Dates: 08-12 November 2017.

I’ve been to many places in France over the years. A road trip in my old Honda CRX will live long in the memory and of course Euro 2016 invokes so many anecdotes that it’ll be impossible to forget. However, I’d never really seen Paris. An international friendly provided a perfect opportunity.

A straightforward flight from the “Gareth Bale Cardiff International Airport” to Charles de Gaulle allowed me to get straight into the sight-seeing. After seeing smaller imitations in both Chișinău and Bucharest, I naturally started with the real thing, the Arc de Triomphe:

A meander down the Champs-Élysées followed before a bite and an early night:

Day two involved tackling the Eiffel Tower. A rare early start in order to the beat the crowds was on the cards but in the end I needn’t have worried. Straight in and straight up, and despite the mist it was still a great view. Since you can Google pictures of the tower and its views, I’ll go with something different here:

Now some perspective, the Jardins du Trocadéro from half way up:

And from the top:

A short video of the elevator ride to the top can be seen here.

Next-up was Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, but via some largely aimless wandering, a  visit to the Musée d’Orsay and observing a street protest.

A barefoot bride having photos taken with her groom amidst the grounds of the Jardins du Trocadéro:

Pont Alexandre III:

Contemplation from inside the Musée d’Orsay:

A couple of streets from Île de la Cité I stumbled upon a street protest. The accompanying music was cool and I think it was to do with the environment and/or traffic issues. Catch the video here.

Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, don’t lose your head:

Maybe the protest was about poorly-positioned instruments:

A quick visit to the modern art Centre Pompidou rounded-off the day:

Day three was match day, but before meeting up with the rest of the #WalesAway crew there was time for a morning walking tour around the 9th and 18th arrondissements. Some pictures from the walk:

Robocop and some trousers:

Le Passe-Muraille, the Passer-Through-Walls. This is what happens when you abuse your gift of walking through walls, naturally:

French singer Dalida. Guess which body part is said to be lucky:

Having beaten Northern Ireland at the Euros at Les Parc des Princes, it was ideal that we now faced France at the Stade de France in the suburb of Saint-Denis.

We struggled against a fine France side and ultimately lost 2-0. Only when we brought on Brooks and Ampadu did we look lively. A nod to the future.

Stade de France in all its glory:

Day four was cold and miserable which scuppered my idea to visit the Louvre. Everyone and his wife had the same idea! Instead I opted to walk and see what happened. My two favourite pictures from said stroll:

Whilst all this sight-seeing and football was going on, my good friend Kev and his girlfriend Lou were also in Paris. However, Lou and I conspired to keep my presence in the city a secret. Full social media silence on my part was required until the day we’d surprise him. Lou captured the moment perfectly as I walked in on what was meant to be a quiet pre-meal beer! See the video here.

After a good catch-up we went for food and drinks in the shadow of the glittering Eiffel Tower:

A short video clip of the light show can be found here.

The surprise meet-up was a lovely way to end my short tour of Paris. Paris seems to divide opinion among many, but I love the place, and not just because of Euro 2016.

Allez les Bleus! Allez les Galles!