Last day in Paris

I had to say good bye to Tina last night, as she had promised to be back at work this morning. It was sad to say good bye and realize that our vacation was really coming to an end. Instead of holing up at the hotel after she left, though, I wandered around our neighborhood some more and popped into an internet café to confirm my flight details. I had quite a surprise waiting for me when I got back to the hotel, though: Tina was there! We never checked her train time and remembered the London arrival time as the Paris departure time. It meant that she had a horrifically early morning ahead of her, but it also meant that we got a few more hours to hang out.

I said a bleary-eyed good bye to her again this morning around 5:00 a.m., and then went back to bed for a couple of hours. I had a leisurely morning eating croissants and drinking cappuccino in the Louvre gardens before hopping on the metro to check out La Mosquee de Paris. Unfortunately, I thought it was a bit of a let down. The courtyard was much smaller than I thought it would be, and though I could see it from the mosque’s entry way, I wasn’t allowed in. Instead I wandered around the Jardin des Plantes (botantical gardens) that were right near by. They were beautiful, and I could tell that they’ll be even lovelier in two weeks when everything that is just a bud now will really bloom. I left there and just started wandering; I was lucky enough to stumble upon Rue Mouffetard, which is one of the oldest streets in Paris. It’s a narrow and windy street that doubles as an outdoor food market. It felt so quintessentially Parisian! Much of the city, obviously, is fast-paced and modern, but walking down this street felt a little like I’d gone back in time.

Then, sadly, it was on to the airport and back to reality.