Meet You in Paris - 9-11-10

Luxemborg - Home of the French Senate

Our final full day in Paris started with a stroll through the Luxemborg Gardens, now home of the French Senate.  A little formal for our tastes but the plantings were nonetheless beautiful.

Then a one-hour orientation cruise on the Seine. The cruise took us up past the Eiffel Tower and then turned around and headed east past City Island, home of Notre Dame, and St Louis Island until turning around once more to dock at Pont Neuf (New Bridge - actually it is the oldest of the 37 bridges in Paris).

A View of a Few of the 37 Bridges of Paris

The Tower and the Alex III Bridge

This brought us to around lunchtime at which point we were suppose to meet our friends, Misty and Geert, who were going to stay the night in Paris and then take us up to the Belgian seaside the following day.  Due to traffic (no big surprise, Paris traffic is wretched), they were delayed, so we picked up a sandwich and had a picnic in the park.  We have been told that this is a very Parsienne thing to do, especially on such a lovely day.  Geert and Misty got in around 1:00 so we proceeded to a bistro and snacked while they had lunch.

Notre Dame from the Seine

Because Misty has never been to Paris before we decided to take the river cruise again and then back to the hotel for a shower and off to a wine bar for wine and a dinner of meats, cheeses, and bruschetta.  While the boys wanted gelato for dessert, we girls opted for bloody mary's at a local bar where the friendly locals purchased us shots of some locally made liquor that is aqua blue in color, the taste of which Rick equated with "Lysol".  We limited the shots to one each (my first shot ever :-)), thanked our hosts, and were soon off to bed.