My “flights climbed” count went from an average of 17/day to 81/day while on vacation. Yes, climbing the Eiffel Tower bumped up the average, but there’s a lot of stairs climbing in regular everyday city navigation.

We squeezed in an extra day in Lyon over the weekend, which was lovely, as Lyon is a lovely walkable city and our hotel — the Pilo in Croix-Rousse — was in a lovely walkable neighbourhood.

On Sunday afternoon we jetted north on an Italian Frecciarossa train to Paris at 300 km/h, door to door in just over 2 hours.

Sunday evening was a quick supper at the wonderfully chaotic playground that is Ground Control—bars, restaurants, video arcade, bookstore, thrift shop, all to a pulsing backbeat—followed by a walk up the Eiffel Tower at sunset (it was a lot easier to walk up when Olivia and I did it 14 years ago).

Amidst all the epic to and fro, the things I’ll remember the most are those like breakfast with Lisa and L this morning in our tiny apartment, eating muesli with yoghurt and clementine slices and making up combination words (like birdbowl, a new game involving specially trained pigeons, and footcase, an iPhone case with toes).

Our trip comes to an end tomorrow: we fly home via Montréal. This trip has been delightful; being on the road has been a much-delayed, much-needed break.

I left L&L to adventure on my own this afternoon, heading to Bois de Vincennes by bus, and then grabbing a Vélib’ to cycle through the park. The Vélib’ system was very easy to use: I downloaded the app to my iPhone, signed up for a 1 day subscription for €3, entered my ID and PIN on the keypad of an electric bicycle, and I was off. I covered a lot of ground—almost 10 km—and it felt like I had the entire forest to myself most of the time. I love cycling so much: it feels like flying, especially when riding electric-assisted. The weather was perfect for a ride today. I’m so glad I took the time.

Out for a morning walk in Lyon with L&L. Warm. Sunny. Found a market. Had coffee.

La Basilique Notre Dame de Fourvière and La Tour métallique de Fourvière in Lyon, through a passageway that runs through the corner of a building.

Sometimes EV charging exigencies call for drastic measures. To McDonald’s France credit, every single piece of packaging on our tray was compostable or reusable, including the French fry container.

“I hope it’s ok that I checked with Myriam to see if we could go horseback riding in the morning,” said Lisa, as I came into the tiny house. Which is how we found ourselves on horseback yesterday, wending our way through mountain forests and meadows. I was atop Tina, a horse prone to breaking into a trot to catch up to Océane, our host. This was equal parts thrilling and terrifying (especially as I was riding English for the first time).

Having a partner who’s willing and eager to bilaterally yes& with me like this makes travel a delight.

Ok, so we’re not in the Alps per se, but rather in the Vercors Massif, a French Alps-adjacent range that is, nonetheless, spectacular. Yesterday we drove along roads labelled route vertigineuse to Grotte de Choranche. As we’d gone into a grotte—network of caves—earlier in the day, we skipped the tour; the view from the parking lot, however, was awe-inspiring. And the drive, especially when it started to rain, was, indeed, vertiginous.

Currently posted up in the Alps in a tiny home (it’s part of the Homnest network). We let the wind blow us where it might, and it blew us here.