Night Out In Paris

After a frustrating day of dealing with crowds, we took a nap at our hotel then ventured out to do some more sightseeing since Paul was able to get away from work for a change (he’s normally tied up from four pm till midnight Paris time).  We decided to find some dinner and then walk around till sunset so we could see the “city of lights” lit up – seeing the area by our hotel at night just doesn’t do it justice!

We started by walking down Rue du Faubourg Saint Denis again (the area is less than desirable but the food was pretty good and cheap), but we couldn’t find a restaurant that appealed to us so we kept going south towards the Louvre.  I started to get mad at Paul for being so picky about what he didn’t want to eat because we had less and less choice as we got closer to the Louvre, and we ended up by the east end of the Louvre, with only two restaurant to choose from – Greek food or sandwiches. 

Since I’m not a fan of sandwiches, we tried the Greek restaurant.  My dish of grilled lamb, chicken, and beef was OK, but Paul decided to try something different and order veal with pasta, which was not good at all.  We left dinner feeling frustrated with our inability to decide on somewhere to eat sooner, but we quickly forgot that we were mad when we go to the pyramid entrance of the Louvre.  By now it had gotten dark, and the pyramid entrance is quite spectacular when it is lit up at night.  I’ve read that there’s controversy over this pyramid because some people feel it looks out of place in front of the classical architecture of the Louvre, but I think it goes well with the classical architecture and enhances the look of the whole area dramatically at night. 

We decided to walk from here all the way to the Arc de Triomphe so we could see the Place dela Concorde, the Obélisque de Luxor, the Grand Palais and Petit Palais, and the Avenue des Champs-Élysées at night.  At first I wanted to do this walk during the day (sometime this weekend) again so we could see everything in the daylight as well, but when we realized how far of a walk it is, we decided once was enough 

This route is a popular walk for tourists because you can’t see all of these sights if you travel by metro, but it should be noted that it’s over 3km long!  Although we love how the buildings in Paris look at night, this walk is probably better during the day because you can stop to shop or eat along the way (some restaurants were open, but everything else was closed).  Interestingly enough, the Renault dealership on Avenue des Champs-Élysées is open till midnight, and we popped in to have a look (it was one of the nicest dealerships I’ve seen, and I’ve worked quite a few dealerships!). 

After watching traffic dart around the Arc de Triomphe (which is pretty crazy, even at midnight on Friday), we walked over to the Eiffel Tower, bringing our total walking distance to over 9 km!  We had read that there’s a “light show” every hour (in our minds we were thinking big rays of different coloured light), but all we saw was the Eiffel Tower “glitter” with blue-white sparkling lights every 15 minutes or so.  Still, seeing the Eiffel Tower at night was probably our favourite sight so far and it is a memory I will treasure, as corny and touristy as that sounds. 

Since we had done so much walking, we rewarded ourselves with a cotton candy (see picture) and a chocolate waffle from a stand across the street from the Eiffel Tower.  We went back to the bottom of the Tower to sit and eat, and when I had gotten about ¾ of the way through my cotton candy, a couple of humorous middle-aged Spanish men came walking by and started reaching for it.  I smiled and made a gesture to offer them some and they laughed and said “oh thank you!  You’re so generous!” and tookmost of the remaining cotton candy.  Their wives apologized profusely and pushed them to walk on, and I laughed and said it was fine – truth be told I was getting sick of cotton candy – that thing was massive!

We panicked when we got to the nearest RER station and it was closed, but we found a Metro station nearby that was still open and made it back to our hotel with no problems.  Tonight was probably the greatest night out we’ve had so far, and I am definitely in love with Paris!  Some people say that it is overrated, but tonight I feel like I’ve dreamed of coming here all my life for a reason – Paris really is one of the greatest cities in the world to me!