[36] Reflections

I am not ready to leave, but I am ready to be back. If you can wrap your head around that, you will understand the contradiction of how I feel right now. I need to be ready to leave to take the Metro from M° Louise Michel to M° Châtelet Les Halles to take the RER B to Charles de Gaulle airport by 13h30. Most of my packing I finished last night, and after a lengthy research on how best to bring bottles of stuff (still a surprise, so I cannot be too specific) back in my suitcases (damn terrorists) without breaking and spilling everywhere, I have decided to put all my socks over them. Sadly my socks are the thin black bamboo trouser type socks, otherwise they would be better protected. I have also put them in plastic freezer bags, just in case. Now, I just need to eat and pack up the last of my clothes which have been drying on the balcony overnight.

At the same time, in my mind, I am dreaming of all the places I could be in Paris right now; places to which I have already been, and places to which I still have yet to be.

And I do not really want to leave yet.

Places to which I have been:
Versailles (technically not in Paris) ***
Le Louvre ***
Les Jardins des Tuileries ***
Le place Vendôme *
Le forum des Halles (shopping and otherwise) **
La Sainte-Chapelle ***
La Conciergerie **
La Galerie et Passage Vivienne **
Le Musée Carnavalet (but not in depth, really only by accident) ***
Le Centre Pompidou (but only the outside) + the Stravinsky fountain**
L'Hotel de Ville**
La cathédrale Notre-Dame + crypte archeologique**
Le vieux quartier juif**
Le Musée national du Moyen Âge, thermes et hôtel de Cluny ****
Le Panthéon ***
L'église Saint-Etienne-du-Mont**
Le rue Mouffetard**
La mosquée de Paris + Hammam**
L'institut du monde arabe ***
Le jardin du Luxembourg****
Le Musée d'Orsay****
L'Arc de Triomphe (one of the best views of the city) ***
Les Champs-Elysées **
La Place de la Concorde **
Le palais Garnier **
Le Canal Saint-Martin ***
La place de la Bastille *
La Bibliothèque Nationale de France, site François-Mitterand ****
La tour Montparnasse **
Le jardin Atlantiques ***
Le Basilique Saint-Denis ****
Le Sacré-Coeur ****
Moulin de la Galette **
Café des Deux-Moulins **
Places des Abbesses **
Le musée de l'Erotisme ***
Le Père-Lachaise ***

Places to which I have yet to be:
Le petit Trianon
L'Union centrale des Arts décoratifs
Le Palais-Royal (du Louvre)
the other Passages of the 2° Arrondissement
Le musée d'Art et d'Histoire du judaïsme
Le muséee Picasso
Le musée de la Chasse et de la Nature
La maison de Nicolas Flamel (Built in 1407, it is the oldest in Paris. Restored in the 18th century, it has an amazing pseudo-gothic facade dating to after its original construction. Nicolas Flamel was a famous academic in the 15th century and he is renown for having invented the philosopher's stone. His initials are on the 2nd and 5 pillars).
Le musée des Arts et Métiers
Le Musée national d'Art Moderne
La maison européenne de la Photographie
La bibliothèque Forney (which I really wanted to see this trip, but never managed)
Le musée de la Curiosité et de la Magie
La place des Vosges
La maison de Victor Hugo
Le Jardin des Plantes
Le palais du Luxembourg
Saint-Germain-des-Prés
Le Musée national Eugène Delacroix
Saint-Suplice
Le Grand Palais
Le Petit Palais, musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris
Le parc Monceau
L'église de la Madeleine
Fauchon
Le musée de la Vie romantique
Le musée Gustave-Moreau
Le parc de Bercy
Le bois de Vincennes
Le château de Vincennes
Les Gobelins
Les Catacombes
La prison de la Santé
La musée de la Poste
Le parc André-Citroën
La maison de la Culture du Japon
L'église Saint-Séraphin
La maison de Balzac
Le musée des Monuments français
Le musée Guimet
Le musée Marmottan Monet
Le bois de Boulogne
Le parc de Bagatelle
Le jardin Shakespeare
Le musée de Montmartre
Les Buttes-Chaumont
Le Parc de la Villette
La Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie