Today was our last full day in this neighborhood, and we’re happy with the job we’ve done of hitting most of the major sites. One glaring omission, is that we still haven’t made a trip to the Musée des Arts et Métiers… which I’ve read translates to The Museum of Arts and Trades.

Instead of doing that, we took a nice long walk to the Cimetière du Père Lachaise, or the “Father Lachaise Cemetery”. It was about an hour walk from our apartment. Today was the first, and one of the few days where we would see much sun, so we wanted to take advantage of that while we could.

Rick Steves offers an audio tour which walks us around the roads and paths of the cemetery. It took us past many big names, like Oscar Wilde, Gertrude Stein, Jim Morrison, and Moliére. Frédéric Chopin and Édith Piaf (songs of whose I often find stuck in my head) were entombed there as well. We saw the mausoleum of Haussmann, the city planner who, for better or worse, designed modern Paris.

• 

• 

On our walk back, we stopped at a modern Paris fast-food joint, “O’Tacos”. We had read about French “tacos” a few nights back, and had to try one. There are several enigmatic aspects to French tacos:

• They’re closer to burritos than tacos. They use a large tortilla, and are fully wrapped, then grilled like a panini.
• Even if you only buy one, it’s still a “tacos”.
• Instead of the standard taco fillings, you’ll find things like chicken nuggets, chicken cordon bleu, french fries, curry sauce, and french cheeses.

Our curiosity (and bellies) satisfied, we continued home. Deciding not to stop at the Métiers museum, we walked about trying to find a park that wasn’t closed (I guess some parks close at 5pm?) to enjoy some more outside time and read a book. Unfortunately, this park closed early too– 30 minutes after we got there, so we were soon told to leave there too. Desperate for somewhere else to spend time, we settled for the square outside of the Pompidou.

After the pigeons kept getting closer, I was sure we were one excited toddler away from a bunch of scared pigeons flying overhead and making a mess of things, so we once again left to find somewhere else to sit. One of Jessie’s mask strings broke, and I took it as a sign that our day was done. We went home, stopping for some fizzy drinks to ring in the new year!

• 

• 

•