Our Moveable Feats

October 1 – 6, 2024

Barcelona, Paris

We met some interesting others on our walking tour, including a French couple who were eerie doppelgängers, with the same children scheme, similar jobs and sensibilities in all aspects of life. A rambunctious Swiss Miss, some Californians, an intense infirmière, a bouldering Spanish couple, and a few others. There’s a transience to these encounters; a mutual understanding that we’ll never meet again, except on the trail…

So we were excited to see our long-time friends from home, who had just completed a sailing odyssey in the Med. Their guidance was most welcome in Barcelona, which is disorienting, ornate and vivid. We set down in the Eixample neighbourhood: its octagonal intersections allow elaborate facades, part art-show, part fun-house.

With just a couple of days, we hit the hi-lights, which means all Gaudi, all the time. Park Güell, some florid facades and the absurdly staggering Sagrada Familia.

The crowds were bothersome around these sights, but the Sagrada Familia is so vast, varied and mind-boggling that we didn’t notice. It may even be finished in our lifetime! Just wow.

Train or plane to Paris? We debated that briefly until we looked at the prices… ah, Europe, its transportation game is at a higher level. Of course, the discount fare doesn’t even include carry-on luggage and our flight was delayed several hours, so, in the end, we made the same time but at least got to enjoy a toddler yelping and our seat-mate repeatedly spitting half-chewed apple into the barf bag!

So, after visiting one cosmopolitan city for the first time, we were relieved to settle into another which is très familière.

Rue Montorgueil is our street of memories and was teeming with all of fashionable humanity. We dined inside and gaped at the neighbouring table’s raclette fondue, oozing under a wedged heater.

Our soles and souls are still keen on big walks. After the required Seine-side amble and a cuisine store, we looped through some lesser-known arrondissements off to the east, discovering some refreshing modern architecture, bridges and the Parc de Bercy.

We were the most unrushed patrons dining in the Gare de Lyon. From there, we found a viaduct with a skyline walk. As we approached our home base, via the Bastille and Marais, the crowds thickened to the point of discomfort – people seem to like this city 😉

There’s just enough diversion, on each and every boulevard, to distract us from the reality of our home stretch.