Au revoir à Paris

It's my last full day in Paris and I don't want to leave, ever. I was whining about this to the falafel man who we've all befriended over the past two weeks and he said I could work at his falafel shop if I wanted. It is so very, very tempting...

I'm spending my last days here at my favorite places, the Musée d'Orsay, which I already gushed over, and the Shakespeare and Company bookstore, which is modeled on the original bookstore that first published Ulysses in the '20s and was the favorite spot for all the Beats in the '60s. They have beds and comfy chairs and a piano there and yesterday I spent about 3 hours reading a volume of James Joyce's letters while someone played the Moonlight Sonata. It was pretty idyllic.

So today I'm going back to the Orsay one last time to see the Van Goghs and wish I lived in Paris where I could see them any time I wanted. Then the few of us who are still around are going up the Eiffel Tower and splurging on an amazing Paris dinner before we all part ways--most are either going home or staying in Paris a little bit longer but Annie and I are heading to Nice tomorrow for a couple days and then to Zurich and points beyond. I'm incredibly excited for the rest of the trip but I'm pretty sure I'll always compare everywhere to Paris and find that it never quite lives up.