Bonjour! Finishing up a couple days in Paris today, my first visit since last year’s Olympics. 

Thankfully, the weather has been a lot cooler. The 90s experienced last summer have been replaced with mid 70s and a good amount of cloud cover. 

After arriving in Paris and checking in at our hotel, we headed for the Trocadero. The best view of the Eiffel Tower can be found here and I was able to recreate a picture I’d taken 8 years ago when I first visited the city. 

After an early dinner and a spin past the Arc de Triomphe, we finished up with a drink at a neighborhood cafe. This is a peaceful, quiet neighborhood in the 8th arrondissement near Gare St Lazare – the same place I stayed last year and enjoyed. 

 On Sunday, we had breakfast at a neighborhood boulangerie and took the metro to Pere Lechaise cemetery, resting place of many famous artists, authors and musicians including Oscar Wilde, Frederic Chopin and (of course) former The Doors frontman Jim Morrison. 

Earlier in the day I lucked out and secured entry to the cathedral of Notre Dame for 2:30pm.  After the fire in 2019, the French did a remarkably quick job of rebuilding and reopening last year. It was fascinating to see the renovations – portions of the concrete vault replaced from where they collapsed.

We ended back in our neighborhood where, as luck would have it, the final stage of the Tour de France was passing by two blocks from our hotel. I’ve followed the Tour for the last few years so it was a thrill to see it live. The skies opened between the first and second pass, making for an exciting finish. (Note: between pass 2 and pass 3 we fled to a nearby cafe to dry off)

This evening, we take the train back to London for departure home tomorrow morning. Today we’ll walk around the Champs Elysees in our final hours in Paris. Tres bonne, indeed. 

PS – Some pics from the Champs Elysees, Cafe Angelina and our departure that afternoon