The Paris Pass, the Opera House

On the advice from a friend we purchased the Paris Pass online before leaving the US for the trip.  The Paris Pass provides pre-paid access to some 60 venues around Paris, plus free Metro passes.  You can purchase the Paris Pass for one day or multiple days, but the days must be consequetive once you activate your pass.  We chose the 4 day pass and activated them on Saturday, after we had spent the previous two days exploring a bit on our own.

Our first activity using the Paris Pass was to ride the Red Bus, which is the open top bus that travels around the interesting areas and provides recorded commentary on the sights along the way.  It is also allows you to get off and on at any of its stops as much as you want for the day of your ticket.  We used the Red Bus tours as our way of seeing an overview of the tourist areas of the city.  The photo album on the Red Bus shows a few interesting views of the ride.  We also stopped near the famous Moulin Rouge for some photos of the outside. 

The Red Bus tours consumed more of the day that we expected, as it stopped and remained stopped more than we had anticipated.  But we still managed to fit in a couple of other activities that day.  We finally got off the bus the last time near the Opera House, which we then used our pass to tour.  The Opera House was beautiful, inside and out, and the photos in the Opera House album are very nice.  We also viewed a movie on the history of Paris and then on a recommendation from a young woman at the Paris Story we walked into a nearby Lafayette Department Store to see a beautiful interior and also to check out its rooftop view.

We ended the first day of using the Paris Pass with a visit to Montparnesse, a 59 story office building with a spectacular view of Paris from the 56 floor viewing area, and even better from the covered roof on the 59th floor.  We enjoyed a nice entry and some champagne on the 56th floor, then stuck around for full darkness to take some photos of the city and especially the Eiffel Tower after dark.  It was a dreary and rainy day and evening, so the air was clear, but the photos are nice nevertheless.