The Last Day: Au Revoir to Paris

I'm writing this blog from the airport gate in Cincinnati, Ohio, with about one hour until we board a flight to SLC. This blog will most likely be about yesterday and maybe a few things I've noticed today being back in the US. I'm still going to write it like it is last night just because it is easier for me.

We got up at about 9:00 which really wasn't really early for us or late. We walked around the corner for our usual patisserie visit for a quick breakfast and took the metro to the Marais neighborhood. We just walked around for about half an hour and went to a small creperie where I (finally) had my much-needed crepe. I just got a sucré et citron (sugar and lemon) crepe which may sound dull but it was actually very, very good, and I don't regret my choice. By the way, they were enormous!

We went into a little square where we hung out for about an hour and read about its history. it was really nice and the pigeons were all flying around. There was even a fountain that you could fill your water bottle with. We left the square and walked through streets with a restaurants that specialized in falafel. So, since some of us have never tasted it or don't remember tasted it, we got two falafel sandwiches which were pretty darn good. They were a little awkward to eat, but that wasn't a problem because of all the pigeons collecting any fallen food. :)

(Speaking of pigeons, the falafel place seemed to be where all the old pigeons hung out, and there was this one pigeon who was trying to get a feather that was stuck right between its eyes off itself, and continued to try the entire time I saw him/her with no luck.)

We walked a few blocks and ended up at the modern art museum. This place is often called an inside-out building because all the infrastructure is on the outside. There are nice squares and cafes around it so we sat at one for at least an hour. The squares were apparently a common place where street performers and artists come, and we saw three different groups, all were very good. The first person was making a chalk drawing on the ground. It was amazing! I'll probably have a picture of it in my future picture blog, because it is very hard to describe it in words. The second person was a silent performer who had sound track playing. He was also very good and very entertaining to watch. The third was actually a group of five guys. They were more audience oriented and would pull in different people to do a variety of things. My sister was actually pulled up. The guys were very funny and really entertaining. They were a sort of hip hop dancers who would do different styles of dance in different performances. Sadly, at the end as we left the cafe, the police came over and talked to them, but I don't know what happened because we went into the modern art museum.

The modern art museum was disappointing. There were a few interesting artists that were cool and clearly had skill and talent, like Picasso and a few others, but there were also a ton of pieces that didn't seem to take any skill at all. I am talking a black canvas with a few white strips, or a triangular canvas split in two with one side painted green, the other white. It was bad. My favorite? Three blank canvases all lined up in a row with a sign to the side explaining why they are not actually blank, they are white. You can bet that I will have pictures of the art exhibits that were in this famous museum in the future.

After, we went to the bridge that has thousands and thousands of locks on the side and clipped our own lock onto it. We decided not to throw a key in because there was some boat traffic and we thought getting hit with a metal key would not be good. We went to a local cafe that was very good and all three of my courses were delicious (antipasti, cod fillet, mille-fieulle which is a thousand layer dessert).

We went to bed at around 1:00 AM after packing, which was bad because earlier that morning, we had hoped to go to bed around 10:00.

Whoops. :/

We were not as early for our flight as we had hoped we would be, but we did get on the flight. The flight back to the US was better than the one there. They served us little bowls of ice cream near the end and I must have started at least five or six different movies, even though I only finished maybe two.  Also, I didn't have to force myself to sleep, and I got a window seat.

So being back in the US after France brings me a deeper perspective of our culture. (I also have a deeper appreciation of our public toilet situation in the US.) I already miss Paris but it will also be good to be home.