This morning was spent packing and tidying before hopping on the train to our final neighborhood. Had it not been raining, we likely would have walked, but that was not the case. I think at this point, so close to our flight home, we are both really worried about catching COVID and having to quarantine past our intended timeframe, so any close quarters with people makes us nervous. Thankfully the train was not too crowded at the time we went.

We arrived in our new neighborhood and were let into our new place without much hassle. Thankfully, this one is only on the third floor, so the stairs here feel easy-peasy by comparison! I would also say that the view may be the nicest.

After a small break to warm up and get our bearings, we decided to head out for a bite to eat and to see the Musée du quai Branly. Ever our intrepid navigator, Ray guided us to a nearby bakery for a pair of sandwiches. As usual, I was expecting we would take our grub to a nearby park, which was the plan. What I wasn’t expecting however, was the Eiffel Tower to pop out of nowhere!

In fact, our place is so close to the Tower that it almost serves as a beacon for where “home” is! Including at our next stop. The Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac is a museum of art and artifacts from native peoples around the world, broken into sections on Oceania, Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

We had both read that this was a really interesting museum, but we also read that it has and continues to face a lot of controversy given that many of the artifacts were stolen from these places while they were under French Colonial rule. There are and continue to be movements to try and repatriate the pieces back to their original homes.

I think both Ray and I would say this was not one of our favorite museums. Firstly because of the ookiness around how many (all?) of the items were acquired (and the refusal of the museum and the French government to consider returning them), but also because most of the signage was in French making it really hard to understand what we were looking at or the context around it. Not to mention the people! There were SO MANY people there and a lot of folks coughing which, at this point just makes us want to jump out of our skin!

We made our way back to our AirBnb to determine our next steps and then remembered that tonight’s the last night the Champs Elysses would be lit up with Christmas lights! So we headed down that way. I have to say I was … underwhelmed. I had hoped for something a little more … elegant?

Regardless, it was a lovely night for a walk, so we scooted on down the Champs Elysses to see the Arc de Trimophe.

Once again, our fearless navigator navigated us towards home. To my surprise, he chose a route that led us straight to the Trocodero (the most famous viewpoint of the Eiffel Tower) and then under said tower to get home. We’re hitting all the big sites in one night!

We stopped at a grocery store on the way home. The cashier gave us our bread for free because it was over a week old – they really take their bread seriously here! Then we ordered some Poke for delivery for a late-night dinner (how is it already 10PM?!). We’ve got an early morning tomorrow, so I should sign off and get some sleep!