Saying Good-bye to Paris!
We toured fashion schools, walked the entire city sightseeing, and ate!
We ate quiches, crepes, fruits de mere, cheese, cheese, cheese, and bread. We were really happy to eat foods created in France like croque monsieur and ratatouille. The funny thing is, Mimi and I ordered the ratatouille not only for the when in France reason, but we both needed to eat something vegetable based that wasn't going to be so rich. It was the richest (and yummiest) ratatouille we've ever eaten.
Actually I haven't made this dish since we watched the movie "Ratatouille" when Mimi was little!
Our apartment was near the rue de Cler which is an open air market street.
Everything is so fresh! Lucky us - it's summer! The cherry's, the peaches, the scent of the apricots and the size of the heads of lettuce - amazing!
There is the rumor that Parisians are rude, and we didn't find that to be true. Some shop keepers were snooty, and weren't particularly thrilled with our not so perfect French. Overall, people were very friendly. 
One tip I learned is that walking into a shop is like walking into a Parisians living room - you need to say 'bonjour' when you walk in. The food and wine were good prices, but merchandise is so expensive.
That's OK, Mimi did enough shopping in London, she needs to be able to close her suitcase - she did buy a couple of Tintin books from a small bookstore on the rue de Cler that we can't get in the states!
The Metro was clean - except for some pee smells. Why is it ok for Frenchmen to pee on buildings but I look out of place when I don't wear a scarf? The Bateau Bus was a fun way to travel - we don't have water taxi's home.
The city is very clean for one so old. My taxi driver told me on the way to the airport that Paris washes it's buildings every two years. His English wasn't the best, so I may have that wrong. He wanted me to explain why his daughter, who lives in New York, would buy a vacation home so far away in Florida. Winter? I am happy for him to be going to see his daughter in October and maybe "The Sunshine State" will make sense then.
The city is very clean for one so old. My taxi driver told me on the way to the airport that Paris washes it's buildings every two years. His English wasn't the best, so I may have that wrong. He wanted me to explain why his daughter, who lives in New York, would buy a vacation home so far away in Florida. Winter? I am happy for him to be going to see his daughter in October and maybe "The Sunshine State" will make sense then.
Another thing I noticed that is different from the US are clocks, or the lack of them. In the states, we are always watching the clock, got to go, running late, need to be somewhere right now. In Paris, not so much. A much slower pace.
Rodin's "The Thinker" was so much bigger than I had expected!
Now that we are home, I need to spread out all of our information on all of our schools and try to figure out if a European school is better for Mimi and what the cost differences are for me. :-D
Good bye Paris!
Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC in four days!
Pam
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