Paris by Night

Now that we're parents we don't really "party" anymore. It's just not practical when you have to get up every morning by 7am (at the latest). 

However, when you're on vacation without the kids (thanks again GiGi and JoJo!) you can sleep late and that's the first step in being able to stay out late.

One of our best nights was completely unexpected. The planned part of the evening was dinner at the Eiffel Tower. We went to 58 Tour Eiffel, which required a reservation over a month in advance for 6:30 pm (the earlier seating) and this isn't even the super fancy Jules Verne. 

We had a lovely dinner and champagne to be tipsy enough to start wandering around Paris.

At this point in the story my pictures start to get a little fuzzy but the memories are crystal clear. Our timing for leaving the tower was perfect for the evening light show.

Then without any real direction we started wandering the beautiful streets of Paris. While we were scouting out our next stop Chris randomly ran into our friend Jake. As we've done the entire trip we asked Jake to recommend a place and he pointed us a block over to La Vénus Noire. It was a little crowded when we walked in, but they were super nice, said they had more space downstairs, and made a table for us with an extra seat for Jake even though he hadn't joined us yet.

Keg seat for Jake

Downstairs the bar was really cool and cave-like, similar to a french wine cellar with a low, rounded ceiling. 

This band wasn't there when we were, but I pulled this picture off the Venus Noire site so you could see what it looked like downstairs.

As we were enjoying a beverage, a DJ set up and started playing. I don't know what got into us (probably too much champagne) but we all got up and danced. I'm not even sure you're suppose to dance in a bar like that, but we made a dance floor and went for it.

This picture of Heather is blurry because I'm a much better dancer than photographer.

It took awhile before Jake could join us. He said when he headed down the stairs to find us he heard the music, saw the lights and figured we would have left. Then he rounded the corner and saw all of us dancing, acting like we were holding up the ceiling and the walls.

It was a great evening! I slept late the next morning and enjoyed a late brunch with Jake (while the rest of the group hit a D-day tour)

Love vacation!