July 7, 2017. Friday. London.After 21 days, 12 countries, driving over 7,500 kilometers (~4,500 miles), 13 different flats/hotels, 100 baguettes, 10 pounds of gelato, and approximately 50 pain au chocolates per person (rough estimates!), we finally arrived back at our London flat this afternoon. It’s funny how what feels like “home” changes depending on where you are coming from. After four nights in Paris and then 2.5 weeks on the road away from Paris, it felt familiar returning to Paris — a bit like home, relatively speaking. And arriving in London and to our flat felt like returning home, even though we won’t really be home in Rhode Island until late August. Home or “home,” it felt nice to return to London today.

Our morning started in Paris, where we had one last impossibly full agenda. We were determined to get to the Louvre Museum since it was closed on the Tuesday we had slotted for it when we were in Paris in late June (before the driving segment of the trip). But we also had to return the van and make sure we left enough time to go through both the French and UK border controls and security at Gare du Nord to catch the Eurostar to London. So: I purchased Louvre tickets online the night before (kids are free — whoo-hoo!), and we were up early enough to pack up and drive down, find parking (the van rental didn’t end until noon, so we used it as a storage for our luggage), and make our 9:30 entrance time into the Louvre. Buying ahead is fantastic — the lines for tickets were super long.

Once inside, we were all blown away by how huge it is, and somewhat frustrated by how not easy it is to navigate from section to section. We’ve seen some large castles and museums on this trip, but I think this topped them all (with perhaps the exception of Versailles — I’m not sure how they compare in size, but they are also slightly different). Our first stop was La Jaconde — the Mona Lisa. As expected, it seemed very small, especially because they keep the crowds at least 10-15 feet away from it. From there we tracked down a few other important items, including the Code of Hammurabi and Delacroix’s “Liberty Leading the People,” had a few croissants and cafe au lait, and then tried…and tried…to get out. Which was not easy, given the poor signage and hugeness of the place.

Lugging our bags through the metro was as much fun as it had been when we first arrived three weeks ago, but we finally arrived at Gare du Nord, where the Eurostar high speed train from Paris to London departs. I had read online that you just get on the train, no issues, but instead, there were long lines for a French border control, a UK border control, and then a slow security line. Fortunately, we had given ourselves a buffer, so we were fine. I grabbed some sandwiches for the road (er, rails?), and we were off on the super smooth and speedy ride back to London (and to grocery shopping, laundry, work, research, boredom, etc.!).

It’s been hard to adequately process this trip — both for the kids and for Jo and I. It was all a bit too fast, but we also saw so much, and then it was on to the next amazing place or site. Still, we will be talking and thinking about it for quite some time, I’m sure — the cultural differences in each city, the diverse cuisines, the amazing topographies, being immersed in non-English linguistic contexts for three weeks, and — perhaps most of all — appreciating the richness and diversity of Europe (and the world through it). All so very amazing. Fingers crossed the kids spend a semester or two abroad in college so we have an excuse to visit them!

Thanks for reading! We now return to our usual programming of sporadic posts from our remaining 6 weeks in London. Peace!