Today has been my final day in Paris, and I must admit, I have grown to love this place...although initially I was not so sure....I was up bright and early this morning to go to MontMarte and Sacre Coeur Cathedral....yet another beautiful church, though in an area quite different to some the areas I have visited...it was much more gritty...a little bit like Footscray, but with French buildings....I discovered loads of fabric shops...mainly clothes, costume and furnishing fabrics....saw some lovely linens...but restrained myself...I have enough excess baggage to contend with!!! I seem to have collected brochures from every museum I have visited..which are adding up in weight...
After this I headed to Laduree for a very special and classy lunch....Laduree has the most amazing cakes and macarons....they didn't allow photos to be taken...drats!!! although I did sneak a few before I was about to take a photo of the macarons and the guy told me no photos!!!
Lunch was delicious and very special.
I had a date with the Eiffel Tower at 4.00pm....so I arrived just on time and was ushered to the lift to wait for my ascent....I think within 5 minutes of arriving at the second level, I heard some familiar accents and ended up spending the rest of my time with a lovely girl from Melbourne...she had only arrived in Paris this morning and I think was feeling a little like I did on my first day....anyway, I ended up upgrading my ticket to go to the VERY TOP!!!! I had originally decided not to do this as I had read and heard so many reports that it wasn't really worth it! Well, I was pleasantly surprised...and spent quite a long time up there seeing the sights of Paris from yet another perspective.
We then headed back down to the 2nd level for a while and happened to bump into the couple I had met on Saturday from Vancouver....talk about a small world...it was such fun to meet them again. We sat and had a coffee and croissant here. Then it was time to go back down and we decided to walk down....oh how thankful I am that I didn't decide to walk UP...there were a LOT of stairs....and travelling the Metro here, you do go up and down stairs like you wouldn't believe!
So by the time we reached the bottom, it was almost dark so we went and sat on a park next to the tower and waited for the lights to start sparkling at 8.00pm...The did not disappoint, even having already seen them on Saturday...whe they started, there was a cheer from the crowd which was lovely. Then it was time for me to come back to the apartment and get packed up for my trip to London tomorrow.
To finish up though, I wrote this prayer down which I saw in Sacre Coeur today..I decided to light a candle whilst there and think this is lovely....
A CANDLE
Lord, may the candle
which I burn be a light,
so that you may enlighten me
in my difficulties and in my decisions.
May it be fire
so that you can burn in me
all selfishness, pride and impurity.
May it be a flame
so that you may warm up my heart.
I cannot stay for long in your church
By lighting this candle
it is a part of myself
which I wish to give you.
Help me to continue my prayer
throughout all my daily activities
Amen
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