France 2024
May 14-22, 2024

From May 13th to May 22th, we traveled to France for a long overdue romantic vacation. Our destinations were Paris and Nice.

I was in Paris back in 2003 and had always planned on coming back, hopefully with a significant other. There were places that I didn't have a chance to see and others that I wanted to see again, especially with someone special. Alexandra had never been to Paris and we had thought about going for our honeymoon, but we wanted to go somewhere neither of us had been, so when we got married I promised that we would go to Paris for our tenth anniversary. Unfortunately by time our tenth anniversary came around, so had Covid. While Covid had started to wane a bit, it hadn't enough that we felt safe and our daughter still made it difficult for us leaving even on short trips, let alone a longer trip to another continent. Therefore we postponed a bit.

It's really amazing how technology has changed since the last time I traveled to Europe or Paris. When I was last in Paris over twenty years ago I owned a basic cell phone that could only make phone calls and a Palm Pilot which was only good for schedules and notes, neither of which I brought with me because they wouldn't have been very useful. The phone only worked in the US and if it did work in Europe it would have cost a fortune to use. Instead I had a fold out map, a note card with the museums I wanted to visit jotted down along with their hours and grid location on the map, a language guide, and a 35mm SLR camera with multiple lens and multiple rolls of film in a back pack camera bag. While I was traveling I had no way of contacting anyone, let alone share my adventure as I was experiencing it. If I got lost I had to figure out where I was on the map and figure out how to get where I wanted to go.

Ten years later when I was last in Europe I had upgraded to a smartphone, but since the phone wasn't compatible with European cell service, I only used it when I could connect to WiFi. Using GPS on that phone was clunky as it had to work offline and required me to download all the maps and program waypoints ahead of time. There was no way to search for destinations unless I knew the GPS coordinates and it didn't provide navigation, only distance and direction. The camera on the phone was not very good quality, especially in low light, therefore I used a compact digital camera, which took good enough photos that I didn't need to lug an SLR.

Now another ten years later, I basically just need my phone. The camera on the phone has multiple lenses and is so good that photos often look better than ones taken with my SLR, GPS and mapping work so well that I no longer need paper maps, the battery lasts all day and charges very quickly and I have a small backup battery just in case it needs a boost, and with world wide compatibility and cheap eSIMs that provide inexpensive data plans we're always connected.

To view a larger version of the photos on the following pages click on the thumbnail image. There's no need to close the pop-up window each time as the window will automatically resize when you select a different photo. You will also find map icons throughout the travelogue. If you click on one of these icons an interactive map showing you the exact location will display. If you'd like to view the map on a separate page on Google Maps, simply click the Google logo on the map. If you'd prefer to view all the locations we visited using Google Earth, you can download the kmz file. This file can also be used in many map apps and you can use it as a starting point for planning your own trip. Please keep in mind that while the information in this file was accurate in 2024, some things may have changed since then.