71 Europe Finale

Well, after our ride on the River Seine,
we searched for lunch. We went down a nice narrow street/alley and there were a bunch of great little bistro's like the one pictured here. (that's my wife in the foreground).

We walked and walked for quite some time, down all these great little streets like the one below, poking our heads in and marveling at the wonders that are Paris.

 

We rounded one corner, and found the incredible church in the next picture. It's Saint Helena's, where Napoleon Bonaparte is buried.

We didn't have a lot of time to explore, but once again, just looking at the architecture took our breaths away.

We then decided to head back to Montmartre for lunch. Now, there's a few different ways to get there, one being driving up the back side to about 1/4 mile from the top and walk the rest of the way, the second is something akin to a tram shown in this link.

The best way however, is "the stairs to Montmartre". The stairs are also shown here in my absolute favorite photograph ever, by Brassai, called Les Escaliers de Montmartre (I have this poster in my office at work). We finally arrived at the top, and after getting my wife her first French Crepe ever (with chocolate inside),

we met another friend of mine from Germany named Klaus Young for some refreshment.

My wife was taking the picture. Again, that's Hubert, Jean-Philippe, Klaus and me. At some point, maybe on Monday, I'll explain how I met and became friends with Klaus. He also worked for the same company as the rest of us, but he was working in the Stuttgart office in Germany. I had met him there a year or two before.

I'll post a few pictures here of the area around the top of Montmartre, and explain below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top left right and bottom left are artists working magic on a piece of paper with pencils, colored pencils and other various artist instruments, and at bottom right is a view of the people walking around and browsing the shops and artists/artisans. By the way, if you wonder why none of my pictures show 100% of the picture, the artists frown upon full pictures of their work, so I respected their wishes.

After dinner, we had another drink with our friends, then went back to the hotel to pack to head back to the US. It was a whirlwind 12 day trip, and we made some incredible memories there.

Thanks to all who've shared, enjoyed and commented on this trip (in my blog).

Oh, one more link for you all:

So, you think a Hybrid will pay quickly for the difference in price over a gas engined car?

Enjoy your weekend all!