Last day in Paris

Today was very laid-back.  Most of us didn’t get out of bed until almost noon.  Judy, Chris and Teresa went out while we were still in bed, made friends with a local purveyor of souveniers, and bought berets (4 for 10 euro) for all the women.  The whole gang didn’t actually get out of the apartment until around 2:00PM.  Leah had read that there was a parade down the Champs-Elysees so we headed that way… not overly optimistic, because we were leaving so late.  But in fact, the party was on and the parade continued.  It included 2 high school bands from the U.S.: one from Riverside CA and the other from somewhere in Ohio.  We had Vin Chaud (hot mulled wine) and various foods at stalls set up along the street.  I got another crepe, but this time it must’ve been buckwheat flour:  I had a reaction to that back when I was a kid in Colorado, and had another one this time.  Scratchy throat with a little swelling, but Leah (who travels with Benadryl and epi pens due to nut allergies) gave me some benedryl and I was good to go in a little while. 

Tiny Pony:  "get this giant off of me!"

Riverside H.S. (CA) band marching down the Champs-Elysees

New Year's Day parade, Champs-Elysees
Are these Budweiser Clydesdales?

Indians playing American songs on bagpipes:
it's a small world after all!

From there, we went back to Notre Dame:  they have stalls along the Seine selling art work.  Unfortunately, they were closing up by the time we got there.  We returned to Pigalle, had some dinner courtesy of Jon (thanks, bro!), did a little more souvenir shopping, and came back to our apartment.