Bon Halloween!

This morning, the 4 of us groggily got ourselves ready for our last morning in Paris....which basically consisted of a yucky showering experience at our hostel, with water everywhere... (after sampling 2 hostels in the Montmartre area, I can firmly advise- Stay Away from the Vintage Hostel, and go with the Village Hostel... much better views, location, and no musty, wet carpets!), walking to the parking garage in the mostly empty and quiet streets of Paris (huge difference from the night before!), driving to the airport (no traffic this morning!), and returning the rental car (a little worried we'd never find the right place, but we did it!).

I waited for Maggie, Thomas, and Heather to check their luggage and to check-in... and then it was time to say good-bye:( Although the week was jam-packed with touring, walking, and very little sleeping, I was sad that my week with my friends had to end. I hope they had fun, because I know I definitely did. Being able to drive around France was so cool (albeit the pricey tolls) and seeing Annecy was wonderful, but getting to play tour guide in Lyon and Paris was probably my favorite part (hopefully I wasn't too ambitious!). It's one thing to be able to blog about my experiences, but a wholly other thing to be able to show what I know and the places I call (or called in the case of Paris) my temporary home.

Anyway, after saying bye... and going to the bathroom to pull myself together (mentally and hairwise- I don't know what I was thinking when I did my hair this morning at the hostel), I set out on my own little half-day Parisian adventure. My plan was to go to the Musee d'Orsay (my

favorite art museum of all time), but by the time I got there, my back wasn't enjoying the weight from my tightly packed bag and my over-worked feet... were over it. Plus, the line was winding around out the door, so it just wasn't meant to be this time around. I did go up on a bridge across the street to take a good picture of the building, which is also a work of architectural art (an old train station). While I was up on the bridge, I noticed people reading things connected to the wires on the fence, and realzied they were little locks, like luggage locks, with names of couples carved or written into them (like M+S, or Sharin loves Sherman). I had never even heard of this bridge or that this was some sort of lovers tradition. But how neat! And, also neat, at the end of the bridge, there is a really cool statue of Thomas Jefferson (another American lover of the French).

After this, I wasn't sure how much longer I could stand to drag myself around Paris, so I decided to see if I could catch an earlier train to Lyon. I found the station or gare, which is really cool looking from the outside (you always take Gare de Lyon to get to Lyon too, which I think is just very helpful). And thank goodness- I could get on one as soon as I got there (for a small 18 euro fee... which was worth every penny...or centime). The train trip was very pleasant, I even fell asleep for a bit of the trip. What was not so much fun was waiting for my bus to get from the train station home, and the actual bus ride. The driver almost hit someone crossing the street and a man, on the bus, obviously drunk, was yelling something... I'm not sure if I was any better at French if I'd even have been able to understand him!

Tonight, I have been endulging in the fine American treats brought to me by my friends- Reese Pieces and Oreos! Yumz.

Hope you're having an excellent Halloween:)

Reste cool!

ps, tomorrow I will post and explain more of the sites we saw in Paris at the beginning of the week!