Bon Soir de la Ville des Lumieres

Day 5

After 4 full days of sight seeing and having fun, it was hard to believe that it was our final day in Paris. And we STILL had many sights to see. Chels, Marta and I woke up early so we would have a full last day in Paris. Our first stop was the Musee D'Orsay. This museum is one of the most famous in France and contains the masterpieces of the Impressionist era and works from about 1840 to WWI or so - it is much more modern than the Louvre. Interestingly, many of these paintings were originally turned away from the Louvre. In addition to seeing paintings from Monet, Renior, Cezanne, Pissarro, Rodin, they also had an entire room dedicated to Van Gogh. This was by far one of the highlights of the trip for me, since I have always loved Van Gogh. It was amazing to see so many of his very famous paintings in real life, such as his very famous self portraits. Aside from Van Gogh, the museum offers one of the most comprehensive collections of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art in the world. We spent the entire morning in the Musee D'Orsay and then returned to the apartment for lunch.

We stopped a a boulangerie that was filled with bread and delicious looking pastries.

For the second half of the day, we went to the northern part of Paris in the Montmarte district. Our first stop was to visit the Sacre Coeur, the famous white bascilica that you can see from pretty much anywhere in Paris. Its bell tower actually is the highest point in Paris. We hiked up the hill and stairs to the Sacre Coeur and enjoyed the beautiful views from the bascilica. Inside, the church was gorgeous, as one would expect. Next, we walked a few blocks to visit the Moulin Rouge. On the way, we really enjoyed meandering the streets of Montmarte which are filled with touristy cafes and one of a kind shops. Our favorite part was when we stopped at a boulangerie that was filled with bread and delicious looking pastries. We stopped for a treat and I can honestly say that the strawberry pastry that I got was the best thing I´ve ever eaten! After walking for a little while, we found the bal du Moulin Rouge in the districdt where they are many cabarets and nightclubs. It was really cool to see the infamous Moulin Rouge. We decided to skip the dinner and a show there since the price was a real shock -- about 170 euro per person. Non, merci.

Our next stop was to be the Cimetiere Pere Lachaise where such famous Frenchman like Colette, David, and Delacroix are buried. Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison are also buried here. We were really bummed though because we were walking up as the doors to the cemetary were closing... we just missed it! We were pretty sad because we had really wanted to see Jim Morirson´s grave and take some pictures. We decided to take the metro back to Montmarte and did more shopping. Our favorite part of this time was when we stopped at a street vendor to buy some gummy candy .. he had a huge variety of it and we each got about 6 Euro worth of candy. During the time we were buying our candy he kept saying ´take a bag, take a bag, take a bag -- mix mix!!´ to try to attract people to his stand. We didn´t even realize it, but it was really funny the way he was saying it and we made a song out of it the whole home on the metro.

We returned home, changed for dinner, and went out for our last night in Paris. We took the metro out to the famous area of Saint German des Pres which is lined with upscale cafes and shops. We got off the metro and it was really cool because right in front of us was Les Deux Magots - the cafe that has been the home to literai from Mallarme to Hemingway since 1885. We decided to eat the restaurant next door and enjoyed a delicious 3 course meal of bread, wine, salad, salmon (steak for Chelsea) and dessert. We returned late at night and had to get up at 3:45am to make it to the bus station that would take us to the airport. Somehow we again made it from taxi to bus to plane to metro and back into the city of Madrid by around 11am. We relaxed at a cafe in the middle of the city in Madrid and again did some shopping. We took a bus home from Madrid around 5pm and returned to Valencia late last night. It was really sad to leave the City of Lights, but it was something we will never forget.  We agreed that of all the places we travelled, Paris had by far the nicest people. Everyone was courteous and greeted you with a ´Bonjour Mademoiselle´and an 'Au Revoir´ when you left. Everyone we met helped us with whatever we needed or offered us helpful advice.

A note about pictures: A lot of people have been asking about when we will post pictures ... we haven´t been able to yet because of Martas computer (We are unable to use the USB drives), but we do have some pictures from earlier in the trip burned onto CDs. We will put a few up here and there when we can. We already put a couple up on the first few entries. Miss and love you all! xoxo