We enjoyed some excellent weather in Paris for Bastille Day, and took the opportunity to spend most of the day outside. We had a long walk from our place up to Concorde, then jumped in the Metro and headed out to Monmartre to spend the afternoon there, since I haven’t been there in years. It was absolutely packed with tourists, but no matter — the rest of Paris was closed for the holiday, so this is where the action was.

Sacre Coeur

To say this was a little bit of a tourist trap would be an understatement. Standing room only on the stairs!

Views of Paris from Monmartre

The Eiffel Tower peeks through the trees

A Parisian couple stop to take in the view

A singer in the square behind Sacre Coeur

Aude near Monmartre

A Bastille Day parade with ATVs heads down the street

This takes green transport to a new level

Turns out there isn’t really much to photograph around Geneva. Oh well, here is some evidence that I was there…

Boats on the harbour in downtown Geneva

The Geneva skyline

The Geneva Jet d’Eau fountain

A statue in the park

We went to see the new Richard Avedon exhibition that opened last week at the Jeu de Paume. We waited in line for about half an hour to get in, some of that time in the sprinkling rain, but it was absolutely worth it. It was a really great exhibition with a lot of work on show.

This is the best I could do.

Aude, Richard Avedon style

Turns out I’m no Richard Avedon.

I have been travelling constantly for the last couple of weeks, so haven’t had time to post much on the blog. I am getting to know Switzerland rather better than I would like, having spent half the week in Geneva and half the week in Zurich.

Last weekend Sean was in Paris for a few days, so we took the chance to catch up with him, which was great after such a long time. I never managed to get out to HK when I was based in Singapore. Jerome was in town for the afternoon as well — next thing we knew, we had an impromptu gathering on our hands…

Matthew & Aude chilling on the couch

Matthew at the table

Aude and Calypso have a moment…

Sean relaxes after lunch

Jerome seems to be enjoying himself