We went to bed last night before any polls had closed in the US, but when we awoke it was all over but the final counting. We had breakfast at L’Express Bar, which, sadly, had TVs tuned to the news (in French, but they were showing video from Mar-a-Lago). The food was good, but my appetite was lacking.

We went back to the apartment; it took a while to get up the energy to go out, but eventually we did so we could finish the Rick Steves Historic Paris walk we’d started yesterday. We picked up the walk at Place Dauphin, which was commissioned by King Henri IV and named for his son, the Dauphin (which means “dolphin”).

We crossed the street to look at Square du Vert-Galant at the tip of Ile de la Cité.

The walk was supposed to end on Pont Neuf, but we’d crossed that bridge several times and wanted to go somewhere else. Diane had seen a recommendation for Maison de Victor Hugo, so walked there. As usual, we stopped for photos and made some detours, including lunch at L’As du Fallafel in the Marais.

As we left the restaurant, I was accosted and asked if I was Jewish – I said “yes”, and soon found myself being “helped” to don tefillin for the first time in many years!

I was a little surprised not to be offered the tefillin so I could keep performing the mitzvah on my own, but it’s just as well.

We continued on our way to Place des Vosges and the museum. The area was plastered with posters like the one below (both English and French versions). I waited until I was back in the apartment and could use a QR reader to safely examine the code – it’s a link to a Parisian “pixel artist”‘s Instagram page!

We finally reached the Place des Vosges, which we’d seen on some Paris Walks in the past; the museum was in the far corner. As advertised, it’s Victor Hugo’s apartment, filled with artwork relating to his works as well as items he’d owned.

On our way back to the apartment, I was taken aback by a huge church and decided we should go in and see if it was as magnificent on the inside as it was on the outside. It was.

Later, we went out for a pre-dinner stroll through the Louvre and the Tuleries.

One of France’s oldest private detectives is just down the street from our apartment; Atlas Obscura had the details.

The street we’re on has many, many restaurants – La Renommée certainly has the most interesting façade (and impressive prices to go with it). We chose to return to Rarita for comfort food (Italian).

Tomorrow, we start the next-to-last phase of our trip; I’m going to miss this neighborhood (and all of Paris).

Once in a while, a Facebook suggestion in my timeline is actually useful, and today was one of those days. A few days ago, it surfaced a post from the Les Frenchies group which suggested going to Hotel de la Mârine to enjoy seeing opulence without schlepping out to Versailles and fighting the crowds there.

We followed the advice and walked there this morning; it was grey and dreary, but even a grey day in Paris offers delights.

The building itself is enormous and glorious; the French Navy used it as their headquarters for more than two centuries and preserved things very well. We toured the apartments of the Intendants of the Garde-Meuble de la Couronned and we quite enjoyed it. They give you a headset which offers (sometimes amusing) commentary as you go through the apartments (much opulence, though not up to Versailles’ level); you also get to explore the State Rooms. The building also played a role in the Revolution.

The views of the Place de la Concorde are terrific (I can only imagine what they’d look like on a sunny day).

After lunch, we decided to follow Rick Steves’ Historic Paris Walk, beginning at Notre Dame. They expect to reopen the cathedral in December; right now, there are bleachers opposite the main entrance to let you see the façade and the progress that’s being made – it’s actually easier to see the entrance than it was before the fire.

The next stop on the tour was the Memorial to the Martyrs of the Deportation, in a little park across from the rear of Notre Dame. It was sobering, especially considering the stakes of the Presidential election today.

We spent a long time at the Memorial before resuming the tour; our next visit was to Église Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre, a Mekite Greek Catholic church on the Left Bank. It’s older than Notre Dame (and much smaller).

Our next stop was at Shakespeare and Company, another place I’d heard of but had never visited. We left empty-handed.

We passed by the Church of St. Séverin and the Fountain of Saint Michael.

And that was it for today; we’ll have to finish the walk tomorrow.

We had a smooth flight from Reykjavik to Paris last night. When we arrived, there were signs all over CDG warning that there was limited service on the RER B line and “we invite you to take a different means of transportation”. We took the hint and took a taxi, which brought us to the door of our AirBnB, the same one we’d stayed at in October at the beginning of our adventure. It almost felt like coming home!

This morning, we enjoyed the street scene while we ate breakfast at Taverne de l’Arbre Sec near the apartment.

We’ve been to Paris many times and have seen lots of the “must-see” places, some several times, so we decided to give ourselves the gift of unstructured time in Paris for this leg of the trip. This morning, we wandered over to Galeries Lafayette.

Galeries Lafayette is worth spending some time exploring; it’s 130 years old and glories in its history and beauty. It even provides stunning views of Paris and of its dome…for free (although you do have to reserve a timeslot if you want to stroll the Glasswalk inside the dome).

On the way back to the apartment for lunch, we passed a place that brought back fond memories of my ten weeks in Manhattan in 1980 when I attended the IBM Systems Research Institute. They’ve been gone from Manhattan (well, the entire US) for a long time, but there’s still a Brentano’s in Paris!

We’ve wanted to visit Saint-Chapelle again but couldn’t get tickets the last two times we were here, so I did book ahead and we went there this afternoon. It’s inside the security perimeter of the Palais du Justice, so there were gendarmes with machine guns everywhere! Once we got inside, though, we were back in the Middle Ages, enjoying Louis IX’s work.

The exit took us through the courtyard of the Palais of Justice – I guess we could have gone into the building, but there was no real reason to do so.

Our ticket included admission to the Conciergerie, where the Revolutionary Court sentenced Louis XIV and Marie-Antoinette to death and where Marie-Antoinette spent her final weeks. The building itself is normally pretty empty, but they give you a tablet that shows AR versions of the rooms which depict them at various times in history. Currently, there’s also an exhibition of contemporary art from Benin in the Salle des Gens d’Armes (the huge hall of the soldiers occupying most of the area of the building).

We took a meandering route back to the apartment.

We had an unfashionably early dinner at Crêperie Saint-Honoré, walked around a bit more, and called it a night.

Today was our last day in Reykjavik; it was rainy, but we decided to take a walk anyway. We had no particular destination in mind, so we took the path of least resistance and walked along the shopping streets, looking for interesting sights, like The Heart of Reykjavik — I’m confident its merchandise is safe from intruders!

We walked nearly the length of Laugavegur (Laundry Street) before turning around. 2Guys, which won a “best burger in Reykjavik” award, found an interesting way to show their customers where the toilets are.

We had to go back to the hotel to identify our luggage so it’d be loaded on the right bus going to the airport; along the way, we found the first fire hydrant in Reykjavik.

Once more, we skipped the Penis Museum; the local “free walking tour” company wanted to make sure visitors knew that there were alternative options.

We still had nearly an hour after taking care of the luggage and checking out, so we walked over to Hresso to try Tuborg’s Christmas Beer (it was pretty good, with a little licorice added to the mix).

There had been two buses throughout the trip (Green for National Trust, Orange for Lehigh and USC), and that continued today. Our tour director Rudy made sure we were on the right bus and sent us on our way to the airport.

I think this road sign is a bit misleading – the International Terminal is more than 40km away from the Domestic Terminal!

When we got to Keflavik International Airport, we discovered that our bus was carrying the orange group’s luggage – their bus arrived about 10 minutes later, and we were finally able to check in for our flight.

I stood in line for nearly 30 minutes to get my VAT refund for purchases we’d made – I think I earned minimum wage, but I’m not sure. Getting through security took a while, too, as did the mandatory stroll through the Duty Free store (we left empty-handed); we finally got to the Saga Lounge with about 15 minutes before we had to leave for the gate. I wouldn’t have minded having more time in the lounge – the food and drink were good, and there was plenty of comfortable seating (unlike the lounge in Milan).

We had to take a bus from the gate to the plane (no jetway); I was happy that the stairs leading to the plane were covered, since the rain had resumed in earnest.

And we’re on our way!

We left Akureyri at a fairly civilized hour (8:30am) to drive back to Reykjavik and the Borg Hotel for a one-night stay before flying out (along with everyone else on the tour) tomorrow. We retraced Wednesday’s route; the weather was better, especially on the passes, but it was still hard to take good photos from the bus.

We had lunch at the Hraunsnef Restaurant, which is located on an active farm; the farmer (and owner) told us a bit about how he got there (he had been a used car salesman in Reykjavik!), then let us come out and visit with the animals.

Then it was back on the bus – next stop, Reykjavik! We drove along the harborside road as we approached the hotel, getting yet another view of Harpa.

We checked in and went out on a walk to the old harbor (it had been a long day on the bus!).

There was a Farewell Dinner at the Food Cellar about three blocks away from the hotel. The food and company was good, though it was more than a little bit noisy!

Conditions looked promising for one last shot at seeing the aurora; we went over to the harbor by Harpa and joined the crowd. There were some thin clouds, plenty of city light, and the John Lennon Imagine Peace Tower was lit, so the aurora was not impressive…but the iPhone camera captured it nicely.

We walked back to the hotel, stopping to enjoy the view of Harpa and its reflecting pool.

Time to pack!