My last night in "The City of Lights"

Today Mom and I packed as much as possible in our last day. By now we are tired with sore feet, but we trudged through as well as we could. We started with mass at Notre Dame, always full of people, incense and crazy organ music. Next we grabbed a sandwich on the go - not a big deal to most, but you have to remember how wonderful the bread is here! Definitely one of my favorites. Next we went in search of a chocolate shop. Mom bought a sample package.. Maybe we will break into the bag tomorrow.

After this bit of running around the Marais and Ile de Cité, we ran back to the apartment. While I began to pack (a hour ritual), Mom caught a cat's nap on the couch. Yesterday our perfume salesman told us about a special fair on the Champs Elysées. The entire street is closed to cars and filled with all sorts of plants. Thinking it would be interesting to see lots of flowers and such, we decided to check it out. Bad idea. The crowd was insane! Since I grew up in the country, most plants are minimally interesting to me; add thousands of people, and that interest dissipates. We nearly ran away from there, just to get out of the crowds.

shot southeast down the Champs Elysées.

shot northwest toward the Arc de Triomphe.

We have been talking about taking a cruise on the Seine all week, and we checked it out multiple times today. As we went down to the river front, we saw the long lines and lost our desire. BUT we stumbled upon an artist and bought my first bit of artwork for this trip! Sorry, didn't take any pictures before rolling it up..

Next, dinner time! Our favorite part of the day. We dined at a small but popular restaurant on Rue Cler. I had to take a picture it was so pretty. We had a camembert cheese with a truffle sauce. SO good.

From dinner, we finally made it to the Eiffel Tower!

northeast. Sacré Cœur is in the center.

southeast. Parc du Champs de Mars.

east-southeast. Notre Dame is in the center; Hôtel des Invalides is at 3:00.

southwest along the Seine.

Me and Mom at sunset on the Eiffel Tower.

As the sun set over the Trocadéro:

northeast after sunset.

from the second deck.

beautiful.

I also have a video of the light show, but I need to edit it before posting. Promise it will appear soon.

Tomorrow we leave Paris and are going to London! Native English speakers, here we come!