Tags: Champs d'elysees Christmas Market Eiffel Tower Flight Attendant Flight Attendants Wife France Lights Louvre Luxembourg Garden Paris Paris France Passport Life Travel Life Tulieres Garden Vacation Life

We had been to Paris twice before going in December 2015.  As you are probably aware Friday, November 13th, 2015 was when the Paris attacks happened.  Now, I have to say I love Paris it’s one of my favorite places to visit.  Shortly after the incident, we decided that we were going to head to Paris to help by giving our money to the economy.  We knew with a tragedy like this that tourism would drop.  According to news a year later they are still seeing the effects of this tragedy.  We arrived in Paris on December 12th almost a month after the incident and right before Christmas.  We were only there for a day so as soon as we landed we went to the hotel and hit the ground running.  First stop, Luxemburg Garden.  It was a very dreary day in Paris weather wise.  It definitely looked like winter time. We carried our umbrella and strolled the city.  We don’t normally take public transportation, we like to walk around the places we are visiting. 

We then headed over to Notre Dame to see if the locks bridge had been removed.  We heard that it had been but it was there and crowded with people and the bridge was full of locks.  

We then started walking around.  I’m not sure where we went first but these are the things we saw.  There was a funeral for the ice.  I believe that is what they said it was.  There were bouquets of flowers with vibrant colors for sale in the stores, record stores, yes record, crowded with people and streets lined with buildings that have large windows with views of the streets below. I love walking in these streets looking up to into the windows to see how the apartments are decorated and how high the ceilings are.  

We went past the Louvre to Tuileries Garden and walked through there headed towards the Christmas Market. 

The Christmas Market was full of people, in seeing this we both smiled because it meant things were getting back to normal in Paris.

The Eiffel Tower area was jammed packed with people.  They were having a demonstration regarding climate change.  Several of the streets were blocked off and there were a lot of police officers in riot gear near the Tower.  We didn’t see any issues when we were there. 

We then stopped for something to drink and eat after leaving the Eiffel Tower and headed back up the Champ Élysées past the Christmas Market and back to the hotel.  

The following morning we headed to the airport to head home.  When we got there we were printing our boarding passes when they evacuated the terminal because they found an unattended bag.  We had to wait outside of the airport for about 30 minutes before they let us back inside to head to our plane.  Thankfully, we were pretty sure our crew was outside also, as they don’t normally arrive as early as we did.  This didn’t frighten us at all but put into perspective how laid back people have become.  Some people at the airport were still in the terminal though they tried to evacuate it and others were complaining about needed to get back inside to catch their flights.  

It saddens me that such a beautiful city is still feeling the effects of a tragedy that happened over a year ago.  I’m glad we were able to fly in and enjoy the city after the attacks and spend some money there.

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