Late last year, my wife began carefully, meticulously planning a week-long trip to Paris for the whole family. She did so, as she noted to the other eight of us, because she meant to celebrate in style her upcoming “significant” birthday. She wisely decided on late September: the weather would be cooler and the crowds smaller. So, flights and hotel reservations were made, and restaurants and tours were booked.
And then it was announced that, during our dates, Leo XIV would be in Paris; Fashion Week Paris would get underway; and Celine Dion would begin her “residency” at the Plenitude Arena. All that meant a plenitude of people in Paris. Oh, well . . .
Still, the only real difficulty this caused us was on a private boat ride up the Seine. It was a glorious Friday afternoon, and the Eiffel Tower was as dramatic as you can imagine against the bright blue sky. But just as we were about to reach Notre-Dame and the Île de la Cité, a police boat appeared and demanded we turn the boat around. (Nothing dramatic, mind you – just a signal our “captain” understood.) The pope would soon be at the cathedral.
Indeed,
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