I have already posted my trip news on this forum but wanted to add this to see if anyone else traveling lately had these observations…..hubby and I are 69 and 70……well traveled international travelers and love the sound of the plane taking off for an adventure……very active physically……and this last trip to the Dordogne and the Loire Valley and Paris was WONDERFUL. I think I had read where the pickpockets seem to have been affected by Covid…….we just did not see any! There were the usual ladies with clipboards at Notre Dame but there were tents being assembled on the square in front of ND taking up most of the square now and pushing any bystanders out of the way……we make a practice since this was our 4th time in Paris to never use the Metro unless absolutely necessary (a second ride to Versailles) as we like to be above ground and see where we are going and what we are walking by on the street. That way if we buy a pastry we are walking it off! We usually average about 6 miles a day…and get to see a lot! Maybe we are just getting better at this….anyone else notice this as well?? We do try to avoid huge touristy areas if we can but they seemed a lot less chaotic this trip……we saw a couple of guys doing the shell game at Montmartre and a lot of people watching but its easy to bypass them and move on. I wear a RS money belt and my Eagle Creek passport holder around my neck and feel very safe. I kept thinking about the summer Olympics and Paris in 2024 and how crazy that will be…..especially since it will be in the vacation months of France……July, August…hmmmmmm. It seemed to me that there was more English being spoken and the French and Parisians were a lot more patient than before…..any thoughts? I will add that there is a lady that has incredible old prints on the Left Bank in her green box on the Seine…..she is the first or second box as you cross the Seine at Notre Dame’s front going to the Left Bank…..her prints are organized by clips and are lovely……she is very very very grumpy…..have bought a beautiful old Mont St Michel print from her as we never saw an artist rendering one……35 euros……and this trip I tried to buy a Dordogne print from her….she snaps off at you very rudely when you ask her anything……Why is she there? We finally gave up and bought an old print from a wonderful man further down the Seine toward the Orsay…..her loss!!
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Gulf Coast, usa
1191 posts
We noticed the same thing about the scammers on our trip late April. The only one's we saw were from the shell game guy near the Tower. We did notice more homeless tents popping up this trip. We too thought about how absolutely crazy it will become Olympics time. The streets and cafes were packed when we were there, supposedly still off-season, so can only imagine what it will be like in 2024. That is definitely not a time we would be interested in visiting Paris. We bought a Navigo pass this trip and used the heck out of it. We became quite good at using the busses and TER. We did use the metro, but actually preferred the buses, which became very crowded on certain routes. Know exactly what you mean about getting better each time.