We arrived in Paris in the afternoon on a Thursday, greeted by our new friend Philippe playing the ukulele—a delightful surprise! And oh how I wish we had video. He was extremely kind and generous to give us a ride to our Airbnb and lend us a line on his cell phone plan so we would have service in France.

Berthillon ice cream to finish off a lovely meal with new friends

After lunch, we grabbed a shot with Philippe and Moe, la Seine and Notre-Dame in the background

Notre-Dame is still deep in its restoration work. We walked around it a bit, and there were some other people in the area, but the crowds are nothing like our last visit in 2012. The current plan is to finish the restoration in time for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics.

Notre-Dame de Paris as seen from Square René-Viviani

We closed out the day by scouting for our photo shoot the next morning. We hired the kind of photographer who doesn’t need help with scouting, but it would be nice to have an idea of the layout before we got into it.

Light crowd at the end of the day with the final rays of sunset light hitting the Richelieu Wing of the Louvre Palace

The Louvre Pyramid with the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel in the distance at sunset

Metro station in the minutes before Maggi’s phone was stolen

The photos from our session with a professional photographer deserve their own focused attention, but we arrived early and enjoyed a very quiet Cour Napoléon, almost to ourselves, before our shoot began.

Quite odd to see the Pyramid without anyone around (unless you look closely)

It was cold when we started our photo session, but it warmed up quickly as the sun came out

Denon Wing with a fountain in the foreground (although it could have been an awesome reflection if the water was simply still)

Sunrise over the Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel from the Jardin des Tuileries (with a kite in the sky?)

Long shadows in the Jardin des Tuileries

Angelina, featuring what is probably the best hot chocolate we’ve ever had

Staircase at Angelina, leading to additional seating and restrooms (although nobody was seated up here)

Everyone was kind enough to get out of the way for this pleasantly symmetrical shot with Maggi looking appropriately classy

After Angelina, we made our way to the Louvre Museum without tickets, as we were unable to complete the purchase online (and we didn’t have a printer, anyway). After a bit of running around, we were finally pointed to a line for those without tickets. We made our way very quickly through security and found no line at the kiosks. I am certain we would have waited much longer by doing things the “proper” way. Our first order of business was to find Maggi’s favorite painting: The Wedding Feast at Cana by Paolo Veronese.

Maggi in front of The Wedding Feast at Cana by Paolo Veronese, which is over 32 feet wide and 22 feet tall, and is displayed opposite the Mona Lisa in the Salle des États (the largest room in the museum)

I did not quite match the vibe of my paired subject; Maggi was much closer

Left: Salle Denon (located behind the display of the Mona Lisa)
Right: Cour Lefuel (westernmost interior courtyard in the Denon Wing)

Galerie d’Apollon, home to the majority of the surviving French Crown Jewels

Maggi looking fabulous in front of these wildly detailed doors in the Galerie d’Apollon

This moody doorway at the southern end of the Galerie d’Apollon made for what is possibly my favorite shot of Maggi from the entire trip

As we moved deeper into the museum and deeper into history, we began to wonder if we would find anything along the lines of Darius. Or rather, (King) Darius of Babylon. In my mind, I was expecting to find a statue of him. Maggi was picturing a bust. What we actually stumbled into was a set of rooms (Salles 307–308, Sully Wing) dedicated to artifacts from the palace of Darius I of Persia. Probably not the same guy as Darius the Mede spoken of in Daniel, but some have argued for it. (Read the linked articles for an accounting of all the options.) We’ll take what we can get.

Left: Capital with the foreparts of bulls, from the palace/audience hall (Apadana) of Darius I
Right: Frieze of lions, from the eastern courtyard of the Apadana

Maggi in front of a panel of archers with a trilingual inscription of Darius, from the Apadana

Maggi in front of reconstructions of a stair railing (lower left) and a staircase (lower right), as well as friezes representing winged griffins (above), from the Apadana

We closed out our time at the Louvre in the Richelieu Wing, which was shockingly quiet compared to the rest of the museum.

Architectural detail of Cour Marly in the Richelieu Wing

Four Captives/Four Vanquished Nations from Cour Puget in the Richelieu Wing
Le Brandebourg (left) and La Hollande (right)

After the Louvre, we returned to our apartment for a quick rest and recharge. Then we made our way to the Eiffel Tower, followed by dinner at a place called Le New York.

Delightful doorways abound on Île Saint-Louis

Southern wing of the Hôtel de Ville (city hall) in sunset light

A substantially larger crowd was assembled on the Parc du Champ de Mars compared to my first time seeing the Eiffel Tower from this perspective

Back where it all started for us on 26 October 2011 (what we call Parisian Conversation Day)

We have been told that burgers are a trendy food in France right now

Between new security measures and a whole bunch of tents that were set up for a marathon, the Eiffel Tower wasn’t exactly as I remembered it from a decade ago, but there were still plenty of great views to be had

One of the most bizarre things we saw was the Pont d’Iéna (the bridge crossing la Seine in front of the Eiffel Tower) filled with people along the center of the road to take pictures at the top of the hour when the lights flash. Tourists? “Influencers”? I don’t know, but cars were zipping by regardless. Hard to imagine the shot being worth the hassle of standing there for an hour waiting for the next cycle, dodging traffic in the meantime, but the police didn’t seem to care.

Paris, the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, and More