Home for 48 hours Now!

October 10, Monday, was our last day in Paris (at least on this trip:)) and we filled it up!  Since I am the nerd detail traveler I brought a sheet about how to call SOS house doctor in Paris.  Fortunately we did not need to but we did see this car in a special "doctor" parking place so I'm assuming that it was a doctor call!  Love the car!

 First stop - Pantheon which has tombs for a whole lot of famous people.  But of course we had to try to get in this Cathedral first - no luck, locked!

 We visited the Pantheon in the 1990s and I have brief notes and apparently it wasn't memorable at that time with Ross living in England, me working full time and having 2 kids in college.  I had my brain going in a lot of directions then but now I can really focus on travel and details!

 What a beautiful building!  I hope our country takes good care of all the buildings in Washington DC and another places instead of tearing down and rebuilding.  Of course ours are nowhere near as old but they also have not been totally destroyed in wars and exact replicas rebuilt - amazing!

 Third crypt of this trip and it's my new go to place.  This one is the most beautiful I have ever seen - so peaceful and lovely.

 Yup - there's a real heart in this urn and I really wanted to climb up and open it to see what it really looks like.  Is it preserved in formaldehyde, turned to ashes or what????

 I love gargoyles but it's hard for me to look so crabby and my now and hair are way too small!!!

 Ross had a lovely Aunt Genevieve who was an opera singer and definitely not a saint as she was in a vaudeville quartet for many years before performing in NYC and then teaching voice at the University of Texas.  Our daughter Jennifer kind of liked this and she said when she took 4 years of French in high school this was her French name so go for it!

 The Grand Palais is indeed a grand palace.  Much was closed for restoration but we did go to a special exhibit of Irving Penn, photographer who died in 2009 at the age of 92.  Amazing black and white photos of all things including a whole bunch of nude women - really nude!!

 His camera was huge and a famous brand Hasselblad probably made in Germany?

 And one room held photos of cigarette butts and it was rather intriguing.  This was Lucky Strike and Phillip Morris brand.

 The beautiful Seine river in Paris.  We so lucked out on weather as rain was predicted several days but we never had a day with rain - some slight showers in the evening a couple times and that's it.

 One more Cathedral and it is the American Church in Paris Episcopalian and we attended a service there many years ago.  I guess it can't be called a Cathedral because it's not Catholic.

 And these are padlocks aka "locks of love" at the Princess Diana memorial.  Started out with locks on the Pont d'Alma bridge but it nearly took the bridge down with the weight so they took off the fence type thing and put up plastic or glass instead of rails on the bridge and now have a chain for these.  I heard a guy selling these ask a woman if she wanted one and she said she was divorced; his reply "I have for divorce too" with a big smile!

 This was a beautiful photo with no editing - love my new camera which fits in my pocket just like my previous ones.

 The famous bridge where Princess Diana died in the tunnel under it.

 The memorial is really from 1987 for the 100th anniversary of the International Herald Tribune.  Again they love America and the flame on top is an exact replica of the Statue of Liberty.  Also remember that the Statue of Liberty by NY harbor was a gift from France.

 Ben Franklin actually sat in this chair in the American Cathedral or at least I think he did!

 DAR - Ross' mom was a member of the DAR which can trace their roots back the the Declaration of Independence and Revolution and must be direct blood descendants so I am not but our daughter Jennifer is and it's only females.

And - I still need to go back and make notes on the first couple days we were here and then in a few days will need to do my "Best of" and "Not Quite as Good" and of course "Signs".  We both recover quickly and the direct flight from Paris made it "easy peasy" so I'm ready to start planning another trip - now!!!