We've been to the City of Lights dozens of times. My spouse grew up there. Never in all that time have I ever seen the city so empty. We visited at the end of August into the first week of September and it was devoid of people.
Let's start with a some lesser traversed spots in Paris. We strolled through the Marais to the Place des Vosges on a Tuesday morning. Usually this place is teeming with people, kids playing at any time of the day. On this day I counted only 6 people.
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| Place des Vosges - mid morning |
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| Hotel de Sully - mid morning |
After the end of summer holidays in France, typically August 31, people return to the city but even then there are always tourists from other countries. It was rare that we heard anything besides French spoken and maybe the occasional English. On September 2 we strolled from our apartment near Gare de Lyon across the canal St Martin and then to the Isle St. Louis to Notre Dame.
This was about noon and it was barren. A few people wandering down the side street next to Notre Dame looking at the progress of the restoration and viewing the outdoor exhibits but never have I seen the square in front of the cathedral completely empty.
At the time we left you had to be vaccinated to even get on the plane but we are so we went. The French government had also recently required a "Pass Sanitaire" for you to do just about anything except grocery shop and go to church. We applied before we left but never got our passes. We were able to get 3 day temporary passes after a negative Covid test at just about any pharmacy and those allowed us to eat out and visit the Hotel de la Marine. As we were heading home they announced France was considering a restriction to only essential travel again.
Ultimately we are glad we went to see my spouse's 94 year old mother, who is just fine and had no problem keeping up with our 10-12,000 steps every day!
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| Place de la Concorde |
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| Jardin Luxembourg |
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| Palais Royale |
