We checked out after breakfast and went back to the train station; Anne and Bill had decided to take the train back to Strasbourg with me and then they’d rent a car there and we would part ways: them to spend another week in France, me to go back to Paris for a couple days by myself. I wrote this on the train to Paris—I was totally hoping I was on the right one, and was assured when I saw some highway signs. A word about France’s numbering system: it doesn’t make much sense to me, no rhyme or reason, just however they slapped the numbers on. The reason for this statement is because I had trouble finding my seat on the train and had to ask a very nice Frenchman. I had only been looking on one side of the train (where I found seats 25-28 but then suddenly I was at seats 17-18. I felt like such a doofus when the nice older man I asked for help went right to it—on the other side of the aisle, which I had ignored. Oops!It was a long train ride—boring, and I was hungry—but we finally pulled into Paris Gare de l’Est (Paris East station) and HOLY COW, was it crowded! Especially once the crowd got to the metro and stalled at the little ticket gates.
I finally made it back to Rue Montorgueil and my hotel –and of course I was put on the third floor (American fourth). By this time I was hot and miserable and still starving, so I snuck out of my hotel room and bought a ham sandwich at a bakery, and then stopped at the little grocery and bought some potato chips (of all things! But it’s what I was craving) and snuck back up to my room. I ended up going to bed super early—I was SO tired.
The next morning I skipped breakfast and headed out to walk around a bit. I ended up circling the Pompidou Centre a lot and attempted to walk to the Musee Carnavalet but didn’t make it there. I bought a terrible chicken sandwich (by far the worst thing I had in France) and then went back to m
y room to rest and rehydrate—and get a new contact lens as one had torn. Later I finally again made myself go out—I walked to Les Halles and scoped that out to make sure I knew where to get on the train to the airport. Then I hopped on the metro to St-Germain-des-Pres to have hot chocolate one last time at Les Deux Magots. I stayed there a bit to people watch and then wandered around the (ritzy!) neighborhood. Then I went back to Montorgueil and had a dinner of confit de canard (duck) and dessert of mousse aux deux chocolats—which I discovered was white and dark chocolate mousse, a layer of each.
Back at the hotel, I didn’t sleep well that night because I was worried about getting to the airport. Wednesday I was glad to have decided to go ahead and leave the hotel at 9. I got the RER figured out (train to airport) but then the airport got confusing. I had to take a shuttle from the RER station to the air terminal and then check in and go through security. Gosh!
I stayed awake the entire flight from Paris to Chicago—I had read that doing so would help you 
adjust more quickly to the time change. Once in Chicago I discovered that I had to re-pack my bags so I could check the bottle of wine I had bought (and the foie gras). That was a long line to wait in. Then I had to go to the domestic terminal and wait in another long security line, and finally I was at my gate. Only to discover that my flight was delayed—I was on the phone with friends to find out who loved me best (translation: who would be willing to pick me up very late at night from the airport in Austin), when I realized that my flight was going to be delayed nearly 3 hours! I let my friends off the hook because a very nice fellow passenger lady was willing to give me a ride home. Bless her heart! She lives in Pflugerville, and my place was on her way. In the end, instead of landing in Austin at around 11:30 pm, we landed at 2, and by the time I got home it was 3 am. I was so wired for some reason, I considered just staying up all night because I had to work the next day, but I decided finally to get at least a couple hours of sleep—I had been awake for roughly 30 hours straight. Thursday I went in to work about 8:30 (not bad!) and ended up leaving at 1:30 when my eyes stopped focusing.
It was a wonderful trip! I can’t wait to go back!
