Friday, the final day of our holiday 😕
But the flight was not until the afternoon so we had the morning to explore more of Paris and the weather continued nice and sunny.
Having eaten breakfast and checked out of the hotel, we were able to leave our cases at the reception and collect them on the way to the airport later.
Back onto the Paris metro, we took a ride towards the Arc de Triomphe. The monument sits at the centre of an enormous traffic roundabout linking no less than twelve roads where it seems like every vehicle in Paris has to pass, there were literally thousands of cars, buses, lorries, and bicycles navigating the roads in and out of the area.
We were able to walk around the perimeter of the roundabout using the crossing points and eventually found a pedestrian subway that took us underneath the roundabout. This led to a gallery directly below the Arc. Here we could have bought a ticket to get inside the structure and walk up to the top, but time was limited so we continued the walk through the tunnel and then back up to the Champs-Élysés, an avenue almost 2km (1¼ miles) long.
From the central island on the main road, the grandeur of the structure is evident.
The avenue is occupied by numerous retail outlets, on one side there are the normal shops and eating places and on the other side are the exclusive designer stores, Dior, Boss, Moncler, and so on - we didn't bother to browse inside any of these.
Continuing along the avenue there was much to see, mainly shops and cafés, but the architecture is quite impressive. We had seen the Grand Palais on the previous day from the other side of the river. Today we walked between the Grand Palais and Petit Palais, both are highly ornate.
Returning to the Champs-Élysés we crossed to the gardens and followed the signs to the public toilets - which were closed 🙄
The next destination was the Place de la Concorde where an Egyptian obelisk is situated (It is not just the British who plundered ancient artifacts). Again, the monument is enclosed by a busy road (actually an elongated roundabout) which had to be crossed. Just as here in Portugal, there are lots of pedestrian crossing points but with the roads being 4 or 5 lanes wide it is still a challenge.
I eventually managed to get a picture of the obelisk with no other people in view.
From the side of the square, we can look back up the avenue to the grand arch.
After crossing the other side of the roundabout towards the gardens we could see that the area was being prepared for some event, in fact, there was a huge amount of this type of work going on all over the city, a large platform was being created over much of the garden area, perhaps already preparing for the 2024 Olympics - who knows? In any case, the toilets were apparently closed there too.
The gardens lead to the Louvre almost a kilometer along the riverside and, although large, were not too impressive - it may have been the wrong time of year.
Upon reaching the Musée du Louvre we were greeted by a mini Arc de Triomphe, mini but not small.
Then the glass pyramid, which we all know from the Davinci Code, which is very modern yet not out of place in such a setting.
We didn't go into the museum to see the artworks, there was little enough time to see the outside but we did go into the underground shopping centre for a snack at Starbucks.
Finally, we passed the inverted pyramid which is not actually located below the one on the surface but below the Place du Carrousel, hanging from the ceiling, almost touching the small pyramid on the floor.
Now it was time to begin making our way back to the hotel to collect our cases and ride the metro back to Orly airport.
This was pretty uneventful and we arrived in good time at the airport, passed through the usual security checks, and waited for our flight. Once again, our cabin baggage was tagged to be put into the hold as the flight was full.
Traveling back through the time zone meant we arrived in the early evening. Janet had arranged for our 'taxi' to collect us at the airport and this happened as planned, even though Guillaume was playing his usual tricks. His message that he was stuck at work and could not get to us until at least 7pm was greeted with our usual 'OK, that's no problem' stoicism, so we bought drinks and a snack and sat down for a couple of hours wait.
At that point, he showed up, much to Janet's surprise even though she knows he is a joker.
After finishing our snack we were taken to Janet's car and then made a snap decision to visit a beachside restaurant for a meal to complete the holiday, before being dropped at the car once again.
A relaxing drive back to Vale de Prazeres got us here at around 10:30 and it was all over.
I had a wonderful time and Janet enjoyed it too, especially as all her effort in the planning and arranging had paid off. Thanks to everyone who had been involved and for keeping it secret.