Last Day in Paris...

We had one more "must see" on our list of Paris sights: the catacombs. I had never been to the ones in Paris only the ones in Rome. This time we got there before they opened to get in line, which worked well, we were in the first group to descend. It's not an adventure for the claustrophobic. We walked quite aways down long, dark stone tunnels to several chambers of very informative displays about the geology of Paris...

and the creation of these catacombs.

 

It was surprising how many bones are down there. They were brought here from cemeteries all over Paris and were often arranged in patterns.

The rest of our day was only vaguely planned with some souvenir shopping, wandering and more good food.
Our tea time stop was at this charming little spot.

 We picked it for it's views of our beloved Notre Dame.

We were pleasantly surprised by its tasty cream puffs in a dozen flavors.

We sampled  green tea, lemon and berry flavored , they were all delicious.

It was a gorgeous day so we ambled long the Seine, soaking up Paris.

Lunch was a request from Bob: sushi ! I know this doesn't sound very French but when the craving hits...

Great miso soup and cabbage salad to start.

My nigiri choices.

Bob's sushi sashimi combo.

Genna's chirashi bowl.

We left this place very happy and sated.

Notre Dame photo-bombed us as we wandered across both islands.

Genna loved these public water fountains, they are everywhere.

We stumbled upon an open air market on our way home.

We spent some of our last euros on cheese from this woman's stand. She was a good sale-person, offering us tastes of anything we liked. We ended up with three different cheeses for our dinner.

 Bob loved the gigantic size cast iron skillet full of roasting potatoes.

The random thing you see on buildings as you walk the Paris streets...



















To end our ramble we all wanted time in our Luxembourg gardens. It's amazing how much the trees have leafed and the flowers have bloomed just in the two weeks we have been here. I know I mentioned it earlier.

Watching the people play boules before returning to our flat had become a ritual. We were so pleased to see our favorite colorful character there. He was dressed in another stunning outfit, knickers, knee socks, vest, a deer stalker cap and his pipe. We found out his name is Alain and could he play boules !!

Dinner was low key as we had to pack, were dead tired ( we figured we walked 6 to 8 miles at least each day) and knew the alarm was set for 5:30 AM the next day.

I did get this lovely little tart for dessert.

What a wonderful trip !! We saw and did new things, revisited old favorites. Spent lots of time walking and wandering and eating. Just what we all wanted.

I have one more Paris post of random thoughts after the dust has settle here on the home front.

 For now: Au revoir, Paris, je t'aime.