Day 14 - Monday, July 22nd

Today the girls had tickets at noon for the Louvre, but Laura and I, having already seen it, elect to stay back at the condo and make preparations for our return trip home as well as rest tired muscles and regroup a bit.  My right knee, which I was apprehensive about prior to the trip imagining everyone strolling 30 feet ahead of me while I struggled to keep up, has actually done pretty well as long as I pause and rest it when able.  One of these years I will likely have to get it replaced, but for now I can still shuffle along like Joe Biden on steroids, so there’s that.

With Laura resting back at the condo, I meet up with the girls outside the Louvre and together we did a victory lap around the Arc de Triomphe, Napoleon’s little gift to himself for winning the Napoleonic Wars.  I say little because, after winning their Independence, Mexico constructed one quite similar but slightly bigger.  The three of us took one long last look and bid adieu to this wonderful city then trained it back to our condo for the last time.

I have now seen what I have come to see and done whatever it is I came here to do.  I am actually looking forward to minding and tending to matters back at 5254 N. Lamon Avenue.  My closet shelf needs fixing, and several other matters large and small will need attention.  I have enjoyed briefly inhabiting the persona of Sir Malcolm Highbottom, international playboy, the wastrel offspring of Lord Highbottom, who has never worked and will never work a day in his life, but now both tired and refreshed a bit, I look forward to resuming the tasks I need to do, and once again returning to the roiling politics and concerns of the United States, a place called home.