Back to Paris, and back home to our Moms :)

We booked our final train from Nice to Paris for early in the afternoon so we could have one last leisurely morning. Heather hit the seaside running trail again only to take in the typical sights lining the shore. The early morning picnickers, the runners, bikers, and dog walkers, the metal-detector scavengers, a few backpackers sleeping on the rocks, and the odd group of youth leftover from yesterday. A perfectly refreshing run. We went for the standard French breakfast of coffee, croissants, baguette and jam with a side order of people watching. Delicieux! After carb-loading we tried to loiter at McDonalds to use their wifi but were thwarted once again. For whatever reason, the high technological powers do not wish for us to be able to post any blogs until Paris. Our apologies, but you really haven’t missed much in the last few days. We have been trying to get a good dose of relaxation in before returning to the real world.

Our final train to Paris was an emotional journey. We laughed, cried, and made a blood pact to return again. Actually we just ate lunch, watched Pirates of the Caribbean, and composed this post! We did reflect on the trip earlier (likely during an intoxicated state experience during an early morning hike, gelato high, or bottle of wine) and have learned so many things. We are so thankful for where we come from, for our family and friends, and to have the opportunity to travel and appreciate the world. We have decided that our next trip will be completely different from this one, but it was a essential trip to take. We have a deeper appreciation of history, language, culture, and food! We agree that our next trip will need to have more hiking, breathtaking views, and fewer crowds of tourists. We have come to appreciate each other so much more as friends and travel partners, and couldn’t imagine doing the trip with anyone else. We are very excited to be returning home to structure, our families and our comfort zones, and know that there will be many escapades to come. Thank you to everyone who helped to make our trip better than we could have imagined. The contact from home, the new friends that we met, and the general inspiration that we have gained from everyone has made our trip the entertaining adventure that it was. Until then, these two girls are headed home to start the next chapters as they return to the confines of textbooks and new patients.