Americans in Paris, and Back in the US of A

Here it is: our much-delayed acknowledgement of the fact that we were in Europe not too long ago.

The thing is, we were really burnt out by the time we got to Paris.  During our trip, the thought was definitely present in our minds that Paris was our last stop, and so I think that over the course of the trip, Paris lost its meaning as a city we wanted to see and gained the meaning of "we're almost going home."

Still, we were able to get out and see the biggest sites.  In the spirit of photographic evidence:

Notre Dame Cathedral

Us in the Pyramid at the Louvre

Jim Morrison's grave at Pere Lachaise Cemetery

Us at the Arc de Triomphe (on Bastille day!)

We mostly got around town on the Velib bike system, which is the one that Ljubljana had modeled its bike-sharing program on.  Unlike Ljubljana, though, Paris's public bikes were not new.  The bikes are in all states of (dis)repair, which sometimes makes it tough to find a working bike, and sometimes you just end up taking one that doesn't have something slightly sub-essential, like a bell or a fender.  On the other hand, we also ran into bikes that were missing some pretty important things like pedals, chains, etc.  I hope Chicago's newly-minted bike sharing program gets a little more in the way of maintenance.

Come on, is this caption really necessary?

In addition to biking to all the big sites, we also (of course) made sure to buy plenty of wine, cheese and pastries.  We weren't all that surprised to see that we could get a great wine for 5 or fewer Euros, a croissant for less than a Euro, and a pretty darn good Camembert for a couple Euros in the convenience store.  

The Sacre Coeur Basilica

Shakespeare & Company, an English-speaking
bookshop where the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald &
Ernest Hemingway hung out

We also happened to be there on Bastille Day - July 14th - which is a big holiday there.  It commemorates the 'storming of the Bastille' which happened on that day in 1789 and was the big starting point of the French Revolution. Apparently there were only 7 prisoners actually in the Bastille at the time it was stormed, but hey, it's symbolism, ok?  Anyway, it was because of Bastille day that things were a little jazzed up around Paris on the day we went to see the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower.  We actually couldn't get to the gardens behind the Eiffel Tower - there were barricades with police officers going all the way down.  Apparently there were going to be fireworks there later in the evening, but we ended up making it a pretty early night.

Fontaine St. Michel (Hi Jason!)

Despite the sightseeing, pastry-eating and Bastille-storming, though, I don't think either of us felt like we could really do Paris justice.  We were happy when the day came to fly home.  Somehow appropriately, on the night before we left, we happened upon this restaurant, pictured at right:

Charles De Gaulle airport was a madhouse, and we had a bit of a frustrating journey.  We left 2 hours of time at the airport before our flight but barely made our plane, and our bags didn't get into town until 1am a few nights after our flight.  As you might imagine, we were and are so happy to be home.

In the past 10 days since arriving home, we've done a lot.  We've conducted an apartment search, signed a lease for a great place in the Tri-Taylor neighborhood near the UIC medical campus, gone to Pitchfork, celebrated friends' birthdays and wished our friends well who are readying themselves to move out of Chicago.  I've gotten to celebrate with family at a wonderful bridal shower, and Tim has gotten to get his translation business back up and running at full speed.  It just feels so great to be back to our home and our lives.

In closing off this crazy adventure and the blog that we've been documenting it with, I want to thank you for reading.  I hope you've enjoyed reading and learning with us as we traveled.  We've felt so supported by all of you, and that has been really wonderful for both of us. After all the adventuring, it is truly you all that make home feel like home.