Les derniers jours à Paris...cette fois!

The last week at my internship was very bittersweet. It all sort of happened in a whirl, as I was rushing to finish up translation assignments and that research I was doing for my boss so as not to leave unfinished work behind after my departure. And of course, I had to allot an appropriate amount of time for something the French seem to do really, really well: goodbye parties. Clélia, my supervisor, was so kind as to organize a goodbye lunch on Thursday at a crêperie in the neighborhood.  The waiter kept refilling my glass with Cidre, a traditional French sparkling cider, so despite it being only about 5 % alcohol, after a couple glasses of it there was little hope of having a productive afternoon after my party!

My co-workers at the Centre! Sitting to my left is my boss, and on my right is Sylvie, who shared my office.

In addition to my goodbye party, the director of the Centre, Monsieur Mourier, sent these beautiful white flowers to my office to thank me for all the great work I'd done, which he said was really helpful to the Centre and of good quality! Definitely a pretty good compliment to receive. Saying goodbye was harder than I thought it would be. I didn't realize until the very end, when it came time to leave, just how much I was going to miss my co-workers.

I kept thinking about how it was a day of many lasts : my last morning commute on the Paris métro, my last day at my stage, my last day getting a sandwich for lunch with my coworkers, my last day hearing the church bells ringing outside, the organ playing, or the accordion in the métro.  I'll miss the sounds of Paris...

There was also a goodbye party at IFE, my program center, where I got to see all my classmates in the program one last time. It felt weird, knowing this would be the last time we'd all be gathered there together as a group. Here are some of my best friends from IFE:

Me, Lia, Dan, Sydney, Yutian

On our last weekend together, Dan and Sydney and I went out for a walk Saturday night along the Seine to soak up some last sights and sounds of the city.  

My last morning in Paris, I was on my way to the métro when a French lady stopped me to ask a question:

Her: "Vous habitez dans le quartier?" ("Do you live in the neighborhood?")

Me: "Oui!" ("yes!")

What I wanted to say, there, was "Oui, jusqu'à demain..." ("yes, until tomorrow..."). Instead, the conversation continued something like this:

Her: "Connaissez-vous une coiffeuse ouverte le dimanche?" ("Do you know a hairdresser open Sundays?")

Me: "Oui, si vous continuez sur cette rue pour 2 minutes, c'est à la gauche..." ("Sure! If you continue on this road for about 2 minutes, there will be one on your left.")

The fact that this lady just came up to me as I was walking and the first thing she asked was if were I local made me pretty proud.  In a city where non-locals can consider it a huge accomplishment to be even spoken to in French by a shopkeeper, being assumed to be a local and asked for advice in this way, woman-to-woman (and furthermore, having a response!) was, for me, really rewarding.

And finally, on my last night in Paris, I did something I'd sort of been wanting to do since first arriving there: I climbed up to the top of Tour Montparnasse, a skyscraper with 56 floors...

...which gives you stunning, 360-degree views of all of Paris. Every Parisian I'd asked said sunset was the best time of day to go, so taking their advice, I'd say I timed my visit nearly perfectly!