|01-NOV-2015|  Headed out to the train station at about 8:15am this morning. It was a beautiful sunny morning and the streets of Paris were very quiet.  We grabbed croissants from a small patisserie en route and ate as we trekked to the train station. Now you wouldn’t think a train station is something you’d want to make difficult to find, but the signage was obscure and we ended up at section “3” of the station which was deserted.  The ticket office was closed and the kiosks only take chipped credit cards with PIN (we have chips, but no PINs).  The information desk directed us to section “1” and we back-tracked (this time through the station) to the main terminal section and ticketing which fronts to a street over a block away.

Back in Paris we decided to check out a mosque in the Latin Quarter that was supposed to be impressive. The hike from the train station was considerable; the mosque not so impressive. Moving along, we crossed the river to Ils St Louis to Berthillon, a famous ice cream maker. There was a line, but not too bad and before long we had waffle cones of the best ice cream we’ve ever had.

Insanely far from our hotel, again, we headed back along the river to the eastern part of the city… with EVERYONE else in Paris. It was nuts.  A few breaks in the crowds but the vendors that line the promenade were mostly open today and that jammed up the foot traffic. The sunny, 65-degree day did the rest of the work to snarl pedestrians and vehicles alike.

Out to dinner (Lebanese), then a stroll on the Champs Elysees … which was packed. 7pm on a Sunday night – who would have thought. We were looking for the Virgin Megastore, which is unfortunately closed – as in closed-closed. 🙁

Pictures and details below.

I brought the infrared camera on this trip specifically for creepy cathedral pics. It really does better with more contrast in the sky, but I’m not complaining!

Here’s infrared versus iPhone 6 – same spot.

Happy Birthday, Mom! We celebrated with ice cream: I had pistachio and Jeff had tiramisu and vanilla.

I know you said, “have something chocolate”, but I figured you’d approve of ice cream.  🙂

The view of Notre Dame from the bridge to Ils St Louis.  You can’t tell from this picture, but it was crawling with people like little ants in brightly colored clothes.

I’d just been wondering if we’d cross paths with the famous “Love Lock” bridge, and then not 10 minutes later we walked past the Pont de Arts on our 2nd epic walk across Paris to our hotel.  The pedestrian bridge spans 509 feet across the Seine. Early this summer the city removed several sections of the bridge’s fencing that were crumbling under the weight of the locks. There are supposedly more than one million locks on the bridge, weighing in at over 45 tons!

Dinner at Al-Ajami near our hotel.  Excellent food – the only place we’ve been with anything remotely middle eastern that didn’t come with a side of heavily armed French police – which included armed and armored riot police at a protest about Syria, soldiers in full body armor with machine guns in the train station and on the street, and plenty of other assorted heavily armed cops.

Finally, an infrared shot of one of the last flowers in the garden behind Chartres Cathedral.