A Birthday celebration to remember and New years Eve in beautiful Paris.

A year in the making (secretly), overcoming the stress about the 12 days of the cabin crew strikes,
securing exclusive reservations, and battling through the heaviest snowdrifts for 30 years.
Grozzie made this the most memorable Birthday of my life :)

Checked in the morning before departure, secured seats *together* at the front of an airbus A320 (?).

Arrived at Heathrow London surprisingly quickly. It seemed deserted!
T5 parking already booked and taken care of.
No hold luggage (decided to leave my cute cocktail dress behind, no room) so sailed through check in.
Security was not too bad at this time considering it had been tightened.
Although a little more space would be nice.

I understand since then airports will be introducing even further security checks, body scanners etc
 

We relaxed in the club lounge on the top floor flanked by a couple of weird horse statues.

On route to boarding I had a sneeky look in the Swarovski store - ummm nice choker, but at £300
that was a bit much for a one off occasion. It's cheaper online anyway.

The flight was on time, with the actual flight in the air only being 44 minutes.
The nice cabin staff hung our overcoats up for us in the front.
After a light meal the cabin crew gave us some extra bottles of champers to take away for tonight :)
It was a good flight and always a nice touch to be personally welcomed onboard.

We landed at the more modern terminal building (T2).
At Charles de Gaulle we have always arrived at the funky round building with the mad slanting escalators
and wavy travelators, with the unmistakable sound clip. (terminal 1) I missed that quirky arrival.

We arrive to a very misty cold Paris. Fortunately no queues at the taxi rank as we were first off the plane.
Drove past a life size Concorde :)
The peripherique was fluid so we were in the centre of Paris near the Arc de Triomphe within 25 minutes
having seen glimpses of Sacre Coeur and the Eiffle Tower in the distance :)

The hotel was bedecked with lit christmas trees outside.
The large lobby had golden bird cages and huge cone decorations with baubles inside.

We checked into our suite, a spacious room for the centre of Paris, a pleasant surprise!
Splendid, with the most comfortable King bed, a sofa, 2 tables and a desk.
We stowed the champagne bottles in the mini bar before venturing out.

A charming stroll up to Arc de Triomphe taking in the festive decorations and lights.
Our first close up glimpse of the Eiffle Tower was shrouded in mist with the top missing.

The fountains were working at The Trocadero.

It was already very busy with people queuing to go up the tower despite the mist!
We walk under and around the Tower, strolling through the tree lined gardens admiring the Lady from all angles, it was good to be back here again.

A christmas market was thriving down by the Seine, selling wares and Vin Chaud.

We had a look at the cruise boats before crossing the pedestrian foot bridge across the Seine and up the steps on the north side.

The Champs Elysee was dazzling with their festive lights lining

the avenue from Arc de Triomphe

down to the Grande Roue at Place de la Concorde.

Enchanting.

Louis Christmas lights.

Back at the hotel we fill in the room service breakfast form.

We sat on this sofa in The Windsor bar

Enjoyed a glass of the most fabulous Champagne :)

brought to us in an ice bucket on a portable trolley by delightful

 bar tenders.

Appetizers: hot prawns, froie Gras, salmon (posh bar snacks)

We were enjoying ourselves so much we decided to stay comfy for some light supper.
We had been invited to the main restaurant for their set New years eve meal.
We declined as it was 5 courses of rich French food before tomorrow nights big meal.

Our intreguing complex wines.

We enjoyed the steak frites and pan fried scallops in the ambient bar candlelight.
Although I cannot believe they brought out a tiny pot of Heinz tomato ketchup (ick) LOL

A sweet touch as we returned to our suite to find a little bear greeted us  :)

We wrap up super warm and walk down to Trocadero for a view of the Eiffle Tower, arriving just before 11pm.
However everyone else thought it was a good idea and it was absolutely heaving with New years Eve revellers. We stayed for the first 5 minutes of the twinkling lights and for some of the light show.

We couldn't see too much so decided to go down the side path to the gardens below.

A more romantic and less crowded view through the winter trees of the Eiffle Tower.

The 120th anniversary light show to music played out it's final display one last time after midnight.
Sipping champagne and exchanging new years eve kisses we celebrate the New year as the Eiffle Tower twinkled it's lights for the first 5 minutes of the new decade :)

A few people let off fireworks. Otherwise we wander back through the streets the long way to avoid the crowds around Trocadero. We walked nearly the entire length of Avenue Victor Hugo!

Bonne Annee, Happy New Year

Most of the 'partying' was going on around Arc de Triomphe / Champs Elysee (lots of police vans were up there) but we didn't see any trouble. Just the usual Parisian hubbub. Cold and giggly from the bubbly we were glad to enter the warmth of the hotel again having walked twice to and from the Eiffle Tower today......

Some of the places we saw on our walk down to Trocadero:

We walked down olde haunts, reminiscing on our previous visits to Paris via Rue Lauriston, the champagne bar in Hotel Dohkans, with it's carming Georgian interior decoration.

52 Rue Lauriston

We pass this quiet Chinese restaurant on the corner where we had enjoyed a meal in 1999 and 2005

the Japanese restaurant "Tampopo" at No 66.
We had excellent teriyaki here in 2005. We notice even more Asian restaurants have opened in the area.

The roads around this area are more bustling than at A.d.T due to the Pizza deliveries.

I was particularly taken with a few places, the trees and windows magically decorated with stars, and lights one being Hotel Napolean. (best seen at night during the festive season).

 More on the next page ------->>