France 2025 - Day 14 / Paris

Steps today: 25 130 / 16.57 km

Last full vacation day!  

Like yesterday, the forecast was hot and wall to wall sunshine. Most people love that, but I was already dreading the noon to 4PM portion of the day!

We started the day around 8AM with a walk through the Luxembourg Gardens, our hotel was right across the street from "the bottom of the tail" - perfect location!

Then the Saint Sulpice Fountain and Church (didn't visit the inside this time)

And then breakfast in a café across the street

One of my favourite churches in Paris (now that it's been renovated) is Saint Germain des Pres. Frank hadn't seen it since all the work was finished, so we headed there next. It's like a rainbow explosion.

After this, we made our way across the Seine, saying goodbye to some familiar sights ....

And then stopped for a drink... and since it was the last day - another pastry!

Next, the gardens of the Palais Royal

And then before the Big Heat descended, we headed to the Père Lachaise Cemetery. We got there a little after 11 and stayed for about 45 minutes.  The sun was getting hotter and hotter so lingering was getting less and less fun.

Why all the chewing gum wrapped around the tree next to Jim Morrison's grave? I'll have to Google it.

From there we made our way to Place de la Nation for lunch - it was high noon and there was no shade anywhere so I didn't get many pictures, and since I was impatient due to the heat I didn't bother trying to get clear ones either.

Lunch was good, nothing special.  In fact I was disappointed because the menu said "aligot" but their recipe was far from it. It was lemony mashed potatoes instead.  SHAME! 

(but the sausage was yummy!)

Afterwards, we headed over to Place de la Bastille and I was so happy to see all the construction around the column was finished.  Must have been over 10 years since I've seen it all cleaned up!

As you can see from the pictures, there was not a cloud in the sky! we were melting! Thank God for this leafy shaded terrasse. We lingered a long time - Frank cooled down with a milkshake.

We had the idea to have our final meal of the trip in one of the cafés near the Eiffel Tower, so we hopped on the metro and went to wave goodbye to the Tower.

This is as close as we got to it without leaving the protection of the shade.

We had a protracted Goldilocks experience with the restos in the area, and eventually gave up on the idea of eating there. We walked toward Les Invalides.... and then gave up on that too! It was around 5PM and still so hot, meandering wasn't fun anymore.  We were just so hot now, all we wanted a plan to work towards. 

We were around 30 minutes to the hotel by now, so we said we'd walk until the sun killed us, then stop for a drink. Then go to the hotel to cool down and go back out again for supper.

The drink stop was great! 

Onwards with the plan but we didn't make it as far as the hotel.  We passed by La Coupole, one of Paris' famous brasseries and the drinks menu caught my eye.  DAMN! why didn't we stop here for a drink instead!!!!! I'm not so sure I would have liked it... but NOT trying it felt almost illegal yet I just didn't have the room for more hard liquor in my blood stream.

Frank suggested we just stop and have supper here instead of continuing to the hotel since it was already after 6PM. I wasn't up for it at first, but relented and I am glad I did because it was one of the best meals of the trip! 

It was shady and the outside terrasse was perfect. The heat was gone and being outside was wonderful again.

I shifted into pig-out mode and ordered all my French Favourites

After supper, it was bye bye Paris and back to the hotel by around 8:30PM.  Time to back the bags for a final time.

The next morning around 7:30AM, we had a lovely breakfast near the hotel before heading out to the airport.  Sitting on the terrasse we could look back to our hotel....  that's it there hiding behind the tree in the middle of the picture.

It was perfect weather - right in my sweet spot

It was great.... until around 815 they retracted the awning and bathed the terrasse in full sun. It was our cue to leave!

It's always bittersweet to see a vacation come to an end, but as much as staying longer was tempting, the forecast was only getting worse (hotter) so it was time for me to leave.  The last two days were killers and I would have needed to go shopping for summer clothes if we stayed any longer! The temps were climbing into the high 20s 

Getting to the airport was fast since I purposely picked a hotel that was near the train station.  In fact, while standing down on the platform, we could look up and see it.

Au revoir, Paris!