Paris. Day 3. Au Revoir Vacances.

Another day, another rough night.  It’s all a blur, but I think Tzvi slept in Hallie’s bed for several hours.  We eventually got up and made it downstairs around 10 and had breakfast in the hotel again.

After breakfast we took an Uber back to the Marais, back to the store where I bought my coat, and had the tag removed.  Then we made a stop at the Happy Socks store, where we all bought matching socks and Hallie had a meltdown, eventually laying down in the middle of the store.

From there we walked to Poilane, the best bread bakery in Paris.  When we decided to do a two-day stopover in Paris, I said I really don’t care what we do as long as we make it to Poilane.  Thank God we made it there.  It was glorious.  I wanted to buy all of the bread, but I settled for half a loaf.  And a chocolate croissant.  And a tote bag.  And a pillow that looks like a loaf of bread.

After that we walked a couple of blocks to Jacques Genin, where I bought a few caramels. I think I got regular, raspberry, passion fruit and chocolate. I ate them on the plane.  Then we Ubered back to the hotel, finished packing and vacated our room by our 1 pm late check-out time. 

Once we were out, we walked a block to Bagels and Cream, because it had been a couple of days since Hallie had a bagel with cream cheese.  I didn’t get anything, but Tzvi had the Natalie Portman (toasted poppy seed bagel with mayo, Swiss cheese, tomatoes, avocado and arugula).  It wasn’t clear whether they named the sandwich after her because they were fond of her, or because she had been there and ordered that.  In any event, he said it was really good.  The French can really bake bread, even if it’s bagels. Hallie ate a  few bites of a bagel with cream cheese.

We then walked a few blocks to Fauchon, a pastry shop and grocer that’s been around since the 1800s.  I think we were at the original location, but its definitely been remodeled and kind of looked like a Sephora mixed with a Victoria’s Secret.  Interesting that a lot of things in Paris have been kept to look traditional, as if nothing has changed in 200 years, except for this place.  We bought éclairs and some chocolates.

We walked back to the hotel, got ourselves together, had coffee in the lobby, and then made our way to the airport. 

someone’s sad that vacation is over

The ride was a little under an hour and we had a very pleasant check-in process.  Because of our Sky Priority we went to a special area that felt like we were checking into a hotel.  While Tzvi dealt with the bags, I changed my pants – not in a bathroom, just in the middle of all of our luggage.  Then we went through passports, security, bought Hallie a giant chocolate coin, and that was it.

The flight home was a lot smoother than our last couple of flights. Hallie did pretty well and slept a little. I think the service was better than the Air France service from JFK to Paris, but the food wasn’t great. They served the same seabass that Tzvi had on the Paris to TLV flight, and it was still pretty gross. They actually didn’t have enough kosher meals for all of us, but that was okay. I ate my loaf of bread.

What a crazy couple of weeks.