Fast & Slow

Monday, 15th June, somewhere in the southern French countryside.

I'm writing this from on board a fast(ish) train from Paris to Cahors, where we will start our walk on the day after tomorrow. We're whizzing along at around 130 kph. We've passed bigger towns, pretty little villages - the one a moment ago had a Rapunzel-like castle, open fields with freshly rolled hay bales, little local roads wending their way through the trees, the occasional industrial site and lots of wind turbines (which I like, just to be clear). But that is all by-the-by ...

As part of our transition from Yallingup/Dunsborough to the Via Podiensis, we spent a day and a half wandering the boulevards and rues of Paris, narrow footpaths, cobblestones and all. Tourist stuff really.

Apart from the sheer enjoyment of it all, I discovered two things. Parisians ride their bicycles really fast as they fly along the bike paths which accompany many of the streets in the city centre. And they walk really slow as they promenade along Quai Saint-Michel besides the Seine. Fast/slow - a caricature of life. From Wednesday we'll move fully into the slow lane.

What follows is no more than a very brief glimpse through my visitor's lens. Nothing all that profound; just a little bit of commentary to accompany of few photos.

On the second day of our convoluted journey here we'd gone for over 20 hours with little sleep, and so by the time we arrived at about 8pm local time Janet was zonked, and went straight to bed. Since it doesn't get dark until after 10pm I wandered off to check out the great cathedral in the dying light. Magnifique, of course. The last time we were here she was still shrouded in scaffolding and of course one couldn't visit. Now I was able to gaze in awe at her restored beauty. One photo follows, with a few more a bit later on.

Then the next day a trip to the Arc de Triomphe (and as an aside, how I hope that Donald doesn't actually get around to building his crass ego-inspired gold-topped edifice), followed by a stroll half-way down the Champs-Élysées, then onto the world’s most expensive but quite spectacular shopping mall, the Galeries Lafayette, then the Musée du Louvre and finally onto the Panthéon before heading home for a bit of a rest (this having been a 23,500-step day).

From the roof of Galeries Lafayette

The spectacular Galeries Lafayette dome

“Home” by the way, is a 400-year old boutique hotel, the Hotel de Nestle, probably more accurately described as a guest house, and absolutely full of character. As I’ve mentioned in other posts previously, it’s hard as an Aussie to conceive of a 400 year old building that still functions (other than, of course, the great cathedrals). I doubt that we’ve got too many (any?) buildings half that age. Apparently it had been in the hands of the one owner for the last 50 years, but she passed away in 2024 and her grandson kept it for a while and sold it 6 months ago. It’s got certain modernisation restrictions (for example, they cannot install an internal lift, meaning that if you get a room on the 5^th floor that’s a long way to carry your bag up the very narrow spiral staircase). The property has a 400 square metre garden hidden behind an ancient wall. I don't know whether such a place is unique in a Parisian sense; regardless, it felt that way.

A view inside our 3rd floor room. The Egyptian theme was a little baffling, but check out the roof timbers. 400 years old??

Oh, and speaking of old, a couple of times I wandered past the Restaurant Laperouse, which dates back to 1766. If you can read it, it had a price tag on the menu in the window to match!!

By the way, breakfast both mornings at the nearby La Nesle Brasserie was a real treat, as was dinner last night at Gioia, just down the road.

Which brings us to this morning. The 860 year old Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, usually simply referred to as Notre Dame, needs no introduction. Many will recall watching in horror the disastrous fire of April 2019. It was re-opened in December 2024, not all that long after our last trip to Paris, so this was our first opportunity to visit. I’ll let the pictures tell the story, just a bit. But one fun fact to end – the cathedral hosts 30-35,000 visitors, per … day.

I won't go on with the photos of the cathedral.

I'll close with one of J by the Seine.