We started this journey on March 29, 2017 in Paris. We only spent one night there as we were due in Limoux on April 1st. On that day in March we took a short walk around the neighborhood that was near the train station and stumbled on Underground Coffee 75 where we met the owners, Valou and Kristine. Undergound Coffee 75 specializes in coffee, specialty drinks and tattoos and had only been open for a month or so. As we were leaving, after a few drinks, we promised that if we leave from Paris a year from now and if they are still in business, we’d stop in and get a tattoo.
https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=underground%20coffee%2075
While we were in Granada and Cordoba, Spain a in January, 9 months later, we were trying to figure out how to ‘exit’ Europe. Our time was running out in the Schengen countries. We had to be out of them by February 24 or face a potential hefty fine as well as having our passports stamped so that we couldn’t come back into the Schengen countries. We had already decided against going back to Croatia and the UK in February wasn’t too inviting. We were longing for some warmer weather or at least some sunshine . There was nothing that said we couldn’t spend the last few weeks of our year of travel in the US.
After 2+ weeks in the Loire Valley we hopped a train for Paris for our final 10 day in the EU. That meant lots of touristy things, museums, cathedrals, the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triumph. Paris really is a beautiful city any time of the year.
The Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triumph .
Paris Opera house. Ceiling art by Marc Chagall.
Images from some of the Louvre, Orsay and Picasso Art museums. Not many as they don’t really like you taking photos.
The Montmartre district in northern Paris is a large hill that has a thriving artists quarter and the Basilica of the Sacre-Coeur .
You can’t visit Paris without running into Napoleon .
Other images from Paris
So on a rainy February day in Paris, Kaye and I , again, stumbled upon Underground Coffee 75 and were greeted by Valou and Kristine. They were still in business and happy to see us.
On February 23 , 2018, we left Paris and headed back to the US. After delayed flights due to weather and an unexpected night in Iceland, we flew to Denver for a week to buy a car visit a couple of relatives and then drove to Santa Fe , New Mexico for 2 1/2 weeks before driving back to Minnesota. Along the way stopped and visited my best friend from high school , Steve and his wife Amy in Oklahoma.
I’ll do one more blog post about our year of travel with a map and a few of our favorite pictures.
We hope you have enjoyed our grand voyage.
Paul and Kaye: Travels 
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