Tres Joli Paris

- May 15, 2020

One of the benefits of travelling in winter is late sunrises.

On our Paris trip in January Samantha and I discovered the Trocadero was the perfect place to witness the beauty of the Eiffel Tower against a sunrise backdrop.

Of course I had to pose for several photos for the blog.

Another benefit of travelling during winter is fewer crowds.

A little context for the next photo. When Samantha and I finished the Disney College Program and went travelling around the US in 2015, she had two pairs of Mickey Ears that wouldn't fit in her luggage. We both decided to wear them, and ended up getting a whole stash of extra free snacks from a flight attendant. Then we started wearing our ears in front of famous landmarks and posing for photos. So here we were in Paris, asking a stranger to take a photo of us in our Mickey Ears in front of another icon.

It also happened to be exactly four years after we left the Disney College Program.

We left the Trocadero after our photo shoot and eating some baked goods we'd bought on our way to the spectacular sunrise.

You might recall me saying this trip wasn't exactly well planned. Once again we got lucky with free entry. The Arc de Triomphe offers free admission on the first Sunday of every month from November to March.

The Arc de Triomphe is beautifully detailed landmark.

We climbed an insane amount of stairs to reach the top.

The view was worth the climb.

Some people prefer to climb the Eiffel Tower, but at the top of the Arc de Triomphe you get the Eiffel Tower thrown into the view.

This of course calls for more selfies.

Back down the bottom of the stairs we saw the Tomb of an Unknown Soldier.

We then continued our self-guided tour of the city.

We passed the stunning Hotel de Ville, constructed in the sixteenth century.

Our next stop was the Notre Dame Cathedral.

It was blocked off to the public, as it is still being restored following a devastating fire.

Samantha and I did a little more research on the fly to discover the home of famed alchemist, Nicolas Flamel was nearby. Yes, the same dude that is mentioned in the Harry Potter series.

The house was built by Flamel in 1407 and remains the oldest stone house in Paris.

We really needed to use the bathroom, so thought Westfield would be a good bet.

We descended the escalator, walked for a while, tried following signs and almost gave up until we found our way back to the escalator to discover the bathroom was directly underneath it.

Our exploring had left us a little exhausted, so we decided to take a nap back at the hotel.

After our naps we hit up Cafe Belloy for dinner.

I had French onion soup and a shake.

The previous night Samantha and I had seen an advertisement for a production of the ballet, Swan Lake, when we walked past the Theatre des Champs-Elysees right near our hotel. We decided to buy tickets for the following night, which was also the final night of the production.

The theatre was still decorated for the festive season.

Our cheap tickets left us with a restricted view of the stage. We were basically in the second row of box seats with a view of only half the stage.

Then a couple of tall French guys walked into their more expensive seats in front of us and we were left with a view of about ten percent of the stage. The guys then generously turned around and offered to swap seats with us.