There are so many wonderful quotes about Paris. It is a city I love dearly and feel privileged to know well. I will just stick to this quote:

Rather spur of the moment we decide to drive to Paris this Sunday and have lunch with friends. It was a beautiful summery day, hot even! Paris was looking beautiful and busy. The tourists have returned, except for the Chinese and the Russians!

We took a metro to a very traditional restaurant which was so popular we queued up.

The prices were very reasonable and their unique touch is they write the bill on the paper tablecloth as they go and present to you at the end!

We walked back past Invalides, then past the kids primary school and our former apartment! Lots of memories ❤️

There is a new trend in Paris of decorating the outsides of cafes with large floral arrangements. We saw many in the space of our short walk.

It wouldn’t be a visit to Paris without at least one picture of la grande dame!

Driving back to Normandie on the freeway (doing the speed limit of 130) I was listening to the radio which had a show talking about the upcoming trial of the accused in the 2016 Nice attacks. It reminded me of other difficult times we lived through, pre-Covid, first the Charlie Hebdo attacks which caused a huge outpouring of support of freedom of speech. Then there were the 13 November Paris attacks at the Bataclan and elsewhere that really shook us all and caused a lot of introspection. The Nice attack occurred on the evening of the national celebration, 14 July, when a truck drove down the famous Boulevard des Anglais in Nice, killing 86 people. This horrific event in 2016 was 5 days before the first of two centenary commemorations that we had organised where thousands of French and Australians would be gathered together. This caused a lot of concern but the French authorities were amazing in their dedication to ensure it could go ahead safely. Thinking about this reminded me that there are different challenges at various times that can influence the course of history. I will be interested to see what lessons have been drawn from this event six years ago for French society and the challenges of radicalisation.