Friday, June 22nd (Paris, France)

Our last day in Paris was set aside for the Louvre and for Matt and Allison to see Notre Dame (in addition to securing their train tickets on to Bordeaux the next day). Carla volunteered to escort the Proulx’s so that Jim could get to the Louvre early to see the Flemish and Northern European oil paintings and they agreed to meet up at the Mona Lisa. Jim got soaked walking from the metro to the museum in a flash rain storm so he shivered his way through the first few exhibits. Carla helped Matt navigate through the complex reservation system in French, hit the Cathedral a second time and we all met up in time to see the “most famous painting in the world.” We decided to forgo the da Vinci Code tour in favor of the standard audio guide and spent the rest of the day exploring the Italian Renaissance, Egyptian and Greek statuary and as much else as we could fit in until our feet were ready to fall off.

We then tried to meet up with Frank LaRocca who had just arrived in Paris to have our final dinner before returning to the states but a combination of receptionists who only spoke French and a lack of cellular phone communication prevented a successful meeting. It started to downpour while we were waiting near the Tour d’Eiffel but Matt and Carla thought fast and grabbed a busted umbrella out of a nearby garbage can so Jim wouldn’t be totally soaked. Matt then bought his own (which he proceeded to leave in the subway a short while later. After a nice final dinner downtown we headed back to the hotel in hopes of one final hot tub trip. Alas we were thwarted yet again when they locked the door to the pool in Jim’s face and we were relegated to packing and an early bed-time.