Elizabeth's Last day in Paris 5-22-15

Today is Elizabeth's last day in Paris because tomorrow we all take the train over to Strasbourg for a few days before she leaves for Germany to attend a wedding.  She had a list of things which she wanted to see in Paris before coming over and there were still several left to choose from, so we headed out before 10:00 and walked up to Butte Chamont which was on her list and turns out to be the one of the major parks in our arrondisement.  We had a very nice walk around the park amid several thundering herds of little kids who were taking part in some sort of field day in the park, they were running little obstacle courses and coursing around the lake.  There were enough of them that the regular runners had to alter their normal routes.   So cute and so energetic!

Next we jumped on the bus and headed over to Pere Lachaise cemetery for a little walking tour to see a few graves and lots of cemetery art.   I wanted to see where Camille Pissaro was buried, he was one of the earliest impressionists and I love his work.  We blundered across Heloise and Abelard, Theo. Gericault, Collette, and several memorials to the victims of Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald, and other German concentration camps, which were very moving.  In addition we saw the wall against which so many of the Paris Communards were executed during the purge after the overthrow of the commune.  After our walk through the cemetery it was time for lunch.

We decided to eat in La Purgatoire, because we could have lunch in Purgatory and then dinner in Paris.  After that we headed downtown to see other things on the list.  Wending our way through the Palais Royale we started out with the Gallerie Vivienne, one of the earliest of the passages created in 1876 and still very classy with expensive shops and restaurants.  After leaving the passage we headed over to see the Paris Opera House, the over the top building created by Charles Garnier.  






At that point most of the day was gone so we headed back to the apartment but got off early and walked for about a mile along the Canal St. Martin and back to the apartment for dinner on the deck.  Early bedtime since we have to actually get to the train station for a 7:25am train which is usually when I'm starting to heat water for tea.

Likely there will be a hiatus of entries as we'll be in Strasbourg but we'll catch up when we return the 26th.