rich they are supposed to be one was all I wanted. We took some pictures of everything like the tourists we were and bought our choices (chocolate- original and chocolate - Venezuelan?) We took our fragile and precious purchases over to the Tuileries Garden, found chairs in the shade near the pond and enjoyed our delicious macaron's, it was so rich I took small bites and really could not have eaten more, if I had I wouldn't have enjoyed it nearly as much as just the one.

Off to the nearby metro stop located outside the middle of the garden, we took it to the St Michel metro stop in the Latin quarter for one more stroll in this area. We stopped at an ATM and the Monoprix for some fruit (for our breakfast the next morning) and then walked back to the hotel to meet up with the rest of our group. We noticed that a group was getting ready to film a movie/commercial or something in Place Daphne and wondered what it was, we had all sorts of fun imagining which movie stars may walk through at any moment... after a bit Joseph, Carlie and I walked back to the Latin quarter for a few last pastries to eat in the morning since the hotel breakfast wouldn't be available at the time we were setting out. Joseph and I had a nice visit this evening, it was 11, still up and we were getting up at 5:30, again Sarah and Carlie would knock on our door as our alarm clock! Sweet girls!
Wendy

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