On our walk home last night it came to me why most people who live in large cites like Paris, New York, Chicago, etc, may not own a car. The metro systems are great, cheap, run very often  and you don’t need to contend with trying to finds a place to park every night.

The streets are PACKED, with about 6 inches of space in front and behind each car. Not sure how one would maneuver out of a spot. Maybe everyone leaves at once in the morning!!!!

Morning came too soon and soon we were enjoying our last breakfast at the New Orient Hotel . . . our home base while in Paris . . .

. . . as we walked to the metro again we were reminded of one thing that is so special about large cities. The availability of goods and services, right outside your door. In Paris, many business of the same kind seem to group themselves in certain neighborhoods. Near our hotel were several music schools thus the flourish of many  . . .

. . . violin, viola and (WARNING: man purse alert)

luther shops in our neighborhood.

However, we only found one beekeeping  store on the corner of our block. FUN!!!!

An easy ride on the metro to Gard du Nord and a $6 euro fare for the 45 minute train ride to Charles de Gaulle airport and we were on our way. Interesting to note that the ticket machines that were so busy when we arrived because of the SNCF strike, were now available because the office was open again for ticket sales. Except . . .  this machine was not working when we arrived 12 days ago and as you can see by the red light was still not working!!!  C’est La Vie!!!!

Upstairs was Terminal 2, serving international flights and soon we were through immigration. The ‘big’ boards’ with all the flights posted kept us up to date on our flight . . .

. . . and speaking of a big board, I think this woman had a surfboard in this carrying case. We followed her for a while as we walked to our gate and the airport staff kept motioning to her to carry it upright . . . she ignored them and kept running into peoples ankles and luggage!!!!

. . . our plane left right at noon. Once we were airborne, the window shades were closed, wine was served and it was movie time . . .

I was looking for something light hearted and brought up ‘A Good Year’, thinking it was something else, but decided to watch it anyway. Made in 2005, with an earlier version of Russel Crowe. It’s sort of a sappy movie about a high finance banker who inherits his uncles vineyard . . . and, of course, while visiting the area to sell it he meets a young woman, falls head over heels, chucks his life in London, finds the meaning of live and moves there . . . where I presume they live happily ever after . . .

. . . well the movie may have been mediocre but the scenery was STUNNING. Looked like where we had bike near Avignon. When Crowe is lost, while trying to find the vineyard, he comes to this intersection and it was like deja vu, all over again for me. I knew almost exactly where he was . . . we had biked there!!!!

. . . sure enough, when the final credits rolled the last lines were where the filming had been done. We biked through all the towns listed, except Cucuron . . .

The red line shows the general area we biked in and the blue stars are the major villages, towns, we biked through. The two shields show the location of the two chateaus and vineyards, where the exteriors and interiors were shot  . . . and the bulls-eye shows where I think the intersection is when Crowe he is lost. I’ll have to check with our host Neil!!!!

What a GREAT way to end this trip . . . as we gently touched down in Chicago.