This is for Sunday, October 19, 2025.

Ash and I left around 7:20am to take the van back to the airport rental center. No problems dropping it off and we took the train and subway back for a round trip of about 2 hours and 15 minutes.

Ash, Sherry, and Vasco got breakfast ready. Shaye joined and we made our way out about 11am.

Today was our walking day. Nothing actually scheduled. The point was to get a general sense of Paris by seeing some famous landmarks while experiencing a few different neighborhoods – with coffee and snacks along the way. We made our way to Saint Germain, which runs south of the Seine through the Latin Quarter.

Jon didn’t join us until later. It was fun listening to this group’s reactions to everything. Just being here is exciting because it’s such a beautiful city, and seeing it through a newcomer’s eyes is one of the things we have been looking forward to the most.

About 12:15 we made our first stop at Les Deux Magots. The reference is to figurines of wise men, in case you were thinking bugs.

Sherry and I both got these pots of hot chocolate. It was thick when you poured it out.

Add the whipped cream and it was heavenly. It was essentially a melted chocolate bar. I declared it the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had.

Another hour into our continued walk, Shaye made her way into a café to use the restroom. 

Vasco and Mark made their way across the street to take a photo of this fountain, pictured below.

We took a left over to Rue de Grenelle for a different look and took that all the way to our first big destination.

We spent a fair amount of time here and Zeus had a good time in the grass. Sherry was in line for a restroom for most of it, which is why she’s not in these but we made sure she got her photos as well.

Afterwards, we took an Uber to the next big stop. 

Sacre Coure or the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, is a church on a hill in a very different part of the city. It was a 25 minute Uber ride. But it’s a special place in a great neighborhood with amazing views and we wanted everyone to experience this.

Dinner wasn’t until 6:30 PM, so about 5:15 we stopped for another coffee and restroom break.

Dinner was at Les Rupins on Rue Magenta. This is ranked 262 out of over 19,000 restaurants on TripAdvisor. This is Ash’s third time here on this trip.

It was a terrific meal and everyone enjoyed tasting everybody else’s food.

Ash and Jon took the subway back since Uber drivers don’t care to pick up Zeus and they have their passes. We will get ours today. We took Uber. We said goodbye to Shaye and Vasco who go back to Madrid and Amsterdam today.

We had a little debrief about the day and planning for the next but everyone pretty much went straight to bed otherwise.

Today is the Louvre – assuming it’s open after getting robbed yesterday! – and the Arc de Triomphe.