Yesterday was Arc de Triomphe, lunch at Bistro Romaine on the Champs-Elyssee, back to the Louvre, then off to a falafel shop in the Marais, and the Place des Vosges. The end first – Place des Vosges was closed, so we didn’t manage to make it there. The falafel place was *AWESOME* – best cheap food I’ve had so far. I had a schwarma pita, and Ei-Nyung had the falafel – both were extraordinary, and will likely be dinner tonight, if they’re open.

The Louvre was great, again, even though we mostly hung out in the Italian painting section that we’d blown through relatively quickly the first time, to get to the Mona Lisa. We’d ended up seeing pretty much everything we’d wanted to see (though we didn’t get to the Venus de Milo), though obviously, not in the great detail one might like.

Bistro Romaine was pretty terrible, IMO – I had a lasagna, which I thought might be different because say, France is closer to Italy – but basically, I’m thinking this must have been a chain of some sort. It was pretty blah, and we had ended up spending 2:30 there, because it took us :45 to get the check. I ended up really frustrated and agitated, because at this point, I had really wanted to get back to the Louvre, but we were stuck sitting at a crap restaurant on the Champs Elyssee – I think that place just isn’t for me – the whole street, that is – it’s just too touristy and craptacular. The rest of the city has been quite wonderful, but that street is just too much.

The Arc was pretty impressive, though – lost of stairs, great view from the top, and just an impressive structure with an impressive surrounding layout. The only thing was that the view wasn’t all that impressive compared to the Eiffel, which we had been at just the night before.

Today was pretty excellent, though. We walked a bit south to a restaurant where we had sandwiches and coffee to start off the day. Then down to walk along the Seine, which was closed to traffic, so you could just walk, bike, or skate along the street. Reminded me a bit of when they close off the big street in Boston on Sundays. Walked around a bit, then caught the Metro from Hotel de Ville to Saint Sulpice, where we walked to the church, looked inside, then headed over to the Jardin des Luxembourg (yes, I’m sure I butchered that), where we sat on chairs by the fountain for a couple hours. Perfect. Just a great, laid-back way to end the vacation, and I could imagine little better to do.

We got up, wandered around, got some crepes, then walked out and ran into a band, made up of a couple horns, a trumpet, a drum kit, trombone, and tuba. They ended up playing some covers of popular songs, such as Paint it Black. They weren’t great, but they were pretty fun to watch.

We headed back to the Metro, where we went to Bastille, to walk to Place des Vosges, where I led us in the wrong direction. Oops. On the way back, it started raining. We were totally unprepared, so we headed back on to the Metro, and came back to the apartment.

It’s been a pretty excellent day, and a great way to end the trip. Looking forward to coming home, but definitely leaving feeling really positive and happy.