I hope so too Denisea!

On our last day in Paris we woke up to another lovely morning. The sun rises after 7am but sets later too. We took our first metro ride of the trip to the Opera Garnier which can be visited on a self-guided tour. The Opera building put the "O" in opulent. It was over the top gorgeous. We took lots of photos but the ones of the Chagall ceiling did not come out well and the gift shop did not sell postcards of the ceiling. How odd. They did have Christmas ornaments and one was bubble wrapped and slipped into a shoe in our carry-on. It made it home safely.

According to the map we were not far from the Gallerie Vivienne. In the 1800s Paris built covered shopping streets and I wanted to visit one of them. We stopped for lunch at a small place along the way as we walked to the Bourse (the French stock exchange) then found the gallerie entrance with the help of a couple of young local women. One gallerie led to another and we wandered along looking in shop windows and checking out menus of small cafes. One shop could have been the French version of Pottery Barn and I would have loved to take home one of their red chairs among other things. I did purchase a cross stitch kit of macarons from a needlework shop. Loved many of the things there. After the galleries we stopped for tea and coffee at Le Pain Quotidien. We had a fun waiter who gave us a menu to share with our local branch of this international chain.

We walked south passing through the garden of the Palais Royal and came out at the Comedie Francais across from the Hotel du Louvre. There was a fellow playing piano on the square and we listened for awhile. He was quite a showman and we really enjoyed his playing. DH talked to him after the performance and he explained how he loads the piano on a truck and brings it there to play.

Back on the Batobus we floated back to our stop then dropped off a few things in our apt. Out we went out again to get some food for our last dinner in Paris. We love this neighborhood with all the little shops for food along the narrow streets. After our dinner with a great baguette we packed and watched a movie--"French Kiss" on the DVD player. The cable box in our apartment had gone out for the last two days of our stay so we were glad to have a few DVDs available.

That night a soft rain fell and we could hear it against the windows and on the roof. It was such a lovely way to end our stay in Paris.