Speed-Dating a City

When you only have ONE day to see your favourite girl, il faut voir toutes les choses!

31 August, 2026

Possibly the only selfie you'll see this trip!

What a day!

Slept well (well, for me) - woke at 6am. Had a leisurely start to the day; love the included breakfast at this hotel. Shout-out to Hôtel Malte! - we stayed here back in January and I loved it so much that I booked it again for this visit. There is a sense of home-comfort that I've never experienced in any other hotel in my whole life.

I left the building with a Plan! A bunch of things that I wanted to see, that are off the touristic beaten track. Made a map. Did not follow the map!

When you get away from the major tourist attractions, and wander the streets of Paris, a bunch of things become apparent.

The Haussmann arcitecture is really only in the city centre. As you venture further and further away, you get high rise, you get modern, you get all sorts.

Shopping seems to be in clearly delineated clumps. Yesterday in the taxi, we traversed a street, the entirety of which was given over to wedding clobber. Shop after shop after shop, all the same stuff, why do they bother? Most of it was masculine attire, too! - almost more than the feminine! Today I saw clots of: funerary; home renovation; oh look, here's the lingerie district; there were more and I am sorry I can't remember them now (Note to self: make Notes in phone for later blogging).

A lot of the pics I took today are not the run-of-the-mill touristy stuff. They are the everyday Parisian stuff, stuff that I found amusing. The entire goal of this trip is to NOT be a tourist - to be a resident, even just a very temporary one.

Also! The weather! Weather in Paris is like weather in Melbourne. Don't like it? - wait five minutes. We had three seasons out of four today! (excluding snow, which I forgive because we had that in January). I left the hotel in a long coat. Ended up carrying it most of the day because too hot. Had to put it on again, just because of the WIND, omg the wind!!! Then later in the afternoon, it rained! Yay for coat! Parisians and tourists alike freaking out at the rain (it wasn't even ap roper downpour: I happily put my coat back on and went out in it on purpose! - and then it stopped! Ripped off)

Please give a shout-out for the last pic, which is my KM walked today. I deserve a freaking medal. 

This was my original plan for today, made this morning. I went far, far further afield than this!

It's a shame spelling isn't their passion .... or, for that matter, Ecological Responsibility ...

Mermaid door handles!

This looked exciting ... and it was!

Obligatory touristic shot, ONLY because my walk took me past it.
For anyone who hasn't been here, this is a heck of a walk from the main centre of things to see. You need to be Committed. Or, you know, maybe take the Metro.

This is a fun piece of statuary. You have to walk for AGES away from the main touristic stuff. Past the Eiffel Tower. Round the corner on the Seine. Then you get to a place where there is this funny long, LONG, skinny island in the middle of the Seine, called the Île des Cygnes (Swan Island). It starts at this end, where this scuplture is. It's 850m long. It's a lovely tree-lined walk (see next two pics). You get to the other end, and there's the Statue of Liberty! Worth the very long detour.

Stairs down from the bridge that crosses the Seine, to the start of the île.

Love the trees!

La Liberté, but make her a French girl.

Had to take this, just because of the font ! (Disney) Those people propped up on the left side of the café did a sort of Mexican wave at me (too late for the pic). They are used to people losing their tiny minds over the font  They were nice!

A couple of photos, especially for Ferdi 😜

These pretty, pretty public gardens, everywhere

These guys. Tried so hard to be language-inclusive, failed the dismount
(read carefully third panel along) 😂

This! This is the thing that my ridiculous enormous walk was mostly in aid of! It was a sort of roundabout in a street. Made of concrete, Ugly af. They have planted it out with HUNDREDS of plants (see next two pics) and it's the most beautiful thing now!

480 trees, more than 27,000 smaller bushes, shrubs, plants, etc, have been planted to create an environment that should provide refuge to small forest animals.

St Sulpice

Could not go in - evidently some bigass funeral, security everywhere and no entry.

In the window of some hotel. Original historical hand-written literature.
I wish I'd taken better notes of who it was!

Obligatory Selfie!! 

Specially for Sam! 

See part Two! - apparently there's a limit to how long you can make these posts!