Paris encore

Our return to Paris for the end of the trip was wonderful. Vicki picked a hotel with a view, and I had a blast with the camera. We wandered the left bank, had a delicious final dinner, final crepe, etc. What we did not plan for was the noise at such a place. Not a lot of sleep last night.

But here are some photos.

Instead of lugging our suitcases up and down the stairs of the metro, we walked from the station to our hotel, the only hotel we stayed in the entire trip. Vicki's Airbnb arrangements worked out very well.

So this is how we roll....

And diagonally across the street and the Seine: Notre Dame de Paris

The intersection below our window during the day...

...and during the night.

We love this area of the Left Bank. This is my new favorite sweet in Paris. It is a kouignette, and it was incredibly good. We tried two flavors, and I would like to try the other 10!

Shot from our window: a couple in a cafe, possibly deciding where to have dinner. Could have been us several times! Forget the Michelin guides. TripAdvisor, Yelp, and La Fourchette (the Fork) led us to some wonderful food and drink.

A waiter directly below our fourth floor window

Easter is around the corner, and the French chocolatiers try to outdo each other - chocolate is the medium. And the results are amazing.

If you spent any time trying to correct the mistakes in usage of English, you’d never get to see Paris or try the foods mentioned. However, if you had a duck lever big enough, could you move the world?

A shot from inside the Cafe Panis. Service was attentive and enjoyable. I have a children’s song in my head, and I asked the waiter if he knew it. He promptly broke into song.

Our last dinner was here, back in the corner, sitting in the shadow of Notre Dame and seeing the occasional foursome of French troops with their machine guns cradled. It seemed so appropriate to be eating a croque-monsieur, frites and French onion soup, and drinking French wine and a Picon (a beer with an orange bitter liqueur in it). I had waited the entire trip for a croque-monsieur. It was wonderful.

One of my favorite shots from this trip:

And the Seine in the morning, just before sunrise (and the rain. This was the only day there was rain.)

The night before, there were hundreds of people on this street.

That's it. Vicki and I discussed that Paris is our favorite big city. But it is still a big city. We like the smaller towns and the country even more. We have yet to see the southwest of France - the area along the Pyrenées, from Biarritz to Lourdes to Toulouse. Maybe that's next? Peut-être...

Until then, au revoir.