December 17, 2023 – January 21, 2024

These may seem like an unusual combination of destinations, but there’s a good explanation.

Although Heather comes back to Canada almost every year, it has been far too long since we visited her in Europe. The last time we were there, she was living in Geneva, had not yet finished her PhD, and was not married. Since then, we’ve attended—via Zoom—both her wedding in Zurich and her PhD defense in Geneva, and we still had never met her German parents-in-law. COVID travel restrictions slowed everything down, so we had some catching up to do.

We definitely wanted to spend Christmas with Heather and Hannes at their home in Zurich. Because of our family connection with WestJet—and the fact that WestJet currently only flies to Paris, London, and Barcelona—we decided on a routing that made the most sense: fly to Paris, take the train to Zurich for Christmas, join Heather and Hannes on their holiday in the Canary Islands, and then return home via London. Barcelona will have to wait for another trip. However, midway through the journey I was asked to visit a client in Dakar, Senegal, so the plan evolved: Sarah returned home from London, and I continued on to Dakar.

We’ve been to Paris several times, but the last visit was over 20 years ago during the RTW trip with the kids. Central Paris looks much the same; only the fashions and the cars have changed. One thing that stood out was how many more bicycles are on the roads and bike paths now. I also don’t remember noticing just how many small shops line every street and every building. Of course they were always there—boulangeries, pâtisseries, cafés, restaurants, and specialty shops that could only survive in a city like Paris—but this time they felt impossible to miss. Just down from our hotel was a clarinet repair shop, filled with instruments in various states of repair. We even saw an Ikea that couldn’t have been more than 20′ x 20′ (6 m x 6 m), serving only as a mail-order pickup and return point. In the evenings, the streets and restaurants were packed with locals.

Notre-Dame is still undergoing major reconstruction after the 2018 fire. They hope to reopen it to visitors in December 2024, though I suspect exterior work will continue for some time after that.

And, of course, Paris is gearing up to host the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Still in draft—more text and photos to come…