Chapter Thirteen: Last Day in Paris

I flew into Paris from Dublin on Saturday night, and I was scheduled to fly home on Monday afternoon. That gave me exactly one full day in Paris. I was planning to extend my trip a few days, to give me time to visit my favorite places one last time and to try to squeeze in a trip to Nice to see the Chagall Museum. But I decided it was time to come home.

Paris has two sale seasons in the year - one in January and one in the summer. The dates are decreed by the French government, and it's the only time that merchandise is on sale. All of the shopping stars aligned for me, because my last day in Paris coincided with the start of the winter sales season, so obviously, shopping would play a big part on my last day. Unfortunately, even during the sales season, all of the department stores and most boutiques are closed on Sunday. Fortunately, I still found some stores that were conducting an "ouverture exceptionelle."







"Soldes" means sale. These signs brought me happiness in my heart.






My cozy hotel room near Opera






Place Vendome. This was my favorite holiday decoration in Paris.




























Polly and I tried to go to Angelina on Rue de Rivoli, but we didn't have time, so I went by myself for lunch on my last day. They are famous for their hot chocolate, which is what's in the little pitcher. I'm still trying to decide whether I like Angelina's or Les Deux Magots' better. But both are delicious - it's essentially a brick of chocolate in liquid form. The shrimp ravioli was good too.







I took a walk through the Tuileries Garden..







And by Hotel de Ville (sadly, BHV was closed).







I walked back through the Tulieries at dusk, after a long day of shopping, to drop off bags at the hotel.







The Grand Palais extended its Gertrude Stein exhibition of Picasso and Matisse, and it was open until 10pm on Sunday, so the timing worked out perfectly.







I really don't care for the Champs Elysses. It's a noisy, bright and commercial mess. BUT, the stores are open every day until late, including Monoprix, so I went in and bought out their entire inventory of pear cookies. This picture is actually H&M - which is open from 10am-MIDNIGHT every day, including Sunday.







Wool coat from Agnes B, which was 40% off. This brought my total coat/jacket purchase from my trip to 4.






Pink oxfords from Repetto, which were 0% off. These brought my total shoe purchase from my trip to 5.






One last Orangina to commemorate my last night in Paris.

C'est fini, and now I'm home. Between snowstorms, ice storms, unpacking, catching up on 3 months' worth of shows on Hulu and starting and finishing Downton Abbey, I haven't really been able to process my trip yet. That will be my next and final post.