Au Revoir, Paris. Bonjour, Back of Beyond.

We did get one last chance to stroll along Avenue des Champs Élysées on our way to catch a shuttle bus to the airport. No, we weren't leaving the country yet, just heading to Charles de Gualle airport to pick up a rental car. (Happy to pay the airport pick up premium in order to avoid driving in central Paris!)

We got off the Metro at the wrong stop, so we meandered along past all the fancy schmancy shops.







Sounds pleasant enough right? Um, except that we had luggage, and had to trundle it through this crowd. For about a kilometer.




Here's that old/new thing again. McDonald's restaurant, with the Arc de Triomphe in the background.




Look at all the ordinary Parisians, just going about their daily lives. I wonder if they even notice the gigantic slab-o-history looming above them.




We rented this Opel Corsa because our home for the next week was in the middle of nowhere.




Connelles is a teensy, tiny village in Normandy. There's not much there besides the timeshare resort that we were staying at, and the pricey hotel/restaurant next door, but it was wonderful to have a quiet, peaceful place to come home to after a day of touring.

This is our complex.








And the place where the mucky mucks with bags of money stay.







Seriously! 345 Euro per night - that's almost $500.00 Canadian! Oh, but they're pet-friendly. That's different, then. That's why Dan & I pay the big bucks to stay at Motel 6 on our way to and from Mexico :-)




That's our building peeking through the trees on the left, so our view was every bit as nice as theirs.




This little bridge led over to the swimming pool. I don't know why I didn't take any pictures of the pool, it was quite nice.




Welcome to our little apartment.




There was a small round table with 4 chairs, just out of the frame on the bottom left.




The awkwardly steep staircase that we had to negotiate every time we were hungry, or thirsty, or needed to use the bathroom. A bit of a hazard in the middle of the night, but nobody came home with a broken leg, so it's all good.




Upstairs was an armchair,




a pull-out sofa bed,




and 2 singles. The girls re-arranged the furniture to give more separation.




Breakfast.




And dinner. PU! That was one very stinky Camembert! How can something that smells so awful, taste so good?




Let's take a walk around the village.

























Yep, that's it. In its entirety! Not exactly a booming metropolis, but cute, eh?

Last day in Paris

Just getting out of bed was painful! Crippled! Like a bunch of old...oh, I was gonna say grannies, but 2/3 of this trio are grannies. Debbie & Cheryl have 16 grandchildren between them! (Soon to be 18!) Yes, really! They sure don't make grandmas like they used to, eh?




So anyway - we were in pain! Whose brilliant idea was it to walk down the Eiffel Tower anyway? OW, OW, OW!

Once we got moving it wasn't so bad, but those stairs up & down to the Metro stations almost killed us. OW, OW, OW!

We decided on a hop-on, hop-off Seine river cruise. Of course, in our case, it was more of a hobble-on, hobble-off cruise. OW, OW, OW!




One of our fellow passengers. I know, right?!




The Musée d'Orsay, home to the largest collection of impressionist, and post- impressionist artworks.




Wandering around the streets in the St. Germain area.







How handy is this? A tiny little pay-at-the-pump, roadside gas stop.




A bit of window shopping.




The Musée de Rodin. The Thinker lives in the garden there.








A lover's paradise. Just noticed that he is wearing a wedding ring.
I wonder if...




There were speakers hidden in the trees, and some creepy sort of chanting that almost sounded like breathy laughter took us off guard a few times while we strolled through the gardens.




Pretty, but not a smeller.




The dome of Les Invalides peeking out from behind the trees.




Dan & I first saw this in China. People attach locks to a bridge to symbolize eternal love. It has caught on big time in Paris. This was one of several bridges that we came across.




I'm not sure how the structure withstands the enormous weight.




Both sides of the bridge were completely covered!




Notre Dame de Paris (Our Lady of Paris) opened in 1345.











According to Wikipedia:
21 May 2013: Around 1,500 visitors were evacuated from Notre-Dame Cathedral after Dominique Venner, a historian, placed a letter on the Church altar and shot himself. He died immediately.

Yikes, I'm glad I didn't know that when we were there. Even gladder that we weren't there in May!













Loved the stained glass.







And that was Paris! Just the tip of the iceberg, really, but we hit most of the highlights. The rest will still be there next time.