November 8-November 13, 2019
Day 75 Friday, November 8: The kids both agree that their favorite meal was at Restaurant de La Cordonnerie, so we head there…One Last Time (enter soundtrack). We sit in the kitchen and watch the chef and owner prepare our meal…veal and perfect fries and pear mouse. It was everything we remembered from our first trip with Nan. I ask the kids if the trip was what they imagined, and they couldn’t really remember what they imagined it would be. So, NOTE TO SELF: Next time we take a trip like this, make notes of what you think it will be like and then compare to what it really is. We head to the Grand Palais to meet the McLaughlins for a photography exhibit. I love the Grand Palais…It was built for the 1900 expo and is a marvel of glass and Art Nouveau-style ironwork. But I had never been inside. This was a huge photography exhibit and we spent a few hours viewing award-winning photos and photo art. When we get back to our Metro stop and walk past Le BHV, we see one window that is open and a few people are watching. A gentleman tells us to hang around and soon, the beautiful display comes to life! We were talking to the manager who designs every element of every Christmas window at this impressive department store, and the puppeteer who made the automation happen. He tells us that his father and grandfather are both puppeteers, so it’s a family business. They were only testing the windows and we were there at just the right time. The puppeteer tells me that only the Printemps windows are open so far (he did their puppets, too). What a cool experience! On our way home, there was a party at the Ugg store near our apartment, and we enjoyed some truffles, champagne and Cham-pomme for the kids. They also had a live band. In the apartment, we opened the windows to enjoy the band and hear their current song-Sweet Home Alabama! Geer hangs out the window singing, and I know it’s time.
Day 76 Saturday, November 9: I decide to make one attempt at flea marketing. I left the kids at home to chill and I booked it to the Aligre Market. It was a medium-sized market with a huge variety of things. It didn’t take me long to realize that I don’t have what it takes to do this. Some of these booths have precious items that I don’t even recognize. Some look like my junk drawer. I moved over to the amazing fresh food market…more my speed. I wandered my way home and marvel at the many places close to my apartment that I have never noticed before. We shop around our place for a few souvenirs before we head out to the McLaughlins. We meet up and head to Printemps, one of the few department stores that has already unveiled their Christmas windows. We join the throngs who are walking past, stopping to view these marvels. While the Le BHV windows were traditional French Christmas, Printemps is more playful and reminds me of a muppets special. Both were a treat to view. At the McLaughlins, we settle in for our last sleep-over. We have a great meal, get to hear all about Will’s fight for life in the first few years and watch the kids go after each other in a paper airplane war. Then the girls put on a face mask and settle in to watch 13 Going On 30. How have I never seen this movie?
Day 77 Sunday, November 10: We wake up to crepes, nutella, whip cream, fruit, juice and coffee! What a treat. We all get ready and head out for our last Sunday worship at the American Church in Paris. It was a nice service, and when it was over, we stuck around for the sanctuary tour they offer monthly. Our guide is SO knowledgeable. I can’t remember, but I think she has been in Paris for 30 years. There is tons of history about this church, one of the first American Protestant Churches on foreign soil, started in 1814. The current building was built and dedicated in 1931. In WWII, the Germans allowed services to continue, but once the Americans joined, they began looking for American citizens and came for the pastor. He saw them coming and hid behind the organ pipes. There are 6 carvings of great reformers, Pope John XXIII, John Wesley, St. Paul, Martin Luther, John Calvin and Martin Luther King, Jr. The stained-glass windows are most impressive, and tell the story of the church, including the reformation and WWI and WWII. The 2 most notable windows are Tiffany windows created for one of the parishioner’s wife. They are stunning and have so much detail compared to the traditional primary color windows. I absolutely LOVED our time at this church and this tour. After, we walk over to the American Library and sadly close our borrowing rights (and get our final 1 euro hot cocoa). We part ways from our friends and walk to the Eiffel Tower one more time. In the photo, Carson seems sad, Geer seems happy, and I am just resigned to the fact that it’s the end of the world as we know it. We walk the tower’s 130 year anniversary exhibit and find out the tower will be painted yellowish-brown soon! It will look totally different when we see it next. At home, we start the task of packing. I won’t bore you any longer, but this will be no easy task!
Day 78 Monday, November 11: The last day! It came as quickly as the first. Wow, how time flies. I am overwhelmed with the experience and the time we’ve been afforded together. So many museums, parks, exhibits, historic sites, buildings, friends, families, walks, rides, tears and smiles. I decide to put on one more smile for the kids and we wake up early to LIME BIKE! In the cold, and the rain. It’s a Armistice Day, so it’s quiet early and we have the streets to ourselves. It’s glorious! Those 15 minutes are so fun and special. We scooter over to Stohrer, the oldest (and some say the best) bakery in Paris. We go classic with Croissant, Pain au Chocolat and Madeline. All are devine. It’s a beautiful bakery, but no seating so we walk down to the Laduree for a coffee and a seat (and, who are we kidding, one last macaron). The designer of this new shop comes in and asks if we like the place. YEA! We do! We walk by the Lego store again and spend some time getting more souvenirs at a really nice Monoprix. The kids settle in at home and I book it around town getting all my last minute things. The sunset is beautiful this day, and the moon is full. Our friends come over for a clean-out-the-fridge dinner and they pack up what’s left, thankfully! We get our last ice cream at Amarino and do something totally unexpected. We go to the Jazz Club around the corner. We have passed it countless times, and eventually Carson started asking if we could go. The hours are strange and there’s no info online but one day we were able to check in to make sure it was appropriate for kids. It is, so we check in and find ourselves in an underground cellar surrounded by arched stone walls and a 3 pc band. It was a jam session, so they just played and we listened. The kids were so tired, but it was a totally new experience for all of us! When we left and said goodbye to the McLaughlins for the last time on French soil (we WILL see them again).
Day 79 Tuesday, November 12:
We packed up all we had left of the fun and souvenirs and memories and clothes and school into bags that we could carry, said goodbye to our Marais Mansion one last time and did the heavy heaving of those bags down 3 floors of winding stairs to the pre-dawn streets. Turns out, they were cleaning the streets on this day, and the uber driver we called was NOT happy with our extra luggage. We tried to explain that we would do the lifting:/. As we trailed the street sweepers, I began to get anxious about leaving and was praying that we could just get there in time. Driver was an unhappy fellow and his choice of music showed it. It wasn’t the parting I imagined…plus he took us through a route I didn’t really recognize. Finally, we get on the right road and I can see our transportation ahead. Kids and I talked about our favorite things: meals, museums, friends, parks, adventures. I’m not sure they realized the magnitude of the book that we were leaving behind, but I sure did. Thankful to arrive at the airport and get shuttled through customs and to our gate…many Americans were there headed back as well. We had our final Chocolat Au Pain and coffee and boarded the plane. ‘Merica, we’re back!
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