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Paris, The End

This is it!… my very last Paris post. I hope you’ve enjoyed the journey with me. I’m sorry I had to drag it out over so many posts, but it was just too many photos to put in one blog post.

After leaving Notre Dame, Curtis and I went on a quest to find the best ice cream shop in Paris, according to our concierge at the hotel. It was in a neighborhood adjacent to the cathedral, so we walked across the Pont Saint-Louis, a bridge that was closed to vehicles and connects the two islands, watched some street performers then wandered (a bit disoriented from the map) to get to the ice cream.

Clair de Rêve

After finally finding the correct street for the ice cream shop, Berthillon Glacier, we found this quaint little toy shop with puppets in the window called Clair de Rêve. I wish it had been open. Dominic was studying puppetry in theater arts while we were in France and he was fascinated with them. These marionettes looked so old, I would’ve loved to play with them. This photo was taken just for Dominic. <3 Aww, look at the line of cats in the bottom of the window frame, I just now noticed them!

And by the way, French ice cream is very gelatinous. The artisanal gelato was amazing, the ice cream? Meh, not so much.

Paris street tourist tourism travel photographer

Side Street Church

The Louvre, lunch, Notre Dame, and ice cream had left us a wee bit tired so we headed back to the hotel for a nap. We went on the prowl for a taxi. We walked and walked and walked. I saw this pretty church on a side street… they are literally everywhere! 25 minutes later we found a taxi and went back to the hotel. Zzzz…..

Paris street tourist tourism travel photographer

Grown-Up Drink

After a hearty nap, we were ready for dinner! We wanted to visit the Latin Quarter, somewhere we hadn’t yet explored, so we took a taxi over to a spot on the map and started wandering. We were sure we could find somewhere to eat. Yelp actually found us a place! Ha! We dined at Le Hibou, a Parisian cafe. We sat just inside the door, by the bar, so we had a great view of the patio and the bar area. It was terribly romantic. We ordered fancy drinks.

Paris street tourist tourism travel photographer

Cheers Baby!

Here’s to our last night in Paris… cheers, baby!

Paris street tourist tourism travel photographer

Bartending

The bartenders were great at Le Hibou, and didn’t bat an eye when a very unusual couple came in for drinks. The woman looked like an emaciated prostitute, pretty… but wow… she was wearing at least 4″ heels, a VERY short red dress, and was maybe 85 pounds and nearly 6′ tall. Her boyfriend/date was a slightly overweight ordinary fellow, maybe 5’10’. They made out the entire time they were at the bar. I wish I had the guts to take a picture of them but I couldn’t do it. We were less than 6 feet away from them.

Paris street tourist tourism travel photographer

Palais de Tokyo

After dinner, we strolled in a residential area, found a taxi, and asked to be taken to the Trocadéro so that we could get a great night shot of the Eiffel Tower. Little did we know, our taxi driver dropped us off at the wrong place… the Palais de Tokyo. It was a very cool building though and was actually still open!

Paris street tourist tourism travel photographer

Surexposition

Right next to the building was this huge beam of light that was pulsing out beats of bass. I don’t know if I can adequately express how cool this was… surexposition is an art installation! From the Palais de Tokyo website:

Send a message from the Surexposition application or by SMS to 31014, prefixed by the keyword “SUREX” (free apart from the possible cost of an SMS). 

Surexposition is an urban installation, pulsating in the sky, with an intense beam of white light. These light signals, given off by a large black monolith and visible all over the city, are Morse code messages, sent by everyone, to everyone and to the sky, via smartphones. This monolith rests on a carpet of data: a map projected onto the ground, reflecting the city-wide use of cell-phones. Returning to the very essence of Morse, the messages are then transformed into a sound composition, broadcast by the installation, as well as by the public’s smartphones. A momentary community forms and is transformed, as the event beats on.

“From communication to community: the messages and the moment when each one is displayed are here, above all, media for a rhythm, a sensitive experience, a work which is distributed and shared city-wide.”

www.surexposition.net

Paris street tourist tourism travel photographer

Blue Glow

This is the back of this building. That line of people is to get into the museum, and it’s close to 11 p.m. The area in which I’m standing is usually a water fountain. I love the blue glow of the light.

Paris street tourist tourism travel photographer

Monsieur Bleu

See the pulse of light? We are now walking away from the Palais de Tokyo and getting ready to cross a pedestrian bridge over the Seine. On the corner is a restaurant called Monsieur Bleu. There aren’t many people out.

Paris street tourist tourism travel photographer

Seine at Night

Over the River Seine at night, we can see the Grand Roue off in the distance.

Paris street tourist tourism travel photographer

Passerelle Debilly

The Passerelle Debilly is a pedestrian bridge built for the World Fair in 1900. It’s quite wide and is well lit. I’m glad I had Curtis with me, I didn’t see any women out and about.

Paris street tourist tourism travel photographer

Resplendent

I shared this in my Week Eight post and I’m so proud of this photo. The Eiffel Tower at night is a sight to behold. Every hour on the hour, it shimmers for 5 minutes with 20,000 light bulbs. We weren’t there at the right time to get to see the shimmering lights but it’s so pretty just lit up plain Jane!

Paris street tourist tourism travel photographer

Loving M

Some graffiti on the bridge… someone loves M. <3 What chance would I ever get again to shoot graffiti with the Eiffel Tower as bokeh in the background? Right?!

Paris street tourist tourism travel photographer

Locks of Love

This isn’t the famous Pont des Arts bridge where thousands of locks adorn, but we found locks of love all over Paris. Makes me wish we’d brought one to leave behind…

Paris street tourist tourism travel photographer

Ready to Ride

After crossing over the pedestrian bridge, we are very close to the Eiffel Tower. Another row of bikes greets us and it is so tempting to rent one for an hour. It’s nearly midnight on Sunday night, it’s the end of February, and hardly anyone is out and about. I am sure I would crash.

Paris street tourist tourism travel photographer

My What a Big Lens

We found a cafe, the Brasserie de la Tour Eiffel, that was still open… though for only 10 more minutes. I wanted some ice cream, yes, my second serving of the day! I was on vacation. The owners were nice enough to seat us. I picked up my camera to get a picture of my husband and he did the same! My what a big lens!

Paris street tourist tourism travel photographer

Happiness

My Curtis. So happy. It was a magical experience. <3<3<3 We went back to the hotel and crashed… I had to pack and leave in the morning. 🙁

Paris street tourist tourism travel photographer

People Moving

I took a taxi to the airport and we took a route that took us through a much poorer and rougher section of Paris. It didn’t feel respectful to pull out my camera so I just watched. My taxi driver spoke no English at all and wanted to know what terminal my flight took off out of and I didn’t know. He handed me a schedule and I finally figured it out. I remembered just enough French (I took it all through high school) to communicate with him. C’est bon! I got my bagged checked at the ticket counter and started my adventure through the Charles de Gaulle airport. This was an escalator/moving sidewalk that took me to customs and the passport check area.

Paris street tourist tourism travel photographer

Labyrinthine

As I looked out of my escalator, I could see dozens of these moving sidewalks connecting different areas and levels. It looked like something out of a science fiction movie. I made it through the passport check area with no issues and had about 45 minutes to wait to board. I got a snack, connected to wifi, and got on my phone. Before I knew it, I was in DC, then headed home. My grand adventure was over much too quickly. Curtis got to stay in Paris another day, then headed to Scotland. He has some wonderful photos to share too, I hope he puts them up soon.

Paris street tourist tourism travel photographer

If you’d like to see all of the pictures in one spot, here is a link to my album on Flickr where they are full-size and organized: Paris 2016. I can’t say thanks for looking enough… for those who’ve read all nine Paris posts, my heartfelt gratitude belongs to you. Thank you. Thank you for sharing the most amazing journey of my life (so far!). Smooches!!!

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