Final weekend in Paris

My final weekend in Paris was alot of fun! Was nice to be back in a familiar area. I had already checked in when I wrote my last post, but had basically dropped my bags & left immediately so I could get the tickets & get ahold of Anna. When I came back to get ready for the evening, I had more time to check out the room.... and the lovely view! (see photo on the left) I wish I had a picture of my last room at L'Ouest as it was like night & day. This one was about 1/2 the size, and I could not see anything besides other buildings when I looked out my window. Not a big deal as I was just staying here for a night. I am glad that my 4 nights when I arrived in Paris were spent in the bigger room with the better view!

After getting ready for the evening, I met up with Anna in the Notre Dame/Saint Chapelle area. It was just a short walk to Saint Chapelle where we attended a concert. I had posted pics of Saint Chapelle from my time in Paris before - it's a gorgeous church with all of these amazing stained glass windows. Absolutely gorgeous and a very neat place to take in a concert. This will probably go down in history as the coolest venue for a concert. It was really intimate - I think I counted about 10-15 rows of chairs, with 12 chairs in each row. So a very small audience. The musicians played a Mozart piece & then a Beethoven piece. Both were beautiful!

After the concert, Anna and I walked thru the area around Saint Chapelle and found a street that was lined with restaurants on either side. We had a hard time choosing a restaurant since all the fixed menus looked good & most had menus that were in the 10-12 Euro range which is pretty good considering the fact that you get an appetizer, entree, and dessert! We settled upon a place that we both thought looked good. I started off with some delicious French Onion Soup. The cheese on it was probably the star of the dish - much better than the cheese you usually see on French Onion soup back home. Anna had mussels which also looked fantastic. After seeing them, I am craving them so may need to hit up this restaurant in Maple Grove that has the best mussels (in my opinion).

Next came the main course - we both had pork in a mustard sauce. It was a huge portion & was delicious! The mustard sauce was wonderful & I was pleasantly surprised to find that the meal included mashed potatoes which a total comfort food for me. They tasted like they were made with Yukon Gold potatoes. I would have probably eaten it all had I not know that dessert came with it.

Next came dessert which was a wonderful chocolate mousse. A perfect way to cap off a wonderful evening. I've had wonderful mousse over here, which Anna assures me is very easy to make! We'll see... might need to get my mom's help on perfecting that. A few people from my department at work are going on overseas trips to places such as China, Russia, and Italy. This fall when we finish our budget season, we are going to have a little 'multi-cultural' diversity event & we will each make a dish from the region we visited... so hopefully I can master a mousse recipe by then! ;)

Anna and I both went home to our respective places and decided to meet up the following morning to attend Mass at Notre Dame. We attended the 10 a.m. Mass which featured the Gregorian chant. I enjoyed Mass here more than when I attended at Sacre Couer, but it still wasn't as great as I had imagined to be. Part of the reason for that might be that visitors are constantly wandering around the perimeter of the church, taking photos. So hearing them shuffling around & seeing the flash of cameras is pretty distracting.... but I know everyone wants to see Notre Dame. It's just too bad that they don't close the church to visitors during Mass. After Mass I lit a candle for Heidi since she has a big job interview this week (everyone, pray that Heidi gets this school social work job she's interviewing for!!!). Then we headed out and walked along the Seine from the Notre Dame all the way to the start of the Champs Elysees. It's much cooler in Paris than it was in Lyon, so I was enjoying the breeze that came off of the water.

Since Anna had some along to a Catholic Mass for me, she took me to an area of Paris that is inhabited by many Russians. She took me to a beautiful Russian Orthodox Church. I went inside briefly - couldn't take pictures but it was gorgeous. There were many people in there praying and I noticed alot of people making the sign of the cross, so there must be some similarities between Catholicism and Russian Orthodox?

After grabbing some lunch, Anna and I parted ways so I could find my way to my hotel room near the airport. I had a wonderful time with Anna - it was great having some company on the final leg of my journey. Helps to stave off the homesickness I always feel at the end of the trip. Hopefully I will see her again - perhaps when I return to Paris or maybe in Russia some day as I'd love to come to Russia with my co-worker, Yulia, and see the country she speaks so fondly of..... Time will tell!