We left our AirBnB this morning to go to the AmaLyra and drop off our luggage. It was far too early for cabins to be ready, so we had a choice: sit in the lounge for a few hours or go out and continue exploring. It wasn’t a difficult choice.

We still had one Rick Steves walk to do – Rue Cler, which is a short (two blocks) shopping street that he says is typical for an upscale Parisian neighborhood, with lots of fresh food and activity. We took the Metro and discovered that it was already Shen Yun season in Paris.

The two blocks that Rick Steves put on his tour have been pedestrianized (though we did have to dodge a few delivery vehicles and taxis), making for a pleasant walk. We stopped and enjoyed the sights, sounds, and smells at several stores, including a wonderful greengrocer (whose prices were noticeably higher than the greengrocer near our AirBnB on Rue Saint-Honore in the 1st), a great chocolate shop (they got some of our money!), and a branch of Mariage Freres tea shops (they got our money, too). We didn’t go into the seafood restaurant which used to be a horsemeat butcher, but we did have lunch at Café du Marché and quite enjoyed it.

We still had plenty of time to kill before the official embarkation time, so we decided to walk to the Eiffel Tower.

We still had plenty of time, so we walked the rest of the way back to the ship, passing by the Olympic Breaking venue and the Japanese Cultural Center on our way. Oh, and we got a view of the other side of the tower.

We got to the ship a few minutes after official embarkation started and were greeted warmly by the crew.

We unpacked, met new friends, listened to the briefings (and were grateful that we didn’t have to do a lifejacket drill), and finally were released to have dinner. We sailed upstream (east) for a short while, giving me one last chance for a picture of the tower and the Statue of Liberty, before turning downstream for our overnight sail to our first stop in Les Andelys for a tour of Château Galliard.

We went to bed last night before any polls had closed in the US, but when we awoke it was all over but the final counting. We had breakfast at L’Express Bar, which, sadly, had TVs tuned to the news (in French, but they were showing video from Mar-a-Lago). The food was good, but my appetite was lacking.

We went back to the apartment; it took a while to get up the energy to go out, but eventually we did so we could finish the Rick Steves Historic Paris walk we’d started yesterday. We picked up the walk at Place Dauphin, which was commissioned by King Henri IV and named for his son, the Dauphin (which means “dolphin”).

We crossed the street to look at Square du Vert-Galant at the tip of Ile de la Cité.

The walk was supposed to end on Pont Neuf, but we’d crossed that bridge several times and wanted to go somewhere else. Diane had seen a recommendation for Maison de Victor Hugo, so walked there. As usual, we stopped for photos and made some detours, including lunch at L’As du Fallafel in the Marais.

As we left the restaurant, I was accosted and asked if I was Jewish – I said “yes”, and soon found myself being “helped” to don tefillin for the first time in many years!

I was a little surprised not to be offered the tefillin so I could keep performing the mitzvah on my own, but it’s just as well.

We continued on our way to Place des Vosges and the museum. The area was plastered with posters like the one below (both English and French versions). I waited until I was back in the apartment and could use a QR reader to safely examine the code – it’s a link to a Parisian “pixel artist”‘s Instagram page!

We finally reached the Place des Vosges, which we’d seen on some Paris Walks in the past; the museum was in the far corner. As advertised, it’s Victor Hugo’s apartment, filled with artwork relating to his works as well as items he’d owned.

On our way back to the apartment, I was taken aback by a huge church and decided we should go in and see if it was as magnificent on the inside as it was on the outside. It was.

Later, we went out for a pre-dinner stroll through the Louvre and the Tuleries.

One of France’s oldest private detectives is just down the street from our apartment; Atlas Obscura had the details.

The street we’re on has many, many restaurants – La Renommée certainly has the most interesting façade (and impressive prices to go with it). We chose to return to Rarita for comfort food (Italian).

Tomorrow, we start the next-to-last phase of our trip; I’m going to miss this neighborhood (and all of Paris).