20 Weeks RTW: Sunday, June 4 (week 20 / day 133) Boat Tour in Paris

Nineteen weeks down & only one week to go!

Paris Lilas Ward

We made our last journey to church on our trip to the nearby Paris Lilas Ward, about a mile from our apartment. It took just about a half hour walking & we incurred no injuries. Just as we turned off our street we passed several people setting up for tables & putting items out for a street market. We were hoping it would still be open on the way back from church. We briefly met another tourist family from Houston who took our family photo with the Church sign in French.

The meeting was translated into English by a missionary from Kentucky & so we got the gist of what was said. One lady spoke in Portuguese who I could almost understand (very similar to Spanish) while the lady standing at the pulpit with her translated into French for the group & the missionary then translated it for us into English via the headsets. An interesting 4-language circuit for me to compare how much I understood, maybe half of it.

our traveling Sunday footwear

passing through the street market on our walk to church

we hope it's still going after church!

if only we had room for that vintage phone!

almost to the church building in Les Lilas, Paris

we found the building!

Church sign in French

just before the meeting started

Sydney's headphone got caught in her hair

headphones can be worn up or down

Belleville Street Market

This was a true local experience with people sitting out with their personal junk, a massive "street sale" as they don't have any garages or yards! We don't usually shop on Sundays but considering the circumstances... it's hard to pass up great deals while your in Paris...

great deals on cool dresses

Stacia almost got this one

Cannon & Kyra venturing into the crowd

$10 vans & yes on the $7 dress

We met this local lady whose boyfriend is from Nampa, Idaho & she was just there 3 weeks ago, lucky!

River Boat Tour

After a long rest from our trek to church & the shopping spree, we got ready for our last night on the town, a boat ride through the center of Paris on the Seine River. Stacia bought tickets online from the apartment but they don't have designated departure time. We got to the pier early & waited in the nearby park which had dozens of rat holes in the bushes! Kyra caught a few pics of them.

We went back to the pier right at 9:00 when they told us they would start boarding the 9:15 tour. Well, the top deck of the boat was already full! They failed to mention that people actually line up on the docked boat & are let on about 20 minutes early. This actually turned out for the better since the 9:45 tour passes the Eiffel Tower right at 10:00 when it sparkles for 5 minutes. Kyra's reactions was priceless. Yes, we had seen it the first night we were in Paris, but Kyra was even more excited, like it was her birthday on Christmas day. It was a magical 5 minutes.

On the way home, we took our last metro ride of the entire trip. We were pretty excited about that too!