It has been 21 years since my last visit to Paris but I don’t think the city has changed at all. You can walk for hours and still never see most of it. It really is one of the best cities for people watching. You can pick any cafe and just sit outside for hours watching thousands of people go by. The flight was pretty easy with a connection in London. It took about an hour from the time we landed in Paris to actually getting off the plane since they couldn’t get the sky bridge to work. They finally brought in stairs so we could get off the plane. From there, we had to wait in a line for an hour to get through passport control.

We arrived at the hotel around 11:00 PM Sunday night. We basically had two full days in Paris and we saw everything by foot. Almost 30 miles later, I can say our feet our tired. The first day was pretty blue skies which I think can be rare in Paris in the fall. The second day was cloudy but still warm and humid. There was one quick shower in the middle of the day but we were lucky to find an awning to shelter under.

We walked for hours which meant I took way too many pictures. The city was busy but not as bad as it would be in the middle of summer with all of the tourists. I have tried more patisseries than one really should in 48 hours. I keep telling myself that walking 30 miles means I can try all the delicious sweets and breads. It is hard to imagine Notre Dame on fire but they are working hard at rebuilding it. I took hundreds of pictures which means I really struggled trying to narrow it down to some of my favorites.

And what would be a trip to Paris without a tour of the Eiffel Tower. It was a bit overcast this evening but it still didn’t disappoint. We did a tour so we could get a ticket to the very top which is 300 meters high. The tower was originally painted red but the French people didn’t like it. It has been painted Eiffel Tower Brown since the late 1960’s. It was originally completed in 1889 for the World Fair. The tour guide said they plan on changing the color again before France hosts the 2024 Summer Olympics. They will be painting it gold. They say it is the most visited paid monument in the world with almost 25,000 visitors a day. The guide also mentioned that there are 2 rats for every inhabitant of Paris. So there are a little over 4 million rats roaming the city. Really glad I only saw one.

Good night from Paris. Tomorrow is off to Normandy.