On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Often times a particular photo jumps out at me, and I know instantly that that’s the photo to use for the featured image. When I looked at this post when it was originally submitted, I had a really hard time deciding between the last three photos.
When I looked at the post again just now so I could write the introduction, I noticed that lashonharangue had mentioned the final photo was one of his favorite photos from Paris. I thought “I’d better make that one the featured image.” So I went to change it, and found that this was the one I had originally chosen. ~WaterGirl
lashonharangue
I was very fortunate to spend the fall of 2019 in Paris with my spouse. It was a bucket list trip. We deliberately chose that time of year to avoid the worst of the crowds. The first part of the trip the weather was cool and clear. It got colder and wetter as it got later in the year.
My photos could fill up the whole Paris week so it was hard to choose. I never got tired of walking along and across the Seine. Here are a few pictures from these wanderings taken with a cell phone – Pont Neuf and Pont Notre-Dame.
Pont Neuf (which means New Bridge) is the oldest bridge across the Seine.
I loved how all the heads were unique.
Below the bridge is a park at the tip of the Ile de la Cite called the Square du Vert-Galant.
Walking down to the park I saw this iron fence. One of the things I loved about Paris was all the little details that were added to functional things to make them beautiful.
More faces when going down to the park.
Just a quiet spot with the leaves turning. I was more enchanted with all the little parks than the big ones.
We took a ride on one of these tourist boats. While it was fun I enjoyed wandering around the river more.
Pont Notre-Dame in early morning light. One of my favorite photos from Paris.
arrieve
The light in that last picture really is wonderful. I am so enjoying our vicarious trips to Paris.
BigJimSlade
@arrieve: Agreed!
Wag
I love the architectural detail shots. Some of my favorite shots are tight details.
Wag
@BigJimSlade: Me, too!
Baud
You have a good eye.
Mike in NC
Our favorite cruise line is Viking. We get a catalog from them almost every other day. Sadly, now we just toss them in the trash.
ljt
I, too, love the architectural details and the smaller parks. I’m mesmerized by the reflections on the water in the last image–just beautiful! Thank you for sharing.
Mike in Oly
Beautiful shots. Thanks for sharing them.
rikyrah
More Paris????
Auntie Anne
That last shot is just breathtaking. I ❤️ all these pictures!
Omnes Omnibus
Paris is a great city to just wander through. The French even have a word for someone who spends time that way: flâneur. That’s what I want to be when I grow up.
Regine Touchon
The last picture is stunning. Reminds me of pictures I took when in Florence in a bar on the Arno at sunset. Rick Steves recommended the bar. Three of us had Negronis for the first time. A wonderful memory.
Yutsano
@Regine Touchon:
Do those pictures still exist by chance? And if they’re physical, could you get them scanned? Would be wonderful to have you as an On The Road Vestal Virgin!
J R in WV
Fabulous set, thanks for sharing your experience!
Hope we can get back to Paris and rural France someday soon…
Pete Downunder
If you go west along the river a couple of miles from the Louvre there is a smaller version of the the Statue of Liberty on a small island in the river. If you go a bit farther west you can take a great photo looking East of the statue with the Tour Eiffel in the background.
Another great park is parc Buttes-Chaumont. If we can ever travel again Paris will be my first stop.
Yutsano
Way OT: has anyone else noticed that the Recent comments haven’t been recent?
opiejeanne
Wonderful pictures. Your eye is indeed very good.
I don’t want the Paris photos to end, and not just because I sent 8 of them in last night. I’m fascinated by the things other people photographed; so many wonderful photos have been posted.
M. Bouffant
All very nice, & brings back the memories. In 1969 & ’70 teen-aged me lived just three blocks from the Pont Neuf. Wasn’t as landscaped or grown over, but that willowy tree at the very tip was there. I spent a lot of time hanging out on the quais of the Square (The park isn’t free.) which at the time was where many of what passed for hippies in Paris, & young travelers from all over the world, ‘though mostly European & North American, congregated.
Plenty of drinking (Algerian wine that cost 60¢ a litre & came in a plastic bottle was popular) smoking & socializing. Met many interesting people. Thanks for the memory jog.
cain
If it wasn’t for this pandemic I would be making a number of trips to our office in France. A number a trips to Europe actually. But the fun part of my job is no longer available thanks to being grounded by the pandemic. :( :(
I was going to take my gf to Paris for her 45th birthday as well.. it would have been amazing. Oh well.
Lyrebird
@cain: Here’s hoping you can go on that trip for her 46th!
46 , a number I think I am gonna like more and more once we finally show 45 the door.
Paris is amazing, and these photos are doubly amazing.
ETA: I think Lashon Harangue is one of the cleverest nyms
Another Scott
@Yutsano: Yes, there are caching issues on the Recent Comments, especially if you’re looking at the list from older posts.
The way to force a refresh (and a current list of Recent Comments), is to click the refresh button (“to make the tabs appear”) just above the comment box. That refreshes everything.
(Relaying WaterGirl’s instructions.)
HTH!
Cheers,
Scott.
donatellonerd
gorgeous … first and last are my favorites. i like the little parks and the big ones.
Omnes Omnibus
La Blogotheque, a French online magazine, has been publishing music videos filmed live in Paris for a while. Great music and often great scenery. Leon Bridges. Phoenix. Lee Fields.
Why, yes, I am a bit of a Francophile. Why do you ask?
Alison Rose
Thank you for this. I have a total adoration for Paris, but I’ve never been and will never get to go, so seeing other people’s beautiful pics and videos from there is always pleasant.
hitchhiker
How perfectly beautiful. I talked my oldest daughter into spending a week in Paris with me a couple of years ago, because I wanted to go there, and because she speaks French, and because I wanted her to have that memory, and because she’s great to travel with.
Your detail photos reminded me of the afternoon I spent at Versailles with her, taking photo after photo of the legs of chairs and tables in the rooms they let you walk through where the courtiers once hung out. Every one of them is carved, sometimes with faces, sometimes with animals or birds or reptiles.
And then you go outside, and the lawns, ponds, and tree-lined lanes go on forever.
suezboo
@M. Bouffant: HI !
There go two miscreants
Very late to comment on this one, but it is really nice to see the variety of pictures that are showing up in this series of posts. The last one here is excellent! I am seeing places that I didn’t get around to visiting (or from viewpoints that I missed), which is great.
way2blue
Your last photo looks like a painting from a Dutch Master. Lovely.
My daughter spent a university year in France, and my husband & I went over to help her pack up at the end. Our first trip to Europe since our honeymoon. We stayed in a youth hostel in Paris, across the river from the Norte Dame, as hotels were so expensive. Along with touring British teachers & students. Bunk beds, bathroom across the hall, midnight curfew. Overlooked a cobblestone alley with a Moroccan café just outside and a shop next door where nuns sold various handmade goods. Great memories.
Thanks.
M. Bouffant
@suezboo: Hey! Holding up?