Stefano and I hadn’t made any concrete plans to go on holiday this summer, a holiday that Stefano REALLY needed, actually, much more than I did. So when a couple of our closest friends asked us if we might be interested in joining them on a tour of (mainly) Normandy plus a small area of Brittany, we said “yes!” without any hesitation. Traveling with friends and sharing costs = an ideal situation. So off we went, from the second week in August until just a few days ago.

Stefano and I left for France a couple of days before our friends did, in order to visit Paris where we hadn’t been in more than a decade.

Ahhhhh, Paris. Splendid, beautiful as always.

But we did notice some changes.
There were police vans and heavily armed policemen a bit everywhere–at the Louvre, Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, in front of most of the bridges, etc. It was a constant reminder of the horrifying terrorist attacks (November 2015, etc.).

Speaking of which…our first night in Paris we chose to eat in a restaurant on the Seine river bank…We were inside the restaurant, but practically on the sidewalk via an open set of French doors.

Just as we were about to dig into our main course, we heard a loud noise of screeching tires.
We looked up and saw a police car come to a halt just a few meters from our table. No, I’m not kidding.

Two policemen carrying assault rifles jumped out and raced over to a car that was stopped in front of them…again, very close to our table. We could see them clearly, speaking with the driver. A third policeman also got out of the car at one point in order to inspect the trunk.

Anyway, nothing happened…but this was another reminder of what the city has been through.

The next couple of posts will be devoted to our adventures in Normandy and Brittany…But now it’s late, and I have to go feed the kitties! Ciao! 🙂