And now it is the time for pictures – lots and lots of pictures – from our European adventure 2024, starting from our first stop – Paris.

Paris needs no introduction – an eternal city of love, a source of inspiration for all things art, a coveted destination for millions every year.

So what did we do in Paris? First, I have to mention the hotel where we were staying. Whenever possible, I’m the Marriott guy. During this trip, I used a serious number of points to pay for our stays in Paris and Rome. In Paris, we stayed at the Marriott Ambassador Opera Hotel, and I have to say that this was one of the best hotel experiences ever. Spacious rooms, the whole hotel appointed with pictures of the fragments of the sheet music, elements of ballet and dance. Just beautiful. The concierge lounge on the top floor offered great views of the city, excellent food, lots of comfortable sitting. If you are planning a trip to Paris and can figure out the way to stay there, this is an excellent hotel.

Our sightseeing included all of the usual suspects – Père Lachaise cemetery (we went there in the morning – an interesting way to start your day, but definitely worth a walk through); Louvre (no we didn’t try going inside while having only 2 full days in Paris); Montmartre with an insane amount of people – I wanted to walk around to see the painters, but it was physically impossible to get through the crowd – well, at least we saw the basilica.

We also managed to visit the Rodin Museum and Gardens on the first day (Thursday), and again we had to work our way through a significant crowd – but at least walking through the gardens was quite pleasant.

Eiffel Tower (I’m guessing freshly painted for the Olympics but I might be wrong) was, of course, an important destination – we walked around and also took a cruise to see the sunset and the Eiffel Tower brightly lit at night. A short stroll through Champs-Élysées through the scaffolding of some construction for the Olympic Games completed the experience. In the evening, we took a cruise on the Seine – just a cruise without dinner (I had a dinner cruise last year, and it was not worth it in my opinion), and I captured some beautiful sunset moments.

The next day we went to Versailles, but before we talk about it I need to lament about Paris Metro. On one hand, I believe the Paris subway is literally one of the best in the world, for sure for the tourists. At each track, there is a full list of all the stations for a given direction – as long as you know the name of the station of your destination, you have no problems orienting yourself. However, everything has two sides. To enter the subway station, you need to use a ticket which is a tiny piece of paper with a magnetic strip. Even if you buy a day pass, it still comes in the same format. Now, if this little piece of paper gets anywhere near your phone, it gets doomed. And it is doomed in a funny way – you can’t enter the station, but when you ask an agent to check it, they run it through their machine and tell you that there are no issues. I ended up storing all the tickets in my wallet and this was the only way to get those tickets to last throughout the day.

Now, Versailles. I bought timed tickets with an audio guide a few months before the trip (we had only one day available for the visit, so I couldn’t take any chances), so we had no problems getting in.

Honestly, I was reasonably unimpressed with the palace (feel free to ostracize me, but the palace was very similar to the Newport mansions). However, the gardens were absolutely beautiful – except literally none of the fountains were working, so it definitely took away from the experience.

Just to touch on food and wine – we visited a few restaurants, but didn’t have any standout experiences, so below is just a quick summary as it simply feels wrong to talk about France and not to include any pictures of the food.

Then it was Sunday, and time to go to Orly airport…