We walk back to Bir-Hakiem station and took the metro's green line to La Motte Picquet Grenelle.
Changed to the violet line and alighted 3 stops later at Invalides.
Changed again to take the light blue line south to Varenne.
We could have taken the RER to Invalides (done on a previous visit).

A short walk and we joined a queue outside for the Rodin Museum! 10 euros to enter.
Beware of those pretending to be in the queue who are out to make trouble.

We finally got to wander around the grounds, garden and museum (missing the tour).

The Thinker was surrounded by nice clipped topiary.

Rodin's The Kiss

The Kiss was in the main museum on the ground floor.
It was a surprise to see how large this marble version is.
The man's hands and limbs were particularly striking, they were oversized, muscular.
All the pieces seemed to have larger than life men, with petite female forms. (symbolism of dominance?)
I preferred the smaller version of the Kiss, but still a joy to see it for real.

The sculptures were plentiful placed in beautiful rooms.
The staircase was a generous size and the view from the gallery above held a spectacular tapestry.

Time was pressing so we had a quick look into his work shop in the garden. The sun was setting which was enchanting on the golden dome of Invalides. We wandered down to the pond at the bottom of the lawned area and to our amusement it was totally frozen.

The gardens were now closing and so we made our farewell.

We used our last tickets to take the light blue line on the metro up to Champs Elysee Clemenceau.

It was a joy to come out into the twilight and see the lights twinkling on the Champs Elysee. We found the spheres of lights that we had passed in the taxi last night at Rond Pont and the red christmas tree lights along Avenue Montaigne :) One last look down to Grande Roue, as we made our way towards Arc de Triomphe.
No time to go up this monument this time alas.

We make our way back to the hotel. The concierge arranges a taxi for us, and before I knew it it was time to put our suitcases in the car and say au revoir.

I hold a tear as I say farewell to La Defense all lit up in the distance. (didn't get time to visit here eaither this time).

Despite a car broken down on the periferque we still made it to the airport fast, about half an hour.
Check in had not even opened yet. But we didn't have to wait long.
Security was a real pain sadly, as they had not opened the fast track check in for business travellers.

The space was really tight and we were being pushed around by rude cabin crew who were also trying to go through the same security checks. :( They needed to open up another aisle really and it would have been fine.

Once through we relaxed in the club lounge which was a long way from the boarding areas.
Drinks and nibbles kept us going, but we needed a proper sandwich, so about an hour before boarding we found a cafe and sat and had a light supper.

Le Jule's Verne's Alaine Ducasse is on the front cover of this magazine found at the airport :)

We pushed back on time and we were in the air at 10pm, to my absolute joy the view from my window seat in the front on the left hand side gave me a lasting warm glow as the Eiffle Tower twinkled for 5 minutes on the hour. :) What a perfect end to a wonderful birthday break away :)

*Fin*