Our Paris Adventure: Day Five

The end of a trip is a strange sensation; we're lucky that we always feel like we're leaving a place too soon instead of being more than ready to leave, come departure day. Still, that's the positive side of the fact that today was our last day (well, morning really, since our train left just after noon) in Paris and our time here went too quickly, as usual. Ah well, it's a good excuse to come back, right? We started wandering around the city this morning, with no particular destination--we just wanted to get one last feel of Paris before we left. There's no better place for that than near the Seine, and we browsed at a few riverside book stalls

before crossing the river

into the left bank,

where we passed some dogs on their way to looking their best,

as well as a building that apparently used to hold another branch of our dinner restaurant from last night.

Grand buildings and dogs being walked: it's morning in Paris!

We guessed correctly that we wouldn't end up having time for a leisurely lunch before we headed to the train station, so we stopped at this branch of the fantastic Eric Kayser bakery to pick up another formule to eat on the train.

Before we knew it, we had less than thirty minutes to get back to Christina's to pick up our suitcase--just enough time to get a photo of these great dogs waiting inside a grocery store,

walk back to the right bank

(again with dogs as company),

say farewell to the Seine,

the Île de la Cité,

our neighbourhood this time around,

and our breakfast spot,

and get ourselves down into the metro

for the short trip to the Eurostar terminal. With Eurostar check-in being as quick and easy as always, we found our seats, settled in, and pulled out of Gare du Nord right on time.

It wasn't long before it was time for lunch, and the people sitting around us who had bought lunches of boxed sandwiches and packets of crisps from the Eurostar canteen gave us a few envious looks when we pulled out our beloved formules.

The bread was heavenly, as were the fillings, and dessert didn't disappoint either. I savoured my fig and pistachio treat

and Bob polished off his oozing circle of dense dark chocolate with barely enough time for me to have a taste.

We were soon back in London, and had a few minutes to marvel at the stairs that wound around this tower in the distance, as our train stopped just outside Battersea for a bit before we were cleared to pull into Waterloo station.

One bus all the way home (we didn't want to tackle the stairs in the tube with our now significantly heavier suitcase!) and we walked in our door and decided to do our best to remedy the fact that in our rush to catch the Eurostar, we didn't have time to linger over one last Paris coffee at a typical sidewalk table. Bob went back to his brewing duties and whipped up two lovely lattés. In an effort to combat immediate Paris withdrawal, I completed our treat with tiny squares of chocolate (a traditional accompaniment to coffee in Paris) from that wonderful French institution, Monoprix, and we sat sipping our coffees, already reminiscing about a city that we love more with each visit.