Au revoir

I'm feeling achy. It's not the swine flu, I'm pretty sure. I think it's the "I'm never going to get back to Paris, wah wah wah" flu. Symptoms include moping around sighing, boohooing over Paris photos, and asking for one more day, one more croissant, one more walk around Montmartre.

Earlier this week, the day finally came that we had to say goodbye to Paris and we don't know when we'll get to go back. During our 3 years in Europe we have been to Paris so many times that we really did lose count. And last Saturday Ben and I packed up a very fancy rental car, gave Wes a big hug, and left him with his Papà when we took off for our farewell tour of our very favorite place in the world. (You can see what went on back in Eygelshoven on Papà's blog).

The next few days were completely, totally perfect. Seriously. I would not joke about zee Paris.

We did all our favorite things one more time, visiting our favorite stores, our favorite restaurants (Le Bar à Soupes!), walking through familiar neighborhoods, spending hours wandering grocery store aisles. Ahhhh, Pareeeee.

We also explored some new places, hit a couple restaurants I had been wanting to try (like Breizh Café - yum!) and finally made it to the Rodin museum, which was definitely worth visiting, and finally bought a painting from and artist in the touristy-kitschy-French-artistey Place du Tertre.

Oh and we ate a lot of gelato and baguettes. And a few croissants. And cheeeeeese crepes! And chocolates. Don't judge us. We had to eat enough to last us a while.

A few highlights in photos:

Picnic dinner on the Seine, at our favorite quiet spot with Notre Dame in the background





Breakfast at Sacre Coeur


The Eiffel at night





Enjoying time in our apartment on our anniversary





The Rodin museum




A farewell brunch at our favorite boulangerie



We also spent the morning of our anniversary taking some of our annual portraits for our anniversary album





We'll go back someday, I know, because we have to. Home is where the heart is, and that means wherever Ben and Wes are, I will be. And we'll be happy whether we're here or there or wherever. But a tiny piece of my heart will always be in Paris.