Day 8: Posh Paris Promenade

Feeling inspired by the luxurious living of Versailles, we decided to treat ourselves to a day of indulgence in one of Paris’s most posh neighborhoods.

We started off with breakfast at Paris’s famous Angelina Pastry shop to sample some of their delicious confections as well as their world famous hot chocolate. And boy, did it not disappoint!

Then, we walked through the “Triangle D’Or” where every major fashion house has an address.

We then turned toward the Champs Elysées, where we climbed the top of the Arc de Triomphe. Although the stairs were tough, it was not nearly as bad as climbing the Eiffel Tower and the views were much better. As Blair loves to say, the problem with climbing the Eiffel Tower is that none of your pictures include the Eiffel Tower!

All those stairs made us thirsty, so we popped over to the Peninsula Hotel’s Bar Kléber for an afternoon pick me up!

Then it was time for the ballet! After seeing the château that inspired the story, it was amazing to see the dance and hear the music inspired by the story.

The American Ballet Theatre did an incredible job staying true to Marius Petipa’s original production first shown at the Marinsky Theatre in 1890. An added treat was getting to see ABT’s star principal dancer Misty Copeland perform as Princess Florine. (Since pictures weren’t allowed, I plucked the image of the cast below from the ABT’s website)