“To err is human, to loaf is Parisian” ~ Victor Hugo
“Paris is a city where time is best spent by doing nothing.” – Erich Maria Remarque
Moments, thoughts, and things from Paris – the final stop on our trip…
- We took the Eurostar high speed train from London to Paris – and arrived, as was typical on this trip, in the pouring rain. But seriously, Paris is really beautiful in the rain
- Try and get up early to see the Eiffel Tower at sunrise. Paris wakes up late and you have very few tourists to compete with (as long as there is not a Peace Forum happening).
- “The City of Light” is not a misnomer
- However, the Eiffel Tower “sparkles” were somewhat underwhelming – we waited quite a while in the brisk autumn night air to see them and felt like that was time better spent elsewhere.
- Everyone here smokes (or vapes) and rides a bicycle. At the same time.
- Notre Dame was worth the visit – again, come early to avoid the crowds. It’s free to enter.
- We didn’t enter a single museum. We wandered the city, admiring the architecture, the food, the light, and people-watching. A highlight was eating our parisien sandwich (jambon-buerre) and opening a bottle of wine at the Jardin de Luxembourg in the middle of the day and people-watching for 2 hours.
- French butter is different than North American butter and so much better!!
- Dinner restaurants only open at 7pm. The typical day here is a few hours shifted from what we are used to. The food was amazing, as expected.
- Try to stay in an authentic Haussmannian building. Our street was a pedestrian-only street which was lovely.
- Our trip was 17 days total, and having 3 nights in Paris at the end was a great idea – it staved off the “ready-to-get-home” feelings and felt like a real treat to cap off the voyage.
Wind and Bone 