The FLoP isn’t messing around!

Montmartre spotted in Philadelphia’s Barnes Foundation! chrisinparis.bsky.social

Pets of the Barnes Foundation Museum in Philadelphia

You’re at Reading Terminal Market and can only get one…which are you having?

Philly, Love Park this week

Discovered there is a cat park in Philly! How did I not know this existed? 😹😹😹

Walking through the Barnes Foundation museum in Philadelphia with its massive collection of art is a wonder to experience especially when everyone else is watching the Eagles game!

Cycled the new Schuylkill Banks trail in Philly - it is extraordinary! Tomorrow I’ll be doing Yardley to New Hope! Let me know if you ever want to join me for a ride!

Artist Isaiah Zagar before one of his South Street murals.

Smedley street Philadelphia

Went for a nice bike ride from Yardley to New Hope. Very nice late summer vibes and so easy to get to on the west Trenton line…

RNA >> RFK

Pretty cool to have been on both sides of the portal in Dublin and Philadelphia!

Some Irish cats

Scenes in Dublin from the first and last lines of Finnegan’s Wake

Dublin, Ireland

Spotted this one off the wharf at Howth, Ireland! He gets my seal of approval!

Dogs of the Irish National Gallery. Clearly the Irish love their dogs!

Cats of the Irish National Gallery

Before going to deep into Dublin I must address Belfast, once the site of extreme terrorist acts by the Irish Republican Army resisting British rule there. There are many remnants of the conflict including these walls that bombs were lobbed over. While the Good Friday agreement

Hello to the people of Philadelphia from Dublin Ireland!

Some window cats of Belfast, Northern Ireland

Scene: Hotel dining room in Belfast. Server: “What would you like for breakfast?” Me: “Whatever. I’ll have the house special!” Returns: (This literally happened and honestly beans on toast is pretty good! 😹)

Discovering what my family is known for in Ireland

Street art of Belfast, Northern Ireland

In Belfast, Northern Ireland.

The most academic-oriented graffiti I’ve ever observed (Shoreditch, London).

I made a second London cat pilgrimage, walking 20,000 steps to see the statue of Bob the street cat, a stray made famous in a international best-selling memoir by James Bowden on how his saving this cat helped him on his recovery from addiction. A bronze statue of him now stands at Islington Green.

My most popular opinion: Museums should ban taking selfies and anyone caught doing so will be asked to leave. It took forever to get this shot of the Rosetta Stone because folks were taking selfies. In front of a rock. An important rock but still just a rock.

Made a pilgrimage in London to see the statue of Samuel Johnson’s cat. Story goes at the end of his life someone commissioned a portrait of him and he asked instead to have a statue of his cat. “I will be remembered through my work but no one will remember Hodge!” Well today we remember Hodge.

Some pets in paintings at the British National Gallery in London.

Not many can say they’ve been to the exact location where a famous painting was created over a hundred years ago. But I was there last week! Seurat Bathers at Asnières, left, Asnièrs last Sunday.

So with that my time in Paris has come to a close. It was an extraordinary summer filled with amazing experiences, and I am fortunate to have friends who made this possible (especially C. and J.). It changed my life forever, and I will always pay this gift forward. Here I am with a few friends.

For those doubters who were like there is no way you swam in the Seine…

I’m pretty sure Mark Twain and I would have been good friends.

Imagine if Philadelphia could make this happen (I know we have bigger problems with septa today but remember precovid we dreamed of a viaduct project?)

Sacré Cœur in the evening, from Anvers. @chrisinparis.sky.social

Doorway cat of Rue des Martyrs, Paris.

Found it on Sunday: Un dimanche après-midi à l'île de la Grande Jatte (Georges Seurat). A location few know of a painting everyone recognizes.

Today I swam in the Seine at Baignade Bercy, in the 12th arrondissement. This is the first time in 110 years that people are allowed to swim in it!

Reading room of the national library of France (BnF Richelieu)

During the French Revolution in order to standardize what a meter is the government posted these on public walls so people could establish whether their measuring sticks were actually meters! This is the last surviving one of 15 originals.

I met an amazing woman from Azerbaijan on the Eiffel Tower and we hung out on the champs de Mars for a bit and after parting ways caught this video of the tower sparkling from Metro 8 over Bir Hakim. What a lovely night! TikTok added the music sorry.

Sunset over the Trocadero, Paris.

I went to the Tour de France! Saw more can caning than gear shifting though.

Un café et une cigarette, Montmartre, Paris (2025)

This was breathtaking. Worth the entrance fee.

Violinist busking at the Louvre

The Viaduct Des Arts is a linear park on an abandoned train line in Paris 12e that was the inspiration for New York’s High Line and Philadelphia’s yet to be realized Viaduct. I filmed the whole length so you can see how extraordinary it is! Cities can have nice things!