2025 Paris France Ballet
(7/6/2025 - 7/12/2025)
2025 Paris France Ballet(7/6/2025 - 7/12/2025)
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On Sunday, 7/6/2025 Brian and Katherine flew to Paris, France for a few days to attend a performance of Sleeping Beauty at the Opéra Bastille. Katherine, Brian, and Ari see a ballet once in a while together, such as the 2015 San Francisco Ballet, and the 2016 Bolshoi in Moscow, Russia. Click on any picture below for the GIGANTIC original highest quality version.
Ok, on to the pictures... REMEMBER: Click on any picture below for the GIGANTIC original highest quality version.
Below is how all of Katherine and my adventures start, sitting in an airport.
Our flights were from Austin to IAD (Washington Dulles), and the first hop United substituted in "United Express". What that means is there is no oven for catering on the flight, everything is served cold. Then in "first class" they attempt to make it fancy. I personally think they should always serve simple things that travel (such as cheese plate or hummus plate), the food below was pretty bad.
Breakfast as we land in CDG (Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris).
Katherine sitting across the aisle from me. There were at least 3 different "seat layouts" in United First class (Polaris). I need to remember to check "Seat Guru" carefully, as the lay flat beds in Polaris don't quite work for my height 6 foot and 3 inches. It is very close, so if some of the seats were just 1 or 2 inches longer it would be worth it for me.
United flight landing outside of Paris, France.
Welcome to Paris!
We stayed at SO/Paris Hotel. Below we are checking in. It really is a very nice hotel, with a great location (a few blocks walk to the Notre Dame, and nice river views from the rooms.
The picture below documents the layout before we made it all messy. LOL. The sitting area over to the right is comfortable, the tripod and binoculars came with the room.
Same room, just a different angle. The door to the room and bathroom are over on the left of this photo. We found those wooden "wall treatments" (?) to be SUPER convenient for hanging clothing anywhere temporarily. Like nice dresses to attend the ballet later.
The view out of our room (1308) you can see the Eiffel Tower in the upper right of the picture below. The Notre Dame is just off camera to the right. That is the Seine River.
The shower has my favorite system which is a single adjustable height bar for the showerhead. The electric display is pretty interesting. Also, this shower also produces "steam" from the floor to make it kind of a sauna.
The hotel welcomed us with a cookie that was so sweet it made my teeth hurt, LOL. And a nice note.
Okay, technically our room is "1308", but the hotel wanted to make it fancy I guess so our room has a "name" instead of a number. The name of our room in "So Phare". The amusing problem is all forms and signing for food charged to your room requires a 4 digit room number. So it's kind of silly.
The elevators in SO/Paris hotel were really high tech. To call an elevator to go to your room, you use your room key. The elevator tells you which is "your elevator" and is pre-programmed to take you to the correct floor. I actually like that and I believe it helps optimize better (less waiting), since the elevator knows where all the people are going BEFORE you even get on the elevator.
The elevator had this huge screen showing different graphics. It was fun.
Katherine and I have a list off things we buy after we land anywhere. For example, the toilet paper is always bad in hotels, so we buy a little bit better quality. Also Katherine needed a few things so I went out exploring and found the "Pharmacie" below which I could purchase supplies.
The next day Thomas and Ari arrived and we had dinner at ??
The monument below is located where the famous "Bastille Prison" was. It is also directly across where we will see the ballet in a few days at "Opéra Bastille".
The kids went to sleep and Katherine and I wanted to check out our rooftop hotel bar. The bathroom area for the bar is crazy. In the picture below was the first "stall" I chose, but it had no toilet paper so I took this picture and left. It was kind of neat when I flush the toilet you can see that long tall column of water flush into the toilet.
The next stall I chose had a bunch of toilet paper AND ALSO it's own private sink. However, there was no soap to use with the private sink.
Finally, outside of the little "stalls" with toilets is a co-ed area for washing your hands which has soap! And paper to dry. And it's hard to tell but a pretty amazing view to wash your hands. That is a glass wall on the 15th floor of this building facing the Notre Dame and Eiffel tower.
A ordered an alcohol drink called "breakfast" or something. It has cheerios on it. Haha!
The next morning Katherine slept in and Ari and Thomas met me for breakfast in the hotel. Below is a spread of food, and you can also order items off the menu.
Thomas and Ari facing the breakfast buffet.
I thought this was cute. The honey is a slab of honeycomb dripping into that little pan.
Thomas noticed something neat about breakfast. They put mirrors on the outside deck's overhang ceiling so everybody can see the boats floating by in the river Seine from any seat in the restaurant!
Katherine sleeping in.
Later I ordered room service for Katherine around lunch time. It actually comes from the same restaurant called "Bonnie" inside the hotel.
The view from our hotel window in the afternoon.
Katherine arranged a little boat tour of the Seine river. Below we are in the boat about to depart.
The boat we chartered is a 1948 Chris Craft. The website to book a cruise is here: https://www.parinautes-cruise.com/index.php?page=fleet_le_coq_d_eau
Katherine on board waiting to depart.
Below Thomas is taking a photo of the Eiffel tower.
There is a replica statue of Liberty here on a little island called "Île aux Cygnes" (island of the swans), facing the USA Statue of Liberty. Also the Eiffel tower.
A close-up of the replica statue of Liberty here on a little island called "Île aux Cygnes" (island of the swans), facing the USA Statue of Liberty.
I think Katherine told me to take the photo below. It's a very modern looking cruise ship in the foreground called "Viking Kari". Also, behind it is a modern looking interesting building.
All done! They dropped us off here, and I wanted to show kind of the "scene" of people hanging out by the River Seine.
Bye bye our boat!
Later that night I took the photo below at about 1am, in a cafe in Paris. You can't tell but it's a week night and the whole area is alive with people running about and laughing and sitting and talking. I don't know where they get the energy!
Katherine wanted to drop by a store named Valextra to buy an Italian hand bag in Paris. That is an expensive wicker handbag! It is 4,250 Euro which is about $5,000 USD.
The inside of the store just so I could remember the brand.
Katherine and I then continued shopping by buying a Jaeger-LeCoultre watch that has two faces with separate times on them. The watch store was near this "Colonne Vendôme". The statue was erected by Napoleon Buonaparte!
And... finally we attend the Paris Ballet of "Sleeping Beauty" at the "Opéra Bastille". I like preserving these photos of how the audience dresses, it was pretty casual. People behind our row were wearing shorts. There were almost no neck ties.
A panorama of the stage as we all sit down.
Below are some "box seats". Supposedly they aren't the best "viewing" angle here, but they provide some privacy and security and a place where (in the old days) richer Parisians could be "seen" at the ballet.
The balcony system is pictured below. I like it.
And here we go!
During the first intermission I snapped the photo below of the "orchestra pit".
In the next two photos, there are some strange chairs that are "different" from all the other chairs wobbling around in that aisle people are walking up from below. On the left of the aisle.
See the odd wobbly thin chairs with no armrests along the side of the aisle? I'm not sure what that is about..
Standing up near the orchestra pit facing backwards to try to capture what the venue feels like.
Breakfast the next morning up in the hotel's "Bonnie" restaurant. It was nice enough to take photos outside on the balcony.
Thomas and Ari taking photos in Paris.
While Katherine took a nap, I wanted to wander over to a specific area near the Notre Dame where I have stayed before. Along the river Seine banks are all these magazine stands. It's kind of an odd concept to me. How do you then get the magazines into your phone so you can read them? I guess take a photo of each page in the magazine?
Below is the Notre Dame, with construction equipment due to a Fire at the Notre Dame in 2019.
In past trips I walked up inside of it to the tippy top, I'm just preserving the "scene" here for myself.
The hotel I stayed at a few times over the last 35 years is on a little road called "Rue De La Huchette". You can see the Notre Dame and the name of the street in this first photo. The map location is here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/3DTV3h6ZuWNAVJoBA
This road is so old cars don't fit on it. Or at least cars are banned from it. It is filled with all sorts of things.
It is kind of a "Greek Section" (technically they call it a "Latin Section" of town) with multiple restaurants offering Gyros!
Maison De Gyros. What I call "Pole Meat". The word "Gyro" literally comes from the turning of the pole that BBQs the meat. It is very tasty.
This is the hotel I have stayed at in the past: "Hôtel du Mont Blanc". I first stayed here in 1991. Almost 35 years ago, during Christmas.
I found a nice cafe to sit down and have a snack and watch people wander by. The cafe I chose randomly is: "Le Lutèce" and is located here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/ryZpRWeAUaP9CkGt6
Honestly, the French take food presentation seriously. The french fries are perfect. The club sandwich is delicious. The wine was good, and so was the cappucino.
Okay, so all over Paris we kept seeing these gigantic teddy bears as large as people sitting in cafes. I finally asked the waiter and he explained it was the "Teddy bears of the Gobelins". It started before the pandemic, but was increased quite a bit when fewer people were out and about during Covid-19. I think it's adorable.
A random picture I'm not sure why I took it.
As I walked back after lunch to our hotel, I walked by this holocaust memorial.
There were more signs like this.
Katherine and I were on our own for dinner, so we went up and sat on the balcony of the "Bonnie" restaurant in our hotel SO/Paris. It was very pleasant out, perfect weather.
Photos from where we sat.
The next day we took an Uber to the CDG Paris airport, and I had been noticing this odd shaped building all week and got a pretty good close up. I'm curious about it's history.
A zoom in of the odd geometry of this one building in Paris, France.
Inside the CDG airport we picked up snacks at "Ladurée".
Now we're just travelling home, and you should probably stop reading. Some of this is just notes to myself for the next trip. In United Polaris there is a little "Coat Hook", but it is essentially useless. What I want to do is purchase a small flat bag that would hold my iPad up and my iPhone when not in use and "hang" it from this little device. There isn't quite enough quick access storage in Polaris. I mean, technically there is enough storage, but with all the blankets, headphones, pillows, everything gets buried and rearranged too much. I basically use an iPad for entertainment or reading or nothing, so having a place to put it securely would be nice.
Dinner on the flight home. The yellow stuff is polenta (I think) and it was really tasty! The odd block of soft white cheese with olives was ok, but "strange". Everything else was delicious.
United's new "first class" is branded "Polaris". I actually can't stand the concept of each airline choosing new words and their idiotic marketing departments blowing huge amounts of money renaming "first class" to a new word "Polaris" and pretending they (the idiot marketing people) added value. It's more legroom, that's it. It isn't a "brand" and it isn't even close to "business class" in premier airlines like Singapore Air or Emirates Air. Virgin Atlantic calls their offering "Upperclass" which is a slightly cringe name to me but they do an excellent job at it.
Okay, so this is a very specific issue for tall people. I'm 6 foot 3 inches tall, and I can't lie flat in the Polaris seats. This is the first time I've ever "failed" at lying flat, usually the lay flat seats are JUST BARELY long enough for me. The issue is what you see before you. I'm pretty sure United will claim these are 6 foot 3 inch lie flat seats, but only measured to a single point where a tall person cannot fit two feet into the point comfortably. Fine, sit at an angle right? Everything is jammed in there and hard plastic. I just couldn't "fit" in Polaris lying down. Now this is super important, read it carefully: anybody who is 6 foot 1 inch or less won't have my issue. Period. I'm not saying it is a bad seat design for 99% of the population. I just am taking notes to avoid Polaris is possible in the future because I'm too tall.
More documentation: there are at least 3 seat "angles" in Polaris. Only one of the three allows a couple (like Katherine and I) to sit next to each other. See how the bulk head here the two chairs are in parallel? The ones right behind this front row are angled so it keeps us separated.
We connected IAD Washington Dulles, and checked out the "Polaris Lounge". It was Ok. Comfortable chairs, the ability to recharge devices, they had showers, and pretty good food.
Random picture of the free food in United Polaris.
Another aisle of food.
The bar area was nice.
I poked my head into a "Shower Suite" it would be useful if you needed to clean up after a long flight.
This puppy was on our flight from IAD Washington Dulles to Austin. He was so adorable!
And we are home. All of our pets are accounted for.
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That's it!
