Le tour, and other things …

Paris, 19-21 July, 2026

OK, the last contemporaneous blog. I'll probably post a reflective one of some sorts over coming times, particularly of the walk, but as tomorrow we start our long haul home there'll be nothing of particular import to write about. So this is it in this series.

Le tour is said to be the most visited ticketed monument in, wait for it, the world. Not just Paris. Now I'm going to be happy to take Mr G's word for it. Might be true, might not (I would have thought that the Taj would have given it a run for its money). I think that the hint is in the word "ticketed".

Anyway, that piece of trivia aside, all the same some 7 million people formally visit each year; that is, they buy a ticket. We didn't this time - rather quite happy to look at her from along our various wanderings (and wander we did; some 18.4 klms according to Strava, bigger than some of our planned walk days on the Via). So here's a few views:

From our hotel room

During yesterday afternoon's walk, with pigeon

Later that afternoon

At night, again from hotel

With the Ecole Militaire in front

I won't go on; I could be accused of <<choose your own description>>.

So as to not exclude some of the other things, most of which we simply stumbled upon, here's a couple more snaps, starting with yesterday and ending with tomorrow.

Ecole Militaire (stumbled)

Cathédrale Saint-Louis-des-Invalides, and Napoleon's tomb (stumbled)

Quai D'Orsay (stumbled)

Luxembourg Gardens and Palace (stumbled)

Note the young female gendarmes patrolling the vicinity, carrying very serious armoury, Luxembourg Palace being the home of the French Senat

Panthéon (planned)

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/7ecab3_0c4748508d5a41fdabb9eb2e4e78ff54/file

Église Saint-Sulpice (stumbled)

Apparently the largest church in Paris (don't quote me).

UNESCO (I think) (stumbled)

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/7ecab3_d13c36a869114b88b1f48c4200abfce8/file

Place de la Bastille (planned), tomorrow

Our last activity, in the morning before we head to the airport. One of France's most historic places, the site of the old Bastille, stormed by the commoners on 14th July 1789.