It’s been a challenging couple of weeks, as you can imagine. But I wanted to make sure - before we get too far removed from Le Bourget - to share some final sights, sounds and thoughts from the Paris Air Show.

A French colleague of mine observed that assessing the results from Paris is a little like trying to interpret le sourire de la Joconde, the smile of “La Joconde” (the Mona Lisa). That sounds just about right.

Crowds gaze upon La Joconde - the Mona Lisa - in all her glory at the Louvre in Paris during air show week. She is beguiling and yet mysterious as ever. Much like this year’s air show and the state of the industry in general.

The Economist had an interesting take recently on some of the issues around Boeing and Airbus coming out of Le Bourget and beyond if you’re looking for an overall view.

I came into the Paris Air Show expecting that the hot issues would be: today’s economic and market challenges, the future of aviation (CMO), the 787, and the environment. From that perspective, there were really no surprises. And obviously those issues remain.

I did get more questions than I expected around product strategy and what will be Boeing’s next new airplane - and when. We heard a lot of questions in particular about the 777. That sounds like a good topic for a future blog.

But for now, and speaking of the 777, I wanted to show you a little more of the Air France 777 Freighter which was on display at Le Bourget.

The Air France 777 Freighter was clearly a “hit” at the show. We got a look inside the cargo area, as well as the flight deck, and the pretty cool cargo door video display console.

Also at Paris we had the usual “orders race” focus again. Although somewhat muted, orders were touted, and tallies added up. As always, some of the supposedly large orders attributed to the competition were not firm orders at all.

As we’ve pointed out many times before in many venues, Boeing doesn’t attend air shows in order to enter into some sort of competition. Our customers announce orders with us when they are booked. This activity takes place all throughout the year, and is disclosed weekly on Boeing’s Web site.

Anyway, before we push on into what is guaranteed to be a dynamic summer ahead, I want to leave you with a photo gallery of sorts from Paris.

Paris is lovely, by day or by night.

Striking imagery confronts you at every turn at Le Bourget.

The competition on display: A350 cutaway model (top), and Sukhoi Superjet in flight.

Traffic jam: I couldn’t resist this photo of the daily “rush hour” along chalet row at the end of the show each afternoon.

Finally, something a little different for Randy’s Journal. A couple of video “tours” we put together on the ground at the air show. The first is an overall look at the variety of activities Boeing engaged in during the week. The second, taped as things wound down, includes a walk through the exhibit halls at the Paris Air Show.

Click above to view a video tour of Boeing activities at the show.

Click above to view my video visit to the Le Bourget exhibit halls.

Taping those videos at the show was interesting, for sure. But I think I’ll hold on to my day job.