Day 8: Cafes of Paris and the Latin Quarter

Bonsoir. All good things must come to an end... this is my final blog post from Paris. How sad!

I woke up this morning to rain so skipped my run, got ready for the day, and headed out. It was quite a cold rain so I stopped for cafe creme #1 in my neighborhood before heading to the Trocadero area. It was extremely overcast so today was not the best day to see the Eiffel Tower, but oh well!

I saw it on my last trip and already have photos of it from that trip hanging on my wall at home so it's not like I needed a perfect photo of it!



I was chilled to the bone from the cold rain so stopped in at cafe #2 for my 2nd cafe creme of the day. I had planned on walking from the Eiffel Tower towards city center, but decided to hole up in the cafe and read all morning instead.

Next I headed to the Hotel de Ville area so I could do some shopping at BHV, the store I browsed in earlier this week. I tried on the coat I saw earlier this week and decided it wasn't anything I HAD to have. Instead I purchased a pink scarf - I had to buy something for myself!

Then I stopped in cafe #3 to have some fries. Healthy? Non. Delicious? Oui.

Then I headed over to the Latin Quarter for the walking tour. It was still cold and rainy but I figured if I can handle sub-zero temps, I was not going to let the rain bother me. The tour was awesome - I learned so much about this area of Paris. In case you were wondering, it is called the Latin Quarter because it is the home of Sorbonne University where Latin was the language of instruction....

I loved this area so much, I might stay in the Latin Quarter on my next trip to Paris....

After the tour, I stopped in to cafe #4 of the day. I was really cold after being out in the rain for 2+ hours, so I warmed up with a cup of soup - and read some more. I finished my 4th book today. Luckily, I have one more loaded on my nook so will have plenty of reading material for the trip home!

After attending mass at Notre Dame, I had my last gallette of the trip. Yum. It did not disappoint!



Now I am back in my apartment. I am sad that my trip has come to an end! However, returning to Paris is certainly not a question of if, it's a question of when (maybe in a couple of years?) I just really love this city; it feels like a 2nd home for me.

Thanks for following along and commenting - I've thoroughly enjoyed blogging. One downside to traveling alone is that you can't turn to someone and say - "Look - isn't that beautiful?" So instead, I came home each day and shared the beautiful sites of the day with all of you. This blog will now serve as a digital scrapbook; I know I will look back on it on days when I am really missing Paris.

So au revoir for now. My flight leaves tomorrow morning at 10:50 am - fingers crossed that I get 2 seats to myself on the way home... or a handsome, single seat mate! That's bound to happen for me some day, right? :)

I'll close with a quote from Hemingway from A Moveable Feast:

"There is never any ending to Paris and the memory of each person who has lived in it differs from that of any other. We always return to it no matter who we were or how it was changed or with what difficulties, or ease, it could be reached. Paris was always worth it and you received return for whatever you brought to it."