> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://there-are-no-secrets.ghost.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Bon jour! - URL: https://there-are-no-secrets.ghost.io/bon-jour/ - Published: 2026-09-20T07:07:24.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-20T07:07:24.000Z - Author: David Bass We arrived in Paris yesterday, after a walk to Utrecht Centraal, a train to Schiphol Amsterdam Airport, a walk to our gate, a flight to Aéroport de Paris-Charles de Gaulle, a walk to one of several train stations there, a train into the city, a walk to the wrong side of the Metro station, a longer walk to the other side (courtesy of a helpful local), a Metro-ride of seven stops, some confusion about where to exit the station, help from another local, and a final six minute walk to our hotel in the northwest part of the city (17th Arrondisement, if you know these things). When they describe your lodging as "cozy," you should understand that means "not very many square feet of space." Our room is cozy on steroids--it makes the Microtel back home look like the Four Seasons! Bonnie said the shower felt like being in a submarine. For one of us to move around the bed, the other has to be on it. But it's Paris. Today was gorgeous, with plenty of sunshine and a high temperature in the mid-70s. We walked to Palais Garnier, an opera house completed in 1875\. I should call this "the extraordinarily opulent Palais Garnier," but everything in Paris is extraordinarily opulent. We walked from there to the Louvre, France's national art museum. Bonnie explained that a number of visitors to the Louvre buy tickets in advance, go inside and make a bee line to the Mona Lisa, then leave without touring any of the other exhibits. Not us! Oh no, we didn't do the Louvre like that. We bought no tickets at all, and simply ogled the palace that houses the museum (built from the late 12th to the 13th century) and its surroundings from the outside. We walked from there to Musée d'Orsay, Paris' more modern (and more visitor friendly) art museum on the left bank of the Seine River in a former railway station. Again, we remained outside. We descended a flight of steps to the riverfront, which attracts many joggers and makes for a pleasant walk. You may recall the controversy there during the 2024 Summer Olympics, when a $1.5 billion wastewater cleanup project failed to eliminate "fecal bacteria," causing considerable misery for long-distance swimmers and tri-athletes. Then we walked to Jardin du Luxembourg, where we found the sexy statue pictured above. This massive garden began in 1612 and features lawns, tree-lined promenades, tennis courts, flowerbeds, model sailboats on its octagonal Grand Bassin, and the picturesque Medici Fountain. We wandered the grounds for quite awhile before heading to... Notre-Dame Cathedral. The line to get in snaked all over the place, so we hovered outside for a bit. Built from 1163 to 1270, it is one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture and truly a sight to behold. (Personally, I'm conflicted by the amount of money invested by organized religions in their facilities, which could otherwise go towards helping people in need. Yes, the facilities are fabulous, especially Notre-Dame, but is that the highest and best use of donors' dollars? I'll probably get in trouble for writing that, but it's how I feel and now you know. While it's likely in the trillions, no one really knows the aggregate value of real estate holdings of all religions worldwide.) Along the way, we had an outdoor lunch at a nice sidewalk cafe and stopped for afternoon Cokes at another sidewalk cafe. Later, we celebrated 40 years of marriage at yet another sidewalk cafe, capped off with creme brûlée, to complete our busy Parisian day. By the numbers: 57 acres at Jardin du Luxembourg 1,979 seats in the Palais Garnier opera house 23,620 steps today 3,0000+ works on display at the Louvre at any given time 3,200,000 visitors to Musée d'Orsay in 2022, making it the sixth most visited art museum in the world that year. (Why Wikipedia doesn't have more current data is beyond me.) $900,000,000+ raised from donors worldwide for the renovation of Notre-Dame following the devastating 2019 fire