I’ve finished processing my photos and I’ll finally be able to share with you our trip to Boston. I will obviously show you a lot of pictures, but I will also give you some addresses of the places we visited, restaurants etc. Of course it will not be a precise guide because we made a trip that looks like us, a bit free style actually. I had made a list of “things to see” as we say, but nothing timed and well defined. We didn’t really write down any names of restaurants, but we did it by feel, depending on where we were at lunch time.

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We arrived on Friday around 12:30, after 8 hours of flight… We couldn’t visit anything because of the fatigue, so we dropped our bags at the hotel and went around the neighborhood to find the shops, the subway, etc.

On Saturday we had planned a visit to the cool city, without schedules or constraints, the time to recover from jetlag and travel.

We started with breakfast right next to where we were going to start our tour at Ziggy’s coffee bar.

I tried an “English breakfast” for the first time in my life, but my eyes were a little bigger than my stomach and I had a little trouble digesting the potatoes.

The great thing about Boston is that you don’t even need to make a battle plan of tours. To make sure you’ve done the basics of the city and seen just about every landmark, just follow the line called the Freedom Trail. It is marked by red bricks on the ground and you just have to let yourself go and open your eyes to have a nice visit. We took the whole day to follow the line, including lunch and time to shoot everything, but you can go faster. Actually, the further we went, the less tourists there were. It’s a long walk, after all. By the way, I might as well warn you: if you visit Boston, make sure you have good shoes because you will be walking a lot. We did about 10 to 11 km per day (I have an app on my phone). Before we start the walk, let’s give credit where credit is due: all the pictures in this article are from the same place. Before starting the walk, let’s give credit where credit is due: all the pictures in this article were taken by Mr. and processed by me. In the other articles they will be mine.

We started our visit in the Boston Common, a large park that was right next to our hotel. It was created in 1634 and is the oldest park in the United States.

Of course, we stopped to stuff the squirrels with Petits-beurre.

The first monument we came across was the Massachusetts State House. It is a very imposing building completed in 1798 and occupies 27 000 m2 of land. The dome was first built in wood, then covered with copper and finally with gold. You can visit this building if you wish.

All along our walk, we opened our eyes wide and appreciated the typical brick architecture of the city. It was my dream to visit this city, so I might as well tell you that when Mr. told me “I have a conference in Boston in October, I’ll take you with me” I jumped for joy. <3

We then visited the Granary Burying Ground, the third oldest cemetery in the city where the graves of Benjamin Franklin’s parents and other famous Boston people are located. A gentleman was handing out a small folder to visit. You had to give it back to him at the exit, with a small tip, which we gladly did because it was very useful to have some information. If you wish, you can also do more folkloric tours with a guide in costume and declaimed texts.

I loved this cemetery with trees and grass, nothing to do with the sad cemeteries that exist in France. The tombstones are very simple and are divided into three or four different styles which gives a certain harmony despite the different eras.

We said hello to our friend Paul Revere. Only true Pawn Stars fans know what I’m talking about…

We continued our walk with our noses in the air.

This was probably the only day that it was cold and grey. We were truly spoiled by the weather, so much so that we regretted putting on our coats some days! Apparently it was exceptional weather and we appreciated the chance.

The next monument is the Old City Hall.

In front of the monument was a bronze donkey, The Democratic Donkey. It is a reference to the insult (Jackass) launched by the opponents of Andrew Jackson (first Democratic president) in 1828 when he ran for president. He turned this attack to his advantage by using the donkey in his campaign posters.

Just in front of the donkey is the symbol of the Republican Party, the elephant.

This little donkey is a big hit with the kids who all line up to ride it.

On our way we came across a very sad monument referring to the great Irish famine. In the 1840s, a large number of Irish people fled their country where there was a famine. As a plaque next to the monument explains, they were very poorly received by the people of Boston with “Let them stay home” and other nice phrases that are reminiscent of things we still hear today.

I never thought I would say this, but I loved the American trucks. I thought they were beautiful with their chrome and elaborate aesthetics. Nothing to do with our vans.

We went through the Faneuil Hall area a bit quickly, but it was not a big deal because we had planned to come back there to do some shopping. On the picture below is the Old State House, the oldest public building in Boston.

We stopped for lunch in Little Italy. It was a crazy neighborhood, we felt like we were in a mob movie with old people sitting on chairs in back alleys… anyway, I was home, haha.

We had lunch at Locale, Locale, a random restaurant and I really recommend it. The pizzas were delicious and the decor very nice. The plus being that there was almost no one there unlike other crowded restaurants.

We then walked through a garden where there was a statue of our friend Paul Revere.

In the garden of Old North Church were installed workshops and animations on the occasion of Halloween.

Built in 1723, it is the oldest surviving church in Boston. The interior is all white and the space is divided into small boxes for different families.

After climbing a long street, we arrived at another cemetery, the Copp’s Hill Burying Ground, which was very similar to the first one we saw.

Next door, at 44 Hull Street, is the Skinny House, the narrowest house in Boston. There are two legends about this house. The first tells the story of two brothers who inherited a piece of land. While one was serving in the army, the other took the opportunity to build a large house, leaving a very small space, so small that he thought his brother could not build anything on it. In revenge, the brother returned from the war and built a very small house to block the view and the light. The other legend tells of a neighborhood quarrel that ended the same way.

On the tombstones we have sometimes seen coins placed either in a pile or in a row. Perhaps a custom to help the deceased to pay his passage to the afterlife.

We then headed back to the Charleston Bridge. We passed a very nice old fire station and a beautiful fire truck.

Curiously, we saw very little Halloween decoration in the city.

We then saw the Bunker Hill Monument. It commemorates the battle of the same name which took place on June 17, 1775 during the Revolutionary War. The British won the battle but lost a lot of soldiers.

We were lucky enough to see a shooting demonstration that started just as we reached the top of the hill.

We then headed back to the USS USS Constitution, , a three-masted wooden frigate launched at sea in 1797. Named by President George Washington, she is the oldest wooden warship still afloat in the world.

The miss was impatient to visit it and we were not made to wait. The visit is free.

We then visited a ship in a completely different style, USS Cassin Young. Free visit as well.

It was very interesting to see places where sailors really sailed because nothing has been modified. Besides, you have to be careful with children during the visit because some passages are more difficult or there can be steps and obstacles.

Finally, we enjoyed the view of Boston before heading back to the hotel.

It was a busy day, the longest of our stay in Boston and we were pretty tired by the end of the day. We bought some sushi, a sandwich and went back to the hotel before collapsing around 9pm.

I hope you enjoyed this walk and that it made you want to visit the city. The next articles will be much shorter because the days were cooler.

See you soon!