Day 24: Paris - Michael Buble in concert

Sadly it's my last full day in Paris before heading to Dubai. Insert extremely long sigh here...

Due my change in departure days because of the Bublé concert, I had to change hotels tonight, but I ended up finding a hotel quite close to where I've been staying for the past 4 nights, but because I had an early morning start (I'm just full of surprises aren't I), I just packed my bags and left them at the front desk of the hotel for me to collect later on.

Today my early start today was because I was doing the behind the scenes tour of the Eiffel Tower. I'd found out about this on-line during my research phase (I know that you'll all be surprised to read that I actually did some research for this trip LOL), and I thought it would be a good way to see the tower in a new light.  First up, I caught the metro to the Trocadéro stop which is a great place to view the tower.  Getting there so early was quite magical as I was literally the only one there, and surprisingly there was no sign of any other tourists or even the annoying souvenir sellers. Talk about a moment of pure bliss...

A magical morning in Paris...

The peace and quiet of the Trocodero quickly disappeared as I wandered I down and crossed the river Seine where the tourists were starting to queue in anticipation of the opening of the tower at 9:30am.  It was absolutely freezing, so I did my best to keep warm until my tour started at 9:45am. 

Finding where the tour started was quite easy as it was at the statue of Gustave Eiffel which is located under North pillar of the tower.  Here I joined about 20 other people at the statue of Gustuv Eiffel for our unique view of this magnificent structure.

I ended up being the ONLY English speaker on the tour, so that proved interesting. Our guide would explain things to me in English as we were walking from one place to another, but I know I missed out on certain things because it would really be impossible to translate everything.  But it was still a good way to see the tower. We started off by going to the underground tunnels underneath the Champs de Mars and then to the machinery sections underneath the tower, before we headed up to the second level of the tower.

About to head under the Champs de Mars...

Here I am in the machinery room underneath the Eiffel Tower.

I originally thought that if it was a really nice fine and clear day, I would go right up to the very top of the tower, but sadly it really wasn't that clear, so I didn't end up going to the top. But unlike my previous visits, I did take the time during this visit to stop at the 1st level and have a bit of a look around.

After I finished at the tower, I grabbed a bite to eat before heading back to collect my luggage and say goodbye to the Best Western Paris Louvre Opera hotel before moving onto my hotel for the evening – the Choiseul Paris Opera. I swear that this hotel has the world's smallest elevator. It was tiny and there's no way that more than one person could ft in, let alone with any luggage. I was on the second floor so I quickly decided that I wouldn't bother with the elevator and would instead take the stairs. This trip is doing weird things – here I am voluntarily agreeing to take the stairs. What the... there's obviously something very wrong with that...

Anyway, once I got settled, I headed out to do a little more last minute shopping. And yes, I was quite successful in this adventure. All I can say is that I'm very glad that Emirates has a baggage allowance of 30kg, which is 10kg more than most airlines. Confession time - even though I honestly don't think I've bought that much over here, I did purchase a small suitcase yesterday...  I took advantage of this opportunity to again visit my new idea of heaven, a Pierre Hermé store.

I heart Pierre Hermé...

Tonight's entertainment was the last concert event of my holiday plans – Michael Bublé at the Bercy in Paris. I was originally planning to see him in Salzburg, but once that show was postponed, the only other chance I had to see him while in Europe was to delay my departure to Dubai by one day. Even though he is touring Australia early next year, it wasn't really that hard of a decision to stay an extra day in Paris.

I made my way to the Bercy station by Metro and had dinner at one of the restaurants around the area. It was then time to go into the arena and find my seat. My good luck with great seats continued, although this arena was slightly confusing as the numbered rows started at the top, unlike back home where the numbers start at the bottom and work upwards.

The weird numbering system...

This guy is apparently a TV celebrity & everyone wanted to get a picture with him.

The show was really good and I really enjoyed the support act “Naturally 7”.  They were amazingly good and were an expected highlight. After the show finished it was back on the metro to Pyramides before the short walk to the hotel. Sadly no rock star moment tonight.

Naturally 7...