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The last day...all good things must come to an end.

 

I was awake when John and Babette headed out, so I got my last hugs in. Since they have moved stores Tennessee, these times together are just so special.

And here we are, Ron, Lenore, Gary and Kathy...our last morning in Paris...heading back to California this evening. 

After a little stroll around our neighborhood that included a croissant (sadly, the worst one we had on the entire trip - we shouldn't let the gluten-free guy pick which cafe to stop at!) and a coffee.  Lenore and I bought new glasses frames that we will have our prescription lenses put in at home - that will be a fun souvenir!  We wandered a bit more, stopped for refreshments at a nearby cafe that was facing our wonderful apartment, and then we headed for the airport.  FrenchBee says to arrive 3 hours before departure...I'm a bit of a worrier, so I allowed for 4 hours.  And thank goodness I did. The Uber driver insisted there was no Terminal 4 at Orly Airport and he dropped us off at Terminal 3.  It was about a half hour march (with our luggage) down to Terminal 4!  Then when we checked in, it turned out that Ron had made his plane reservation under the name of "Ron Hunt"...not "Ronald" as his passport states!  (Apparently the French are more strict about these things because he had no trouble in the US with the difference in names!) But the French would not let this slide.  This took another 1/2 hour to resolve.  And of course our departure gate was the absolute farthest away in the entire airport.  We literally got to the gate as the plane was boarding...not a second to spare!  It was an uneventful flight home (once again, FrenchBee was great), and I had a full 11 hours to replay the entire vacation in my mind...so many fun memories were made!  Upon arrival at SFO, we breezed through passport control, thanks to the Mobile Passport Control (MPC) app that lets you glide through the Global Entry line, without having to pay for Global Entry!  (Pro tip:  go download the MPC app on your phone right now so you don't forget!!)

Well, what a trip this has been.  We really got to see some absolutely beautiful, and very interesting parts of France that were new to all of us.  It was wonderful to be able to spend time together as a family.  Yes, we had some snafus...and yes, we had several things on our list that we wanted to do or see that we never got to (the upside, of course, is that consequently we already have a list started of things to see and do "next" time!). We had amazing accommodations in each place we stayed, we ate so many fantastic meals that I lost count! We all managed to stay healthy on our trip...and all our knees and hips held out (an accomplishment not to be taken lightly!) Our weather wasn't what we were hoping for...but we didn't let it keep us from doing anything on our agenda...I mean we were intrepid and explored Versailles in absolutely terrible weather, and survived St. Malo in gale force winds!  As much as I have loved every single town we have visited in France over the years, my heart really does belong in Paris.  And so I was thrilled to spend our last 5 days there...in my happy place, with people I love.

I wish that this photo had a bunch of glasses of champagne lined up instead of Coke Zero bottles, but I might not have made it on the plane if that had been the case!

Panoramic photo of the view from our balcony - beautiful sunny skies for our last half day.

Lenore looking very Parisian on our balcony!  (I think the vacation agreed with her.)

Au revoir et à bientôt!

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