Paris in the Summer (by Will)

 After Niort we took the train to Paris, and spend two nights at an urban campground. The cycling infrastructure in Paris was fantastic, including a long cycle lane right next to the Seine. We managed to see the Mona Lisa and walk to the top of the Eiffel Tower in one day. Will’s post captures our Paris experience. 

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At the "Camping de Paris" construction site, the power tools start 9am on the dot; the heavy machinery at 8:30. The other banging and clattering starts at whichever point before eight that I can no longer ignore. (There is also a night shift of Italian nine-year olds that knocks off from the agonies and ecstasies of football some time after 11pm "Nooooo!!!!!"). 

Behind the wheel of the fork lift, a True French worker negotiates his load armed with a bag-o-bagettes strategically behind him, tearing off a chunk as I watch. 

My knees throb a little from climbing the ironwork lattice of the Eiffel Tower. My resilience is still battered from the tourist-heat.  My memory, though, soars from the world that laid below me, standing on solid Victorian vision. So high up, above the City of Light. 

15 June, 2023

…par Le Papa Magnifique