Au revoir, Paris

The gilets jaunes protests were still tying up Paris yesterday as my taxi made its way across the city to Charles De Gaulle airport. It wasn’t clear to me that they were still marching, but the gendarmes had blocked off a number of streets in the 7^th arrondissement, and traffic was even worse than whatever passes for normal.

We went around the Arc de Triomphe; I didn’t get a shot—taxi moving too fast by that point—but I could see that, while Sunday’s power washing had got the worst of the graffiti off, there were still the shadows of the slogans up.

I did get a few pix of other graffiti, enough to make me think that the power washing business is about to experience quite the surge.

Well, I’d factored in some wiggle room for the airport run, so I wasn’t worried about missing the flight. And indeed, I had enough time to relax for a bit before being selected by Air France for a “random security screening”, so I had to haul out everything remotely electronic from my person and my carry-on bag—for the second time. (First time in regular security screening.) I was pulling mobile, cameras, lenses, laptop, pedometer—it was like one of those clown cars at the circus. But I passed. Woo-hoo.

Other than that, and the deep joy of Washington Dulles airport’s Mickey Mouse system for international arrivals, it was a pleasant enough flight. And I confess that I was deeply happy to get home, take a shower in my own bathroom and pull clothes out of my own dresser and not a suitcase.

I’ll still have things to report from my travels, but for now I’ll just leave you with these shots of a Northern Virginia sunset.