So in September we were finally able to take our long belated trip to France. We had originally scheduled our trip for April of 2020- and due to a certain unforeseen plague had to postpone that till September 2020. We had everything planned, all the tickets were purchased and when we had to postpone we managed to get everything moved over to the next date. Unfortunately, our plan b didn’t work out as the pandemic continued to worsen so we just decided to wait until things seemed like they were starting to calm down. Last spring conditions had improved enough that we felt it was safe to make travel plans again so we scheduled for September. We had quite the itinerary- 3 whole weeks worth of travel and adventure! We would spend our first week in Paris. Week two would be spent traveling down the Rhone Valley and then the last week we would be living it up on the riviera. It was well worth the wait and now that I have finally finished editing all the photos I will be posting some of my favorites to show the highlights of our journey.
On our first day in Paris we were definitely feeling the jet lag. We took the hop on/hop off tour bus and hit the major attractions around town. Sitting in a bus was pretty much all we could handle after a full 48 hours with no sleep. the problem was that we were so exhausted and out of it we could barely recall any of what we had seen- so on day two we went on the tour again. The Arc du Triomphe above was one of the first spots we stopped and it- as we were to find out like most places in Paris- was absolutely hoarded with tourists. One of the reasons we decided to go in September is we figured after summer everyone else would be back at work- this was not the case. Apparently everyone else had decided to postpone their travel plans until then to.
The obligatory selfie in front of the Eiffel Tower avec Maman
One of the incredible fountains at the heart of the Place de la Concorde
One of the incredible meals we had on our trip. I ate at restaurants more in 3 weeks there than I have in the last 3 years here in the states. The locals were all complaining about high inflation but we were very impressed with the prices. Dinner for two at a cafe or brasserie (we stayed away from the higher end restaurants) with drinks and dessert usually ended up being around $40- and that includes the service. Yeah they had none of this tipping nonsense. The food was much higher quality to- straight from the source and practically organic.
It was nice being in such a vibrant city. Coming from a very small town in the sticks where the streets are pretty much empty the bustling streets of Paris made for a very pleasant culture shock.
Almost every major historical building in town was under some sort of renovation- and most of the work zones were concealed under facades that blended right into the building being repaired.
Notre Dame was still very much under reconstruction- so- unfortunately- we could not go inside. The exterior was still very impressive though.
There was a lot of graffiti in Paris. Most of it seemed confined to the empty, gray concrete retaining walls lining the highways. In the case of the concrete walls the spraypainted graffiti was a vast improvement and I love the layering of forms of expression from age to age. Everywhere you went there was this wonderful blend of old and new.
A moment of the sublime in front of the Louvre. France is a country of gardens as we were to find out and Paris is peppered with spectacular ones.
MJ Seal .Art 
love all of the photos
brings back great memories
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Stay tuned- I have lots more to share!
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