For our eighth and last day in Paris, I made sure to have zero plans. It gave us wiggle room if we needed the extra time in case we missed anything. It ended up being a slower paced day, hitting a few unplanned places and lingering at a few of our favorites.
I had heard that Passage du Grand Cerf was a cute little spot to shop. While it was, it was pretty uneventful. We window shopped and got a break from the rain.
We visited COS to purchase simple but unique cuff links for my brother.
After a few days in Paris I started to notice that practically everywhere we went there were women carrying the same handbag. Teenage girls and white haired grandmas. They all had the same one. I looked online for "purse every woman has in Paris" and eventually found that it was a Longchamp. We decided to take a peak inside to see what all the fuss was about.
Since returning home, I occasionally see women carrying a Longchamp. So it is not exclusive to Paris. But after seeing purse after purse, I too longed for the bag every woman in Paris had. Fortunately their popular folding totes come in a variety of colors, sizes, and prices. Pretty reasonable for those looking for a Paris staple. I picked out a black one. Brent said it would be my Christmas present!
In case you haven't gotten enough, here is an insane amount of pictures of us in front of the Eiffel Tower. We may never return back, so when in Paris, over photograph yourself in front of the Eiffel Tower. I actually inquired about hiring someone to photograph us while we were on the trip but it was pretty pricey and well, we are photographers. In the end, we had plenty of chances to get just the right photos I wanted. We didn't lug our tripod around for nothing!
Here's proof of all the gear we brought. We saw plenty of tripods (and selfie sticks! before everyone had one!) but not one was being used to take pictures of people. It is unfortunate. I was nervous with all the articles I read about pick pocketers. I thought someone would try to run off with our tripod and expensive camera. This was far from the case. So grateful we brought the tripod (and remote!).
As it started to get dark, we headed back to the Arc de Triomphe to go up top and see the view of the Eiffel Tower at night. It was a hike to say the least.
But so worth it when you get to the top. Just seeing the traffic and bustle of the city was majestic.
The Eiffel Tower light show goes off every hour so the plan was to arrive with plenty of time to get a good spot and wait for the next hour to come. We ended up having plenty of time where it almost got boring to wait. Not to mention that it was freezing cold. But worth the wait when it eventually came. We watched and wondered where all the cars were going while we waited.
And then the show began!
Here I am trying to keep warm and photograph a trillion photos because you just cannot stop once you get started.
Okay, so I am not sure about these photos. Cute? Cheesy? I don't know. I was trying to be adventurous. I will share them in case they aren't completely hideous.
And then we closed off the night with the midnight showing of the Eiffel Tower.
And then lights out. We feel asleep in our last night of Paris with the glow of the Eiffel Tower bidding us a good bye after a dreamy week in France. It was really sad to leave this magical place but I was so thankful for the experience.
One last metro ride and then we were off to Iceland the next day! The hope of our next adventure gave me the courage to say au revoir one last time.
See all Paris posts here.
