We landed in Paris at almost noon Paris time. We immediately hit the ground running. We dropped off our bag at our place that Lily booked for us and then went to see the Paris Opera house.
The audio-tours helped occupy the little ones.
Charles Garnier was the architect and planner of the Opera house. It was built from 1861-1875 at the behest of Napoleon III who we learned a lot about on this trip. Like Napoleon Boneparte he’s a mixed bag. He did a lot of good and a lot of bad. I’m especially allergic to how he turned France from a democracy back to a monarchy by declaring himself emperor after he was democratically elected so he could stay in power for a very long time.
According to the original book about the phantom of the opera, he resided in booth 5. Here is his booth!
They now have his name on it!
For some reason, the below video would not embed, but it is a video of the actual theater hall where the performances happen.
https://youtube.com/shorts/U3GLuFy6KFo
I later saw the hall of mirrors at Versailles and I’m perhaps even more amazed by this room at the Opera house! I have multiple emotions. So incredible and magnificent, yet so pompous and over the top, when so many people were poor at that time. It’s a bit nutty.
Despite all the gold (which color Clarissa loves as she has recently declared it her favorite color), Clarissa really struggled in the opera house. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so instead of describing her behavior more, I think this picture basically sums it up.
She did like the dresses though!
After the opera house, which the grown-ups and older kids loved, we did something more on Ammon and Clarissa’s level and went to a Carousel. It was honestly a really cheap, lower quality carousel in my opinion, but that didn’t seem to dampen the experience at all from Ammon and Clarissa. I’m pretty sure it was their favorite thing of the day (maybe even of all the days in Paris). Kids really do have a gift of deeply appreciating even the simplest of pleasures.
We then went to Sacré-Coeur. It was incredible!!
One of my favorite memories from my last trip to Europe was the view from the Eiffel Tower. I knew we weren’t doing the Eiffel Tower view this trip, so when we got to this church and I learned that you could climb a whole lot of steps to get an amazing view of Paris, I was really excited.
The views were incredible! Paris is beautiful from all angles. We’ve really fallen in love with all the Baron Haussmann architecture (he was commissioned by Napoleon III to completely remake the architecture in Paris) and it was also fun to see it from a bird’s eye view.
Later we went to dinner. Paris so alive with its cafes everywhere. It seems that everywhere you look, there are people outside eating and socializing and enjoying life. Paris has an incredible vibe.
