French Open Trip 2018 Day 8: It Always Hurts to Say Goodbye
It's the worst day of any trip that involves Paris. It's the day I have to say goodbye to my favorite city in the world. But enough about that, we still had a couple more hours together. Because we had a train leaving a little after noon we got a surprisingly early start to the day. We met my siblings and Ryan at one of our favorite eateries in all of Paris, Angelina's. Jenn hasn't stopped talking about their amazing hot chocolate since our first visit many years ago and our return visit didn't disappoint.
Outside of their liquid chocolate which was still phenomenal they also have amazing pastries and bread. Jenn had eggs with a croissant and I had the eggs Benedict with a croissant and coffee. The rest of the family had much of the same with a bunch of hot chocolates and pastries littering our table.
After a marvelous breakfast, Jenn and I bought a nine-pack of macaroons and we were off to the louvre. We took a bunch of family photos in the nearby park and enjoyed another beautiful day in Paris. We dropped my siblings off at the entrance to the louvre so they could enjoy the massive art museum while we walked back to our hotel to pack up the last pieces of our luggage and head out.
We left our hotel at 11 AM and took an Uber to the Paris Nord train station. There we waited for less than 5 minutes and boarded our high-speed Thalys train to take us from Paris to Brussels. It never gets easier to say goodbye to Paris, but each time I leave I know that it will only be mere minutes before I start planning our next adventure.
The good news was that our train to Brussels was incredibly comfortable, equipped with Wifi, and got us to Brussels in under two hours. While Jenn took a nap I got caught up on some of my writing and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. We arrived in Brussels a little before 2 PM and made our way from the train station to our hotel the Sofitel Brussels Europe. After dropping off our bags we went back out and took the concierge's recommendation to walk about ten minutes through a park to grab lunch near the European Parliament. Most of the restaurants were already closed for lunch so we went to a small beer garden where I got to enjoy a nice Belgian beer and a burger while Jenn had their pasta. Although definitely not the best meal of the trip it hit the spot.
We walked back to our hotel, enjoyed the beautiful weather and took in a lot of the European Parliament. When we arrived back at our hotel we were given an upgraded room and given our room keys. We unpacked, unwinded a bit, and took a nap. Waking up for breakfast this morning took a lot out of us.
We didn't end up going back out until almost 8 PM when we walked across the street. I had noticed earlier in the day that everyone was walking around the cones of french fries. In fact, a lot of people nearby us were having fries for dinner with nothing else. That led us to Maison Antoine, Belgium's own fast food chain that has been around since the 1940's, specializing in french fries. The line for this place has been long all day and when we got there it was no exception. Luckily the fries were worth the wait and we got three dipping sauces with it curry ketchup, mayo, and tartar sauce. It was actually really delicious. Jenn got some strawberry gelato as well.
After a nice walk and some french fries, we called it a night. Tomorrow we will explore Brussels more, for now, I'll start pricing out going back to Paris again in a few months.
