Last Day in Paris

Today is our last full day in Paris.

After some more emails, we took one last walk through our "neighborhood park": Luxembourg gardens. It really is so much prettier during the Spring time. They planted new blooming flowers, and the trees now have bright green leaves on them. Unfortunately there was a really nice grove of trees that had to be taken out last week. Kara happened to be walking by when this was happening, and after asking (thank goodness for her speaking French!) it was because they had some sort of tree fungus disease. But the rest of the park is looking really really nice!

After that, we went to the Parthenon since Kara had never been yet. While she was there, I took a short trip to the nearby post office to get some stamps to mail back some postcards which were way way overdue and ship some packages. Thankfully they have automated kiosks now, with an English language option, so shipping packages from France was actually pretty easy.

We then walked to the Saint Michel RER station to catch the RER C to Versailles. We got lucky and there was a train just about to leave the station that was headed there when we reached the platform, so we could just hop right on.

After the 32 minute ride to Versailles from Saint Michel, we skipped the chateau since we'd already been before, and went straight to the Petite Train which is a tram-like service (for 7.50€) that takes you to the major sights in the gardens. Which are gigantic!

I wasn't terribly impressed with the two major sights (the Grand Trianon and the Petit Trianon) but Marie Antoinette's farm area was really cute. Plus since it's finally spring it was nice and green with lots of blooming flowers everywhere. Kara compared it to a life-sized playhouse village, since it was created just for her enjoyment. And there's a small farm right next to it, with sheep, cows, chickens, and even bunnies!

We had lunch at Salon Angelina, which worked out nicely since Kara had wanted to visit it one last time. And while it wasn't their main store in the 1st, it was nice to eat outside without smoking.

We got a bit lost after trying to get back to the Petite Train, but there was a really nice security guard who acted as a quasi-tour guide as she guided us back on the right path.

We then took the train to the Grand Canal and rented a rowboat to try our hand at floating around on it. It was pretty cool, and Kara did most of the rowing since she's had experience on the water before.

Then it was a long hike up back to the main chateau. Unfortunately the flower gardens around it aren't planed yet, so it still looks a bit barren, but I can imagine what it'll look like in a few weeks. They're also starting the musical fountains this coming weekend, so we were sad to miss out on that. We'll just have to come back to Paris during the high season sometime to hit all the things we had to miss this time.

Then it was back on the RER to get to the Jardin des Plantes, which we had been to last month. But since everything else is blooming we figured it would be good to stop by. And it was! Most of the trees were just starting to turn green, while some where in full purple bloom.

We took the bus back to our flat then (our last bus ride in Paris!) and after giving our food away to one of Kara's language school friends, we went to our local cafe where we'd had our first French cafe meal. It was delicious as usual, and had a really friendly waiter. I had fois gras and some steak and frites, and Kara had some vegetable soup and some fancy French toast. The Paris-Chealsy football match was going on (for the quarterfinals of the Champions league) so after every Paris score you could hear the yelling down the street.

After some more packing and ordering stuff on Amazon for when we get home (2 day shipping FTW), we headed backed back out to get one last crepe from our local crepe guy. He was sad to see us go (and not only because we gave him so much business) and got a photo with him inside the crepe stand! If you're ever in the Paris Saint Germain area, and want the best crepes in Paris, go visit him.

Then we went to see the Siene and Pont Alexander III since Kara hadn't been at night. We had a bit of trouble catching a taxi due to the game being over just an hour before, but were able to snag one in time to get the bridge before the lights turned off just before midnight. And from there we could see the Eiffel Tower twinkle one last time as midnight struck. It was a perfect end to a very busy day.

Then it was a cab ride home, and getting to see the 6th one last time, then a bit more packing, and then a few hours sleep until we had to get up for our flight.