After tearful goodbyes, we traveled with our host (who had business in Paris) on an early morning TGV back to Gare Montparnasse. Porter managed to squeeze two small suitcases, a laptop bag, and a backpack (all our luggage except for my purse and Janet's small backpack) in one of the station's medium lockers, worth every cent of the seven euros because we were then free to explore more of Paris unencumbered.
We began by crossing the street to the Montparnasse Tower. As I've mentioned before, if all you care about is the view, this is a much better choice than the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately, the day was a little hazy. I was reminded of Japan, where warm weather was accompanied by haziness, and cold weather brought great views as compensation.
This is the train station, with tennis courts on top!
From there we walked past the Jardin du Luxembourg (without meeting any of Marius, Jean Valjean, or Madeline) to the Musée National du Moyen Âge, aka the Cluny. On the way we found a tiny crêperie and enjoyed one final treat of crêpes and communication in French.
At the Cluny we feasted on Medieval tapestries and other works of art until it was time to retrace our steps, retrieve our luggage, and hail a taxi to take us to Gare de l'Est and our train to Basel. I was quite proud of myself. This driver had no trouble understanding our French, and when he learned we were going to Switzerland and tried to say that Gare de L'Est was the wrong station, I had enough confidence to assure him that this was what we really wanted. (I appreciated his asking very much, however!)
The five-hour ride between Paris and Basel was much more restful this time, since I wasn't frantically planning and cramming French. That also made it seem longer, however—or maybe that was because we didn't get in till after 11 p.m. and it had been a long day. Still, it was pleasant. I love train travel!
Much to Janet's surprise we actually had to produce our passports to reenter Switzerland; perhaps it was because of the late hour.
