Carnival Topical!

by Living Our Best Lives

Kilometres Walked : Saturday – 12.2km, Sunday – 13.3km.

Sunday 2nd July, 2023.

Saturday afternoon was spent wandering around trying to familiarise ourselves with the huge city that Paris is. It didn’t take long to rack up over 11 kilometres in a short space of time. The first thing we noticed was that there were plenty of police dotted all over the city trying to keep any mischief at bay. It definitely made us feel a lot more comfortable walking the streets at the moment with all the riots and violence that has been happening for the past week here in France. We made it down to the Seine, saw the Eiffel Tower from a distance and wandered all the way back to Montmartre.

The Eiffel.
Taking a breather along the Seine.
Not the best day for photos but still pretty.

This afternoon after yet another slow start to the day, gee I could get used to this🤪 we headed to the Avenue des Champs Élysées and the Arc de Triomphe. The last time we visited Paris it had been completely blocked off due to Protests so we missed out on walking along the famous avenue. Luckily this time around it is open and after reading that on the 1st Sunday of the month the avenue is blocked off to cars we were even more excited. After a quick stop off in the Petit Palais. A very beautiful free museum just at the start of the Champ Élysées. What an incredible building indeed and free! Hearing quite a lot of music and watching a few groups of people wander past in costumes we headed outside to see what was going on. Well weren’t we in for a treat. Little did we know that ‘The Carnival Tropical de Paris’ was to take place today along the Champs Élysées. This colourful parade takes over the Avenue with music, dancing and traditional outfits representing cultures from all over the world. The theme this year was ‘The Colours of the World’. Hundreds of participants wore amazing costumes in every colours you can imagine and played fabulous music that made everyone boogie on the spot.

The courtyard of the Petit Palais.
Such an amazing building.
Everyone in Paris is here!
So much colour.
Go girls.
So much fun.
Fabulous costumes.
It was such a great vibe.
Fabulous.
We finally made it to the end!
The Arc de Triomphe.
Yes there is a line up to enter Louis Vuitton! Only in Paris.
The end of the day.

Well we didn’t actually see much of the avenue or the buildings due to the thousands of people gathered today but we had fun as did everyone else. The music was infectious and everyone was either tapping their foot or having a little dance on the spot. The costumes were completely amazing and what a great way to spend a Sunday in Paris.