au revoir paris; bonjour lille...

it is currently reaching midnight and i am completely exhausted from yet another day of intense walking... my feet have taken a beating and negotiating my way around a huge paris train station earlier this evening was not much fun, but i am right now sitting in a gorgeous spare bedroom with a comfy queen size bed, computer and view out on to a park at my friend francine's in lille... let's backtrack first though, as internet time has been few and far between these days...

paris was incredible -- we traversed the entire city (mostly with two feet and a heartbeat) until we'd honestly felt like we'd seen it all... a glimpse of mona lisa at the louvre; musée rodin; the eiffel tower both day and night; arc de triomphe; drinks at hemingway's old haunt; gardens galore; versailles and the chatéau with the hall of mirrors; the rolling hills and fabulous views in montmartre... basically, we did it all -- or close to anyway...

the brother left for home early this morning after a light breakfast at a café... so to close off my paris experience today, i trolled around the city for shops and dropped a pretty penny... i also took in the utterly stunning musée d'orsay with its impressive collection of impressionist works and easily found myself staring at van gogh's self portrait for about 15-20 minutes... then i trekked out to cimetière du père-lachaise and wandered through the brilliantly large headstones, stumbling upon those of jim morrison, oscar wilde, edith piaf and gertrude stein...

after a one hour train ride -- which i could barely keep my eyes open for -- i was in lille to meet francine... she and i went to high school together back in the day, but we realized tonight that we haven't seen each other since about third year university at a reunion of sorts at a bar in mississauga... that's easily over six years ago now! it was surreal finding her familiar face among the crowd at the train station... we went down to the heart of lille for a beer -- francine giving me little tour guide like notes along the way... we chatted and sipped and then headed back to her place in a little village outside of the main city... i met her wonderfully friendly boyfriend, benoit, over a late dinner outside on their picnic table as the sun set on a warm day in france... the weather is supposed to be on our side for the next few days so tomorrow we plan to head to the coast for some beach time and a trip to vimy...

but right now, my feet, my brain, my body -- everything -- needs a long rest...