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Day 9: March 31, 2024
After a comparatively leisurely start, this morning, we enjoyed a sumptuous final French breakfast of fresh croissants, unparalleled, crusty baguette, boiled egg, ham, cheese, fruit and cereals, washed down with fruit juice and coffee or tea. We boarded the coach with our luggage, waving goodbye to the beautiful and 'bijou' Azay-le-Rideau, en route to Paris. (We chose to bypass Chartres Cathedral due to it being Easter Day, and as Emma had rescheduled our Seine river cruise to the early afternoon).
Our valued driver, Sergey, drove us to the Île-de-Cité, from where we would begin our hour-long cruise, calling at our hotel in Montparnasse first, so that we could drop off our luggage.
The boat trip was amazing, as we enjoyed seeing the Eiffel Tower, the Musée d'Orsay and Louvre art galleries, and the many other riverside sites from the water - a perfectly relaxing way to conclude our tour!
Not so relaxing our rendez-vous to meet the coach for a lift back to the hotel an hour later, after getting a bite to eat, as the heavens opened, and fork lighting criss-crossed the sky! Some of our group used their initiative to take shelter under industrial bin lids, alongside our open-air statue meeting point!
on our final evening, we enjoyed a walk through the Parisian streets to our last dinner destination, a crêperie, where we had a really delicious savoury galette, followed by a sweet crêpe, with chocolate sauce.
As we headed back to our hotel, the sun was fittingly setting, casting a beautiful light on us all, and bidding us 'adieu' and 'à la prochaine'! (= Till the next time!)