La Tour

83 days later, I’m back in Paris and getting ready to fly home. I’ll avoid tear-jerking reminiscing, but this has been a wonderful vacation and I am sad to leave. I’m not sure what it is about this city that makes me so happy here: whether the river, the snaking streets or simply the Parisian joie de vivre. I also like the fact that I can walk for seven hours and not see the same corner twice.

It’s great to be back at the Young & Happy Hostel, which is not as comfortable as it first seemed 30-some hostels ago, but still has the unpolished charm and perfect location that I find so inviting. It’s a treat to be able to come home in the evening and strike up conversation with an international group over an overpriced Kronenbourg or five. To yet again give you a taste of the consistency of the Y&H scene, at one point the other night, it was me, a Canadian guy from Vancouver, a couple from Newfoundland, two American law students, a few Aussies, an Italian girl, two Austrian guys and a Norwegian guy… just shooting the shit in the lounge for a few hours while the clerk rocked out The Streets on repeat.

Back in the Latin Quarter

My first full day, Sunday, I checked out a few museums: the Pompidou Center (modern art) and the Picasso Museum. The free entrance (first Sunday of the month) was nice, but the museums were unbearably crowded, especially the small Picasso. The Pompidou was just as fun as my first visit eight years ago, with much of the art posing questions about which narcotic(s) the artist was sampling during production. My favorite piece, which I (naturally) neglected to jot down any information about, is a room-sized sculpture of pantyhose filled with what looks like yellow and gray powder. The dozens of bulbous, leg-like projections are fixed to a massive, bubble-shaped main vessel, spanning almost the entire room (15 feet x 15 feet or so). The Picasso Museum was interesting enough, but its small size and huge crowd made for unbearable heat and a surplus of squirming kids. I jogged through and left.

Paris sewer tour

My first hike Monday took me along the Seine, almost to the Eiffel Tower, where I continued my search for the weird underbelly of Europe by attending the Paris Sewer Tour. The sewer system forms a city below the city, complete with street signs and address numbers (matching those above) indicating which pipes come from each building. The tour goes through a real, working part of the sewer and smelled appropriately. In the canals, I saw the reality of metropolitan sewage: turds, toilet paper and crying babies. But for three bucks, it was worth it.

I walked across the river to the Champs-Elysees, taking one last stroll down Paris’ best boulevard for people-watching. From there I hopped the Métro to the Monmartre area, where I climbled up to the Sacré-Coeur for the first time and enjoyed yet another look at the city from above. In need of some exercise, I walked back to the hostel — a two-hour trip through the Red Light district — and was solicited in three languages.

Up all night at CDG

To end my voyage in style, I have booked a suite at the cheapest five-star hotel in the world: L’Aéroport Charles DeGaulle. That’s right folks, I’ll be sleeping on a cold, hard chair tonight, thanks to the inefficiency of Paris’s nighttime transport system. My Swiss flight leaves tomorrow at 7:30 a.m., and public transport wouldn’t get me there before 6:30. So instead of spending 75 bucks on a taxi, I’ll be heading up to the airport around midnight and camping out for five hours until I can check in. Perhaps I saved the best adventure for last.

Time for a few hours of walking, saying goodbye to the city and then the last meal: an omelet crepe with my amusing Aussie roommates. Thanks for keeping up with me on my journey this summer. If everything goes right, I’ll be doing another one of these things soon.