Our Long Sejour en France

This afternoon Chris and I were out and about and he showed me something on his phone about the phrase "We'll always have Paris," from the classic movie "Casablanca." His comment: I promise I'll never say this to you. I said to him, "Well, I actually used this phrase as the title of my blog."   That being said, Chris said to me yesterday morning that this 5 month trip has been like a second honeymoon. We have always been pretty independent - together in the morning, but then going our separate ways and coming back together in the evening. Here we have pretty much been joined at the hip, discovering and sharing a place we love. And we are going home to people we love and a city we expect to learn to love - and already really like it a lot! So we are saying good-bye to Paris. I'm sure we will return. We've been making good use of our last week here. We've done some wandering and we've been to two noteworthy museums: The Musée Marmotta...

 Today marks the beginning of our last 10 days of our long sojourn in Paris and France. We are sad to be leaving Paris and excited about starting our new life in Chicago. This blog will cover a lot that we have done in the past two weeks. So it's a bit long. We've had a number of sit-around days, between Chris needing to work and rainy days. It has given me time to write this blog and to recover from those days we walk 5 or 6 miles.  We're winding down on things to see in Paris. We've hit most if not all of the must-see places. The last of those on our list was Chartres Cathedral, which we visited on Monday. More on that below. But I have to say that what we love most about Paris is just wandering the streets soaking it in. We've also become quite addicted to the wonderful food: the bread (yes, I found where I can get GF bread); the pastries (harder to come by GF, but not impossible); the wine; the cheese; the chocolate.  Among notable must-see sites is the Catacomb...

 We've been back in Paris for almost 2 weeks now - in the 14th arrondissement. I now have access to my computer and I've gone back to the previous blogs I posted during our trip around France and inserted pictures. So please go back and take a look. I just had an extended messaging session with our Airbnb host about Haussmann architecture and the wonders of the 17th arrondissement. I selected his apartment because it reminded me of our first place in the 17th - on a smaller footprint. But we have enjoyed all the places we have lived in Paris and the areas we've been privileged to explore. A walk in Paris does indeed drive home the point of life. It took us a bit to get settled in after our sojourn around the country. But we've actually done a lot since we got back. I have been in sore need of a haircut, and Chris was working, so I set off to the area of the Bastille to find a place that seemed to have good reviews. Although Chris and I had been in the Bastille Metro sta...