Au Revoir Paris

Sunday is the day that we say farewell to Paris and return to London. We are leaving about noon. I'm not real confident with the internet access at the hotel in London, but I'll try to post updates as we do things there.

Hmmm. It's 8AM on a Sunday morning, the morning following the late night Bastille Day parties in the neighborhood. It's very quiet outside as I look at the corner of rue Augereau and rue Saint Dominique. The area was normally awake and bustling by this time of the day during our entire stay, but a sleepiness seems to be on the entire area. A lone dog barks, maybe to wake the owner for a morning walk. I take out my Sony Cyber Shot for one last Parisian photo. This is the view from the room. There are no screens in the window, it's just covered with two doors with a lace curtain. A container is attached to the ironwork and holds green lacy plants. Ah, Paris.

We pack our bags and check out of the Hotel de Londres - Eiffel. Cedric gives us one last "Bon Voyage", with a warm hand shake and we are off on our "grande depart" from Paris. We turn right out of the hotel on rue Augereau and left on rue Saint Dominique for one last stop at our favorite Boulangerie to get our morning "pain au chocolate", our chocolate croissants. Armed with a full bag, we stroll Avenue de La Bourdonnais, cross Avenue Bosquet and enter the Ecole Militaire metro on Avenue de la Motte Picquet. It's early and there is not a lot of traffic on the Sunday morning after Bastille Day.

We make our way through a few metro stops and changes to arrive at Gare de Nord. Moving from the metro station to the train station, we have made it in plenty of time. We stop at a table in the train station to finish our "pain au chocolate" and have one last latte and hot chocolate in Paris. Finally, the time arrives to join the line to go through security and board the train. Passports in hand, we put our luggage through the scanner, get the passports stamped and move into another waiting lounge. Kalen spots an ice cream stand and we buy two cones. The departure doors are divided by the train car numbers, so we move to the section for Coach 3. A lot of people crowd in line, but Kalen advises that we hang back a little since we have reserved seats. Waiting until the crowd passes, we make our way across an elevated walkway and down to our landing. Bags securely placed in the rack above our seats, we settle in for a two and a half hour ride to London.