12.05.07

Festival of Lights

Posted in Family, Paris Life at 10:15 am by rachel

I know I promised mouth-watering latke photos today, but I have something perhaps even more exciting to share: a Parisian festival of lights! Seth still has the latke pics on his computer, so we’ll get to those, but we had so much fun during our impromptu tour of Paris lights I just had to post this first…

Yesterday at dusk I met Seth in front of his office (which is conveniently located on Place de la Concorde) and walked over to the huge Ferris wheel (grande roue, or “big wheel” in French). For the low price of just 8€ a person (sarcasm), you can ride the Ferris wheel around about four times (that’s 2€ per rotation…hmmm…).

But it is worth it! The 360-degree views were spectacular. I couldn’t look down, but looking out was wonderful. I highly recommend going once the sun is down. Had we been there just a little before 5pm instead of after, we would have caught the Eiffel Tower glittering (which happens every hour on the hour). We weren’t disappointed, though.

The Ferris Wheel from Below

The View from the Ferris Wheel: Eiffel Tower, Concorde Obelisk, and the Avenue des Champs-Elysées

Note the Eiffel Tower in the background with its strange search light.

You’d think it’d be fun to operate a giant Ferris wheel, but apparently not:

We decided to walk all the way back home to the Latin Quarter, enjoying many lights on the way:

A festive street near the Madeleine church

Street decorations and the Place Vendôme

Chandeliers lined the street leading from the Place Vendôme

Watching the Ice Skaters in front of Hôtel de Ville

The Christmas Tree in front of Notre Dame

Once we got home, we lit the menorah (a gift from Seth’s parents), which I think looks very pretty:

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