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.
Tom V
My sweetie and I visited Paris in December of 2018 and had a little 3rd floor flat a block from the Pantheon and the Sorbonne. It’s a great time to visit, uncrowded and relaxed, and the weather was only slightly colder than San Francisco. This is eight photos out of hundreds. I hope you enjoy.
It’s Paris! You have to have a picture of the Tour Eiffel!
Here is the view from the second level of the Tour. We had been to the top in late afternoon and the weather was cloudy and grey. As we were descending the weather cleared and we jumped out of the elevator at the second level to get this sunset shot.
The Cite de la Musique is on the North side of Paris in the 19th arrondissement. There are several institutions there, including a fabulous museum of historic musical instruments. This is the entrance to the main concert hall.
This is the Pantheon looking up Rue Soufflot. Jacques-Germain Soufflot was the architect, so they named the street after him! Is Paris cool, or what? Out little flat was a block to the left of the Pantheon, the RER station a block behind.
This was an ad at a bus stop on Rue Soufflot. The French seem to hold older women in higher regard than we in the USA.
Waiting for a train at the Gare du Nord. We rode the trains everywhere. Our fellow passengers were glad to help us navigate the system. My sweetie speaks some French, but most people spoke English as well.
This is a snack bar in the Gare du Nord. With the Euro at $1.15 and no sales tax, everything you see here is between $5 and $10. This is representative of the quality of the food in Paris, even in a train station snack bar.
Of course if you want to stop for something nice to take home for dinner, there is a shop on every block, several really, that will have something to tempt you.
Lapassionara
Oh my! What a treat. Thank you.
MissWimsey
Memories. I went in August 2019. My hotel faced the Pantheon. I ate breakfast and a couple of dinners at Le Soufflot Cafe. I loved every single minute of my first visit to Paris. I can’t wait to go back one day.
Dan B
The two egg in jelly / gelee items, the rabbit terrine, and the shrimp in aspic all look perfect for an evening in Seattle in June.* I want to put one on the back of my neck, one under each arm, and a few more in other overheated body regions. I’d probably feel better and smell better.
* And we’ve got AC / heatpumps. There’s heat coming through the ceiling which has a foot of insulation and a big attic fan. 108 degree air doesn’t cool the attic down much.
Elizabelle
All the photos are wonderful, but that first one, at twilight. Wow.
I’ve been to Paris several times. Never visited the Eiffel Tower. That must change.
ETA: And for France, and Germany: I love that you can buy such delicious sandwiches at the train station. And take them and wine (or mineral water and pastries) onto the train, and enjoy them as Europe slides past.
That’s true for the US, too, on Amtrak and regional lines, not on subways, etc. Too infrequent train service. It is such a lovely way to travel.
Elizabelle
@Dan B: My sympathies. Unheard of, for the PNW.
I worry what central Virginia weather might have in store for us. We are in uncharted waters. Climate change is here.
Barbara
They are all lovely, so evocative, but that picture of the Tour is truly exceptional.
frosty
On our London-Normandy-Paris trip in 2014, we stayed in Bayeux, about two blocks from a patisserie. The window looked like yours at the train station, but it was all sweet baked goods. There were four of us, we spent about $50.00 every morning we were there. It was “I’ll take that one …. ooh, look over there! OK, I’ll take one of those too!”
frosty
@Elizabelle:
The last I saw, the mid-Atlantic was going to be one of the better places to be with global warming on the way. More precipitation was going to be the big change, not much in the way of extreme weather.
randy khan
We stayed near the Pantheon once, but didn’t get into it at the time. We’ve been there a couple of times since. It’s really a fascinating place – literally the place where they enshrine French heroes. The first time we were there, they had an exhibit on Madame Curie, who was the first woman there, but who was moved there well after she died, during the Mitterrand presidency. When Trump had his dopey idea of the garden of American heroes, I thought about the Pantheon, which in a broad sense is like it, but really mostly the antithesis because it’s all about dignity and honor.
Kent
I gotta say, winter seems like a much better time to visit Europe than summer in this day and age. I think that is the next big trip my wife and I plan to take once we have the college tuition dealt with.
stinger
Fabulous pictures, both grand (Tour Eiffel) and mundane (advertising poster). I don’t know about standing in the mountains with only a sweater wrapped optimistically over my boobs, but it’s a gorgeous poster and yes, the French have a greater appreciation of older women than in the U.S. Of course, if we all looked like that…..
Comrade Colette
Ha! We visited Paris – from San Francisco! – in early December 2018. I have a photo of that same gorgeous ad with the sweater-clad woman. I wonder if we crossed paths. Thanks for the pix!
susanna
Complete enjoyment, bordering on delight, upon viewing each photo. Thank you. Post more? Can anyone take merely a few photos when in Paris? The subway pic reminded me of the Steve Buscemi segment in the movie, Paris, je t’aime, which was hilarious and utterly Parisian. I’m off to find streaming of said movie.
Diceros bicornis
Such a treat to be able to enjoy Paris through fellow travelers’ eyes. Maybe we’ll be traveling again soon…if there are any Mel Brooks fans among the Paris After Dark Sometime In My Future crowd, this has gotta be worth an evening: Les Producteurs en français!
Saw Spamalot in French. Monty Python translates. I’m betting Mel Brooks does too.