Goodbye, Paris!

With any luck, a cab will show up outside our apartment this morning to whisk us away to the airport where we will pick up our rental car and drive six hours or so south to Sarlat-la-Caneda, where we'll spend the next three days.

It's hard to say goodbye to Paris.

Goodbye 60-70 degrees of breezy, mostly sunny sometimes rainy weather,  in the middle of the summer, which led many a Parisian woman to pull out the boots.  My, they looked tres chic!

Goodbye to the Metro. Love the ease, the cleanliness, and the vibrancy of the ads and art on its walls.  The boys loved the challenge of finding their way on it.  They sure did a good job, and it sure was a good idea of Ben's to give them this responsibility.  Did you know that there are doubledecker Metro cars?  We didn't.

Goodbye to our introduction to French food.  And kudos to Bryan for being such a willing and adventurous eater.

Goodbye to Parisian ice cream, though I'm sure we'll all love the ice cream in Southern France as well.

Goodbye to the beautiful buildings.  Need some "eye candy"? Just go for a walk.

And the wonderful sculpture.  This from Notre Dame was certainly a powerful reminder of the perils of wicked living!  (Yes, that's the devil there to the right of the angel, leading the bad people down to hell after judgement day!)  

Goodbye to cute little city dogs.  We may see more cute little dogs, but they won't be city ones. 

Goodbye to cute little city cars.  Ditto.

Goodbye to our cozy, comfortable apartment, with its easy access to a kitchen and markets for "kid friendly" food, its great beds, and free telephone and WiFi.  Want to dream a bit?  Check out the rentals at www.vacationsinparis.com  where we found our place.

I hope we are not saying goodbye to good, free WiFi.   The boys loved coming home from their adventures and signing onto Instagram to share their photos and captions with their friends.   Ben's computer certainly has gotten a work out here between downloading their photos and doing my blog.   Here's Ben checking out Instagram with Paul.

Last night we celebrated our time in Paris by having dinner out together in what we decided was our favorite restaurant, the Bistro le Champ de Mars, about a ten minute walk away at 45 Ave de la Bourdonnais.  The food was excellent, the waiters were good humored, the vibe was energetic, and we all loved it.  The boys entertained us with their version of "restaurant manners."  It was a happy end to a happy stay here in the City of Light.