Metz to Paris

Monday morning we visited Brad at work, during some time between classes.

Brooke loves the little robots.

She also loves the candy dish in her dad's office, and double-checking that her art work is still displayed properly on the wall.

Although I don't think I'm ready to sell our cars any time soon, it was great to learn that buses and trains (and walking) can get us wherever we wanted to go.

That afternoon we arrived in Paris, ready to explore that city for a few days.

Our original plan was to tour the Opera Garnier, but a delayed train meant we didn't arrive in time before they closed. Plan B was to check out the Fragonard Perfume Museum. Unlike the opera house, there was no entrance fee, but we soon discovered the guided tour of the museum was really a sales pitch for the perfume. Fortunately, it didn't take a lot of time and learning the history of perfume making was actually quite interesting.

And, yes, we did buy a bottle of perfume (technically "eau de toilette"), but that just meant we had our souvenir for the trip and didn't have to worry about that task for the rest of the week.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at Galleries Lafayette and checked out the Belle Epoque interior. That was pretty fascinating. We also looked at some of the items for sale, but the prices dissuaded us from actually purchasing anything.