AU REVOIR, PARIS

Off to Bordeaux this am by car (gulp) after a terrific night on the Eiffel Tower at 9-10 last night.

Highlights of yesterday:

- the Eiffel Tower lit by fllodlights (see pic above)

- K slyly photobombing some tourists who were insistent on taking their photo in front of us. We are not digging some of these obsessive people.

- awesome ice cream late at night for M, K and Mom; the place makes you buy two scoops because they shape the cone into a flower shape, with the first scoop flattened out like the petals of the flower and the second scoop in the middle.

- even better lunch of Poulet Provencal with out of this world fried potato slices, and a glass of Chinon Rose, on the Isle St Louis - 16 euros. In a restaurant run by a gray haired chef-owner and her cats. Not so much on the cats, but terrific food at half the price of the night before at some chic place.

- the chilled out park, Place Des Vosges, in the Marais district, followwed by Mom and M buying jewelry from a nice little shop

- getting out of Paris without renting one of the funky public rental bikes which are everywhere as part of Paris' public bike rental program. K has been looking at them yearningly for 2 days, every time we pass a vending site. The bikes are cool and alluring, yes, but there's no doubt we'd have ended up in a Parisian hospital learning the French phrase for "massive head trauma"

- the Parisians are nice - from the grandmother who made us lunch to the pharmacist who gingerly cleaned M's skinned knee...we've liked almost all of them. BUT, we may have a different perspective after we get the rental car in 2 hrs and start driving.

Dad

Is B a cat lady? Only time will tell...

What a long travel day. The plane was pretty empty, so we all laid down across rows. The airplane food, was, of course, delicious. We settled on a boulangerie for breakfast---yum! ---, visited two museums, bought K’s beret, and my knees almost broke from all the walking. Back at the hotel, all three of us collapsed in pain on our beds. The end of the Tour de France was wicked cool, and dinner was delicious.

This morning, we ate breakfast at the hotel then headed to the Louvre. We did a quick Top 10 visit, including the Mona Lisa of course. We also saw large compulsive tourist groups who insisted on taking their unsmiling photo in front of every. Single. Thing. In. the. Museum.

After that, we went to Notre Dame after K and I bought sunglasses—faux Raybans for him, aviators for me. We ate lunch at a place with kitty-cats where the cats spent most of the meal snuggled under B’s feet, leading me to the conclusion that he is a cat lady. While Dad enjoyed his espresso—and the check—we bought lollipops, bought me a ring, then took a tour bus.

I tripped and skinned my knees, and that will definitely leave a scar! I looked for white skinny jeans on my never-ending search, but no dice, but we did see someone who goes to school with B, and bizarrely, we had mentioned her at breakfast. We’re going out to dinner now, have a 9 pm appointment with the Eiffel Tower, and then we’re getting ice cream. Adios! –M.