Last full day in Paris.... :(

This was our last full day in Paris... and not a very photo-oriented day... Started out kind of rainy and cool - stopped raining and stayed cool. We started the day (after our usual breakfast of croissants and pane au chocolate and OJ).... by going to the Institut du Monde Arab... really interesting place just 3 blocks away from the hotel that has a museum, library, language institute and a cool store with a lot of books and scarves and furniture and hookahs etc -- and a cafe that looked like it was out of Marrekesh - sit on pillows around a table... cool! The building was very interesting - modern but based on traditional arab/islamic architecture.

Then we went to the train station to go to Giverny - stopping at a Frommagerie on the way for some creamy cheese and incredible milk! Also grabbed some peasant bread from the boulangerie next door.. But alas, when we got to the train station, the lines at the ticket counter (when we finally found it!) were much too long - so we ended up booking our train trip for the rest of the trip. We will take a train to Caen, get a rental car (Avis!) and then drive to Mont St Michel where we have a B&B for the night. The next day after touring Mont St Michel, we'll drive to Bayeaux where we have another B&B booked for the next 2 nights. The next day will be for touring the D-Day beaches and seeing the tapestry at Bayeaux. Finally on the 30th we take the car back to Caen and then the train back to Paris where we stay at the Airport Hilton to get ready for our flight home early the next morning. The agent who helped us book the train and car was very helpful and nice! I have to say again that on this trip everyone we have had contact with has been extremely nice and helpful.

So, we ended up having our nice lunch in the train station instead of on the train to GIverny... :( we then opted to go to see the Monmartan Museum - lots of Monet's - in a very pretty part of Paris. On the way, we walked through a beautiful park (I took pictures so you could compare them to Moscow, Colin) There was a statue there of this french guy with big hair and a crow and a fox. Turns out that it is La Fontaine with the duck that lost his wheel of cheese to the fox because the fox was flattering her. (Yes, la Fontaine did get all his material from Aesop.) Then we tried to call home again from the park - but no answer, and the fax machine is still set to come on automatically. (To set it back to manual, just press the button at the the top right of the keyboard.)

On the way back to the hotel, we took a couple pictures of a flower shop for Teri.

Then we went to the hotel - packed up all the luggage we would not need in Normandy (we wanted to travel light on the train) and took it up to the Hilton Hotel, who will keep it for us until we get back from Normandy. Real nice taxi driver - Mom tried out her conversational french with him.

Then we celebrated our last night in Paris by going to the same restaurant that we went to on the first night, La Mariee Vert, we both had the salmon this time (Awesome again!) I had deep-fried pears with caramel-rosemary sauce - one of the best desserts I have ever had!