Our trip in September along the French and Italian Riviera had been very successful. Every day – even the travelling days – had been exciting and interesting and the whole trip had been full of variety. The package we had bought from Byway Travel was full of variety and had taken us to:
As I have written up here each of theses stop overs, I have been able to reprise many of the great memories from our trip; a sort of ‘double whammy’ of holiday experience!
We left Genoa for home but, as well as a long but often beautiful train journey through Milan, Zurich and the Alps, we still had 36 hours in Paris to enjoy.
We arrived at our hotel in Paris near midnight. It was more chic than others we had stayed in, but equally comfortable.
Following breakfast there, we set off without any great plan. We had hoped to visit the renovated Notre-Dame. However, we hadn’t booked a reserved slot for entry (or indeed, any advance tickets for any of the main tourist sites in the city) and, in any case, the cathedral was closed because of an impending visit by the Pope. We will just have to visit Paris another time and be armed with reservations for the Notre-Dame and tickets for a few other big attractions that we haven’t seen or want to revisit.
The weather was initially cloudy but the sun came out so that we were quickly in weather similar to that we had become accustomed to over the previous couple of weeks or so – warm and sunny. We wandered through Le Marais until we approached the Seine.
We visited the Memorial Garden established as a memorial for those who died in the terror attacks in Paris in November 2015 including in the Bataclan theatre. The gardens are very moving. The layout consists of six distinct areas each representing one of the six attacks on the day. Overlooking the gardens is Saint-Gervais-Saint-Protais parish church and that imposing structure seemed to add to the solemnity of the area.
We discussed what we would do with the rest of our day over a coffee in a very cool café that was nearby. We split up and I simply walked to and then through the Tuileries Garden to views of the Eifel Tower from Pont De La Concorde. I then returned east along the south bank of the Seine to the Jardin des Plantes, a public garden, museum and zoo. It all felt perfectly relaxing.
On the way I passed long rows of riverside stalls selling vast volumes of books, posters and other paraphernalia. I thought vaguely of the decluttering that we have started and have vowed to do more of back at home, and moved on. I wandered on past views of the Notre-Dame, which continues to be repaired, and the islands in the Seine. Unexpectedly, I also traversed a string of pleasant riverside gardens on my way including the Jardin Tino Rossi. This contained some interesting sculpture and more great views the river.
Jardin Tino Rossi
The Jardin de Plantes itself was also very agreeable but I opted not to pay entrance fees for the large greenhouses or museum. Instead, I walked back across the Seine towards our hotel.
This stroll took me along part of the canal network in Paris, the Bassin de l’Arsenal and Canal St Martin. Here rather than lined with booksellers, the path was lined with the tents of the homeless; a sad contrast to the rather grand flats and office buildings on either side of the canal.
That evening we found a great little micro-brewery and taproom (where, in common with other tap rooms we had visited on our trip, the beer was great but rather dauntingly strong) and then had dinner at Trâmette. Here we sat at a bar and ate a mix of tasty South Asian and French style small plates; our last holiday meal.
Next morning we had time to make a visit to Cimetière du Père-Lachaise which we have been to several times in the past. I love the cemetery for its peace, quiet and the stature and history of its monumental family tombs. Once again, the weather was kind to us and the trees around the mausoleums and graves looked beautiful in the mid-morning sunlight. Then, we retreated to our luggage at the hotel and made our final set of metro and train journeys back home.
We got home just in time to make our normal early Friday evening social outing in the local pub. There, we started to share our holiday experience with anyone who’d listen. It’s been fun too writing our trip up in these blog pages and re-remembering the holiday so clearly. We are so lucky to be able to enjoy holidays like our trip to the Riviera; nothing went wrong (wildfires, melting rail tracks, late trains, illness, inability to clean my underwear) and pretty much everything went right. It was a great trip.
