Everyone says Paris is a small city. But just how small is it?
Also, what does the city look like right now, fresh out of lockdown?
There’s only one way to find out, and that’s to walk from the eastern edge of the city to the western edge, all in one go.
And there’s only one person I can do it with, too, and that’s YouTube megastar Jay Swanson.
So here’s the plan: On Friday at 6pm Paris time, I’ll meet Jay at the eastern peripherique. We will press “Go Live” on this exact video below. Click it now, press “set a reminder”.
We will then walk all the way to the Notre Dame cathedral while filming everything we see. It’s like slow travel. Make a coffee and explore with us.
We have predicted that it will take 90 minutes to get to the middle. We’ll check out how the Notre Dame rebuild is going, then switch to Jay’s YouTube channel for part two (the next 90 minutes).
His video will be right here, and will see us heading to the western edge of town:
Lockdown has recently ended in Paris and we’re both very keen to document this historic time for the city. Don’t worry, we’ll be sure to keep a good distance from people and Jay and I have promised that all contact with each other – even high fives – has been banned.
We have estimated that the walk will take three hours in total, 2.5 if we were to do it without stopping, but we tend to investigate interesting things so 3hrs seemed more reasonable. The route may change, but it should look a lot like this.
Yes, right by the river, the Marais, and the Eiffel Tower at sunset.
Hope to see you on Friday. And in case you didn’t click the YouTube video, here’s an easy way to find out what time 6pm in Paris is for you.
Oh yes, and if you want to warm up, why not join the 10,000 people who watched Jay and I cross Paris from south to north in November?
Good luck, Jay. I’ve been training my whole life for this.