France: Day 14, the End

We loved staying at Chateau de Champvallins. 

Our room was beautiful.  

I felt like I'd stepped into a Jane Austen novel.

We felt very old-fashioned going to bed here.

We thought the beds would at least be squished together. :)

Oh, the bathroom.

Isn't it glorious?

Being melodramatic on the chaise.  

Since I was a Jane Austen heroine, of course.

The breakfast was so pretty I almost didn't want to eat it.

But I did and it was so yummy.

We walked around the property since we had a little time before we had to leave.

This was when I begged Jacob to find a job in France so we could move there.

Just kidding.

But we maybe did consider it for a few minutes. :)

Our sweet hostess, Jacqueline, was the cutest little French lady.  She gave us a tour of the house and told us its history.  Well, she spoke to Jacob in French and he translated for me.  I loved learning about how she had acquired the chateau in her retirement and restored it to its 18th century glory.

We wished we'd had a little more time to spend there relaxing in the countryside.

But we had to get back to Paris that night.  

We drove back towards the city for our last big sightseeing stop:

Versailles

After such nice warm weather the day before, we were surprised by how overcast and cold it was at Versailles.  There were also more tourists here than any other place we visited.  After waiting outside in line in the chilly weather for 30 minutes, we bought our tickets and headed inside.

It was as gaudy, showy, and over-the-top as we expected.

the hall of mirrors

This gives you an idea of the crowds of people we were dealing with.  

It really wasn't too bad except in the smaller rooms.

Marie Antoinette's room

outside on the grounds

We only visited the main palace.  

We ran out of time to see the Queen's Apartments.

Afterward, we walked through the wind a few blocks to find some lunch since we were starving.  Jacob had always wanted to try a hot dog in France, and it was actually pretty good.  Of course they put it on a baguette. :)

Then it was time for the most stressful part of our trip: driving back into Paris to return the rental car.  Neither one of us is the best with navigating, and although we had our GPS, we didn't have the exact address of the rental car office, only the train station.  We were fine until we got into the city and somehow we ended up on a one-way street going the wrong direction.  Scary!!  It was actually a fairly wide street compared to most so it wasn't as bad as it could've been.  But Jacob said he thinks he lost a year off his life and almost wet his pants.  We finally called the rental car company and spoke to an employee so we could get the address.  (Why we didn't think of this earlier, I don't know.) Only instead of telling Jacob in French, he talked to me in very broken English and I had to have him repeat himself about 4 times before I finally understood.  It was awful, but pretty funny now. :)  We were so relieved to see the rental car parking garage and be finished with driving in Paris!!  Then it was a quick ride on the metro to our hotel.

Which was fairly nice, except it had the smallest bathroom of any places we stayed the whole trip.  And I just have to mention that I hate the showers there.  They are all open in the back and water goes everywhere!  Even when we put a mat down, it would be soaked within a couple minutes.  I don't know why they're all designed like this.  It drove us nuts.

We decided to go one last time to some of our favorite places.  We rode the metro to the Latin Quarter to find a place to eat.  After choosing this restaurant, we realized we had eaten there our first week in Paris.  So it was fun to eat there again on our last night.  Only this time we ate inside since it was cold and drizzling outside.  

yummy dessert

followed by...

a nutella and cream crepe

I had to indulge one last time. :)

We walked over the bridge to see Notre Dame again.

I decided this was my favorite spot in Paris. 

Love it.

As it grew dark, we walked through the city streets to see the Eiffel Tower one more time.  Finally, we reached our destination to see the tower all lit up in the darkness.

Stunning!

We shared a kiss under the tower and then it was time to start back to the hotel.

I couldn't believe our time in France was over.  It was bittersweet.  What a trip!  We loved our time spent exploring, but we were excited to get back home to see our darling Katie who we missed oh so much.

The next morning, we woke early and rode the metro then the train back to the airport.  The flight home passed more quickly to me than the flight to France.  We watched movies, ate, and took a nap.  I couldn't sleep much, but didn't feel the need to since we'd be arriving home in the afternoon.  After finding our luggage and going through customs, we could finally go out in the wonderful Texas humidity. :)  Jacob's sister, Rachel, was there to pick us up.  She surprised us by bringing Katie with her!  We thought we were picking her up from the Cheneys later.  I climbed in the back seat and Katie stared at me and then she started giggling.  I had been worried about how she'd react to seeing us again after so much time apart, but she was happy to see us.  It was so good to be back home with her and go to sleep in our bed that night.  We went to bed at 8 pm because we were exhausted with jet lag.  We are so thankful to our good friends, the Cheneys, and also our family, the Kosters, for taking care of Katie while we were gone.  This trip wouldn't have happened without them.  We made some wonderful memories in France, and hope to go back someday!