Though it’s probably just cause I spent the better part of my my last couple weeks traveling, to the point where sleeping in hostels started to feel like some temporary new norm, I weirdly didn’t feel the need to make some grand use of my last few days in Paris. In a way, it felt like going to such lengths to create some kind of “perfect” last day would only result in frustration, a search for some sort of sense of completion that wouldn’t just appear out of thin air.
I made sure to get one last look at all my favorite/most-relevant-to-my-life spots in Paris however. This included one last walk through Montmartre cemetery, which was always my go to when I was too antsy to stay inside and too lazy to hop on the metro. The cemetery was so huge that there was always some new section to explore, and I deliberately avoided looking up where the famous graves were in the hopes of discovering them myself (I only ever found Emile Zola). Plus the cats wandering around and the leaves all over made for the perfect autumn vibe.
I had to take one last visit to the center of the city too. Completely unintentionally, I had never actually come across the Arc de Triomphe in my day-to-day life, so I forced myself to start there just so when I got home I’d be able to say I’d seen it. From there I went all the way to Musée d’Orsay and the Louvre for one last look at this area that always felt way too iconic to be a part of my everyday life. I ended up back at Rue du Bac, the metro stop where I would always get off to go to school.
The last place I went before I left Paris was back in Montmartre – one last quick walk up to the Sacré Coeur. It felt pretty fitting given the view over the entire city. It’s weird knowing that I really have no idea when I will ever come back to Paris and to know that though I’m a little relieved to be going home, it’ll be a few weeks before I’m missing it like crazy.
