Au Revoir - Autumn in Paris 3

My third and last day here, so the day of departure.  Due to the rather late arrival back at the hotel last night, we were picked up at 09.30, 15 minutes later.  The chauffeur would have loved to fetch us at 10.00, but he wanted some more time to drive us around the centre before dropping us off for three hours at Montmartre, as the tour organizer has always intended for the last day.  He paused for about 10 minutes in front of the Dome des Invalides so that we could shoot it -- the dome is impressive.  Of course, there was no time to go in, but I have been inside twice, so no great loss for me.

After that, we drove to the Trocadero for a last view of the Eiffel Tower, and the scene was just so breathtaking that we ended up staying a bit longer than the 15 minutes given by the chauffeur.  I took about 20+ shots and later deleted some, so I still have about 12 shots, all variations of this.  It looked like the backdrop of a stage performance, or a huge idol being worshipped by 'believers'.  It wasn't my intention to pay much attention to the tower this trip, but this was something I couldn't pass up.

At Montmartre, I finally got the chance to buy AW a bottle of Pastis 51, which he had started asking for when I went to Trier and Saarbrücken.  Bought some new placemats for home plus a small T-shirt for a godchild, and took some shots of the Sacre Coeur.  There's an extra.

On the way home, there were three buses from the same touring company that stopped at the same wayside restaurant, one slightly ahead of us and the other much later.  We heard that this bus had actually planned on leaving Paris at the same time as us, but got delayed because they had to wait for a passenger who showed up 1.5 hours late.  It would not have been a problem for us but for the fact that we would now have to wait for this bus to arrive back in The Netherlands because the passengers would be redistributed among the buses again according to region.  I cannot understand how you can forget the time and risk getting left behind.  We left the restaurant ahead of the bus (they came later) and two hours later, we had crossed the border and were on our way to the meeting point in Eindhoven.  When we got there, more bad news -- a fifth bus (the fourth one came from London and had arrived on the dot), which had gone to Prague, had got caught in traffic due to a fatal accident somewhere in Germany.  Having experienced such a pile up, I feared the worst.  As it turned out, it was this bus that I was supposed to be on because it was the one driving to Tilburg, where my car was parked.  Eventually, two of the buses could leave.  While waiting in the cold, so as not to waste time and to forget my anxiety and the cold, I simply took the laptop out of my handcarry, opened it, and continued post-processing my shots, which totalled about 520.  At 22.20, an hour and 20 minutes after our arrival, the fifth bus finally rolled in ... relief!  By 23.20 I was turning the key to the front door.

I had met some really nice people during this trip, two of them lovely young ladies from Alphen aan de Rijn, and one of them is thinking of studying at the Rotterdam Business School next schoolyear.  She's finishing a 2-year Management course and is now aiming for university, specifically Applied Sciences.  I might see her next year.  All through this trip, she was so friendly and helpful, and listened attentively every time I 'lectured' or shared what I knew of various things.  One doesn't meet a young person like that often.  I find myself hoping I see her again.

A long day and it was just SO SO good to see AW again.  I missed him a lot!