Je t'adore Paris

Blog and images by C

It is a blessing to be back in our favourite City, K and C have both ached for this City. the long COVID lockdowns followed the cancellation of our last planned adventure to this City. First world problems and far more important things kept us and many others from venturing beyond our own borders. Travellers, adventurers and voyagers are now moving, and we are blessed and privileged to be among them; again.

Pre sunrise over the left bank rooftops

Seven days in our favourite city is part of a 6-week odyssey; for K and I, it is rejuvenating, contemplative and icecreamative (the art of eating lots of ice cream). We arrived via a mini stopover in BKK (Bangkok), K will write about that in time; we are too absorbed in Paris at this time. We have been here 3 nights already, and this is our first blog effort. Apologies. I don't have many photos yet, either; let's

see how the next few days go. This City has never been problematic with traffic, yet in the preceding years since we last visited Paris has looked to the future in attempting to reduce the vehicle traffic by coercing its people to take their cars off the streets. E-bikes and E-scoters are everywhere, and the roads have been transformed to allow bus, bike and scooter lanes.....everywhere. The City is in that transitional phase where car drivers are not yet yielding their streets to us bicyclists and scooterers. K is an experienced scooter rider thanks to our Nephew Aidens tutoring, and she is slaying it on the streets here. The Metro, our typical primary mode of transport, is unused at this time. It's E-riding all the way.

We are staying in a super cute (code for tiny) apartment, partly funded by a voucher thanks to the French Gov who underwrote many such bookings and saved many, like us, from losing payments made when COVID hit. The apartment folks informed us of our original apartment was still impacted by restoration works on the building facade, so they were able to accommodate us last minute close by, yet with an improved fab panorama over Parisien left bank rooftops looking toward the Notre Dame as she is being lovingly brought back to life. She is still magnificent and not diminished by this moment in time, her long lifetime; this is just a moment in time. After the fire, the restoration works seem well underway and are planned to finish in 2024; such a huge job. We can see gargoyles and buttresses and many many workers. The scaffolding is lit at night as the workers buzz around her like worker bees serving their Queen bee. She will look better than ever soon enough.

We are staying close to one of my favourite markets, particularly when the food market is on; and it was in full swing Saturday; today, it is more of an antique fare, and so goes the market scene in Paris; ever changing to service its people; Parisians. On the ice cream front, the legendary Berthilon is only a few hundred metres away and looking good for a visit today. One of our fav ice cream suppliers is an Italian upstart called GROM, which has operations in Paris, yet of course, the Belgian chocolate is my top 3 fav. For some, its art galleries, architecture, and culture; yet for me, culture is about food more than most things, and thankfully K has many of her own Parisian favourites, few higher thought of than Le Train Bleu, where we will dine for lunch on her birthday and where she will have her fav steak tartare.

We are finding our rhythm again and begin our rejuvenation, our contemplation and, of course, our ice creamation.

We primarily write these blogs for us to read on rainy days when stuck at home; and also for those voyeurs who may be even a tiny bit interested in our travels. We, as voyeurs, love reading about the inspiring travels of our loved ones and those adventures, in turn, inspire us.

https://www.kandc4ever.com/ is our place to log our adventures and document some of our interests in vintage shopping, street art, food and random hidden gems that we love.