Last Full Day

Today was our last full open day here.  Tomorrow will be consumed with logistics; getting the bike to the airport, checking into the airport hotel, packing, cleaning the apartment, running final errands, checking out of the apartment, getting the rest of the baggage to the airport and checking in to the flights.  I hope we have a bit of leisure time to enjoy in Paris tomorrow, but it will be a bonus.

Tomorrow evening, if there is internet access at the airport hotel, I will post one more time; otherwise this is my last blog entry.  I don’t have much more to add at this late hour anyway; my thoughts about these 7 weeks are already contained in these webpages. 

As this closes, our minds are now on the next chapter of our story.  We are thinking about family, friends, the office, the house, Holidays, the mailbox, bills, TV shows, pizza, Frommer’s 24 Great Walks in San Francisco, restoring a vintage bicycle, shopping, laundry, reroofing the house, 401Ks, etc.  Back to the routines of life.

The “other” side of my brain is kicking-in strongly.  (It’s too bad the two sides don’t talk to each other.)  I look forward to withdrawing into the garage workshop to begin the analytical process of restoring my bicycle: things to refurbish; things to buy; things to repair; things to replace.  Quiet engineering.  Greg B. hit it on the nail head: the bicycle project is exactly like my project last December restoring my 1961 Dynaco Stereo 70 audiophile vacuum tube amplifier.  My bike is cool; what I will do with it I do not know, but I look forward to the time in the garage.   (The tube amp has become my main stereo amplifier.)

Diane and I spent the day saying goodbye to familiar places rather than exploring things new.  We first walked the 3 or 4 miles walk along Rue du Rivoli and Rue Saint Honoré to the Grand Palais.  There, we saw a historical art exhibition there titled “Paris 1500”, which was about art innovation in the 1500’s.  The main theme was showing how that era was not “dark ages” but a time of innovation and craftsmanship.  They made a compelling case.  It was interesting to learn more about that time in history.

We split up early.  Diane walked and shopped along the Champs-Elysées while I took a wide 10 mile circle walk toward the Eiffel Tower, along rue Cler (Nutella crepe), to Au Bon Marché, past University Sorbonne, into the Pantheon, along rue Muffetard (Nutella et Banane crepe) then back home to pick up the computer. 

At the Pantheon, I visited the tombs of Victor Hugo, Marie Curie, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire, Braille, etc.

I am currently writing from Bibliothèque Fornay; the first time I’ve ever written for the blog here.  I can imagine this place tomorrow or next week after I am gone; the old architect still flipping through old books for inspiration; the school girls still whispering to each other when they should be studying.  It will all go on without me but I now have claim to a sliver of the history of this place.  I am one of its ghosts.

I have to be home in 3 hours because Diane and I have a reservation on the top floor of Bofinger Brasserie.  That is the quieter, more intimate area of the restaurant than when we went with Lauri and Greg.  We both want the foie gras appetizer.

Then it’s off to bed.

.