In October of this year, my daughters persuaded me to embark on a trip to the illustrious city of Paris. You see, I've never truly connected with Paris. Amra and I had previously visited the city during the Christmas and New Year of 2002. At that time, Paris felt somewhat detached and cold to me. While I always enjoyed the Latin Quarter and Montmartre, the grand boulevards and squares like Place de la Concorde and Avenue des Champs-Élysées never resonated with me. They lacked a certain human touch, seemingly designed for the state rather than its people. Hence, my relationship with the City of Light has always been somewhat ambivalent.
Fast-forward twenty-one years, and here I am in Paris with my three delightful girls. We boarded an Air France flight from Billund on a chilly Christmas noon—a delightful experience with almost deserted airports and a flight just a tad over an hour. Upon landing and retrieving our luggage, I hailed a taxi, and in a couple of few minutes we were on our way to the central part of Paris and our hotel Opéra Faubourg. However, due to Lafayette Street's one-way direction, the driver had trouble finding our hotel. I told him to drop us off nearby, and we walked a mere 100 meters to reach our destination.
Our room at Opéra Faubourg Hotel.