“Though you may leave Paris, Paris never really leaves you.” – Janice Macleod

Hard to believe that my next post will be from the USA, our two years and seven month time in France ends on Sunday. What a ride it has been. We decided to spend the last week in Paris, one of our favorite places in the world. The people are great, the food can be amazing, and of course just walking the streets is satisfying. Tricia is working on an upcoming series of blogs on each of the arrondissements, so we have been wandering into a lot of new territory.

I did one last sketch before saying goodby to Avignon, the famous pont d’Avignon.

On our first evening in Paris we discovered the tiny Eglise Saint-Ephrem. There was a string quintet concert of Vivaldi’s Four Season starting in just thirty minutes, we bought tickets and joined the maybe 100 others in for a treat – the church was so small that it was a full house and the acoustics of the old church were perfect.

The next day we wandered on rue St. Martin near the Pompidou Center, the street was lined with clothing sellers and people.

Tricia had to visit the eye doc again, so I sketched people.

One afternoon I sat at the cafe across from the hotel and watched the parade, sketching of course.

One of the things quite different in France and Europe are the toilets, this one would never be accepted in the USA – the urinal is behind small doors in the same space as the sink, which is shared by both les femmes et les hommes. I have seen many with the same arrangement, but without the small doors, c’est la France.

On one of our forays this week I found a leather pen roller for the many fountain pens that I routinely carry.

And of course Paris is adorned with interesting people, here are a few.

Today we are off to the huge cemetery where folks such as Oscar Wilde, F Scott Fitzgerald, and Jim Morrison are resting, it should be interesting. Then Sunday we take the Eurostar to London, Tuesday we fly from Heathrow to Chicago.

“We will always have Paris,” and Normandie, and Avignon, and Lyon, and L’Havre, and Carcassonne, and… We carry memories of places and the warm affections for the many people we have met that added so much to our journey. And we are grateful for you all who have read and commented on these posts. They will not stop, but they direction will change. Thank you so much.

“What you don’t know about Paris, is that when you live there, over time, and invisible thread forms around your heart, and so when you leave, it always tugs you back.” – Robert Black