Category Archives: Paris

15th November 2025: The Côte d’Azur {France & Monaco, November 2025}

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D****e was leaving Paris about an hour earlier than myself, so I decided to tag along to her station and then backtrack to mine (hey, it was extra friend-time). I’m not good at going back to sleep after waking up, anyway. Thus, we checked out of the hotel together, and I rode with her, then changed platforms towards Paris Gare de Lyon to take my long-distance train. The ride across France was six hours, but it was very cheap, and not much longer than I would take flying from home to my destination.

The current iteration of the Paris Gare de Lyon station was erected following designs of Marius Toudoire around 1900, so it was ready for the World Fair. It features a clock tower and an inner ironwork structure combined with decorative details typical of the Belle Époque design. The station was bustling even early in the morning – I arrived before 7:00 for my 8:21 departure. My ticket said that I would have to leave through hall 3, but there was an announcement from hall 1, where I waited.

Inner platform of Gare de Lyon station.

Since the previous day I had been tired and had not thought to buy food for the day, I had to pay the price of travel-hub lunch. I got myself some cookies, a Coke and a sandwich – chicken in traditional sauce. I also decided to start a Christmas ornament collection, and got myself a shiny Paris bauble. Access to the train opened ten to fifteen minutes before departure, and it was a bit chaotic. My seat was in the low 500s, and for some reason you could not go from one carriage to another (or at least from my carriage to another?) so I’m happy I got the right door on the first try. The train left on time, at 8:21 sharp, and I slept for the first couple of hours. Around 11:00 I was hungry, so I decided to pull out my sandwich… which ended up being “tandoori sauce”, not “traditional sauce”. Take that, caffeine-deprived brain. For a second, I considered not eating it, fearing it would upset my stomach. However, I was hungry enough that I did not really care, and it was not too spicy. I had another nap afterwards again, and before I knew it I had arrived at the Gare de Nice-Ville station in Nice, in the south-east of France, the area known as the Côte d’Azur (Azure Coast) or French Riviera.

Gare de Nice station from outside.

The first hominids may have roamed the area as far as 400,000 years ago. However, the city was founded around the 350 BCE by settlers of Greek origin, naming it after Nike, goddess of victory. There was a nearby Gallic-then-Roman settlement, Cemenelum, which was eventually absorbed by the growing Nice. During many years throughout history, it could be considered that the region was part of Italy in one way or another. In 1860, the territory was given to France, though not all the Niçoises were happy about that. The Italy sympathisers were repressed without much success.

After the annexation to France and the modernisation of the railway network, Nice became popular amongst the English aristocracy, who enjoyed spending winter there. Holiday-makers included Queen Victoria, for whom a full hotel was built, and her son Edward VII. This would eventually lead to the city’s economy boom during the second half of the 20th century, after it was liberated from the WWII occupation.

In 2021, Unesco recognised the uniqueness of Nice declaring it World Heritage as Nice, Winter Resort Town of the Riviera, with emphasis on the winter part. The development of winter resorts was different from the summer ones, creating layer upon layer of new structures. The so-called Belle Époque architecture became popular, but all in all, the layout of the city is quite complex, due to both history (grand hotels near Roman ruins) and geography (beaches and cliffs).

I headed out to the hotel, which was very near the station, dropped off my stuff and went on exploring. The weather was great, so I could forego one of my layers, even. I was starting to understand the “mild winter” reputation. I first headed down the Avenue Jean Médecin, the main commercial artery of the town, until I reached the promenade.

On the way, I stopped at the basilica-church Basilique Notre-Dame de l’Assomption, a Neo Gothic building designed by Charles Lenormand and erected in the 1860s, after the city was incorporated to France, as gothic was (is?) considered a “very French style” (thanks, Viollet-Le-Duc) and more “French architecture” was desired in the city. The building was not open, so I continued down the avenue until I reached the large Place Masséna, the main square of the city. It is surrounded by red buildings of Italian architecture, and a fountain called Fontaine du Soleil, the fountain of the sun, representing the Greek god Apollo.

Neo-gothic basilica.

Place Masena with Italian-architecture building and a monumental fountain.

After crossing the Esplanade Georges Pompidou and leaving behind an ugly monument thing Neuf lignes obliques, I found myself at the famous Nice promenade and the Mediterranean Sea. In front of me, a line of private and public beaches made of rounded boulders. On my right, the Promenade des anglais (the Walkway of the English), and on my left the Quai des États-Unis (United States Quay). I turned left, but I could not prevent getting distracted by the beaches. Leaving behind the opera house Opéra de Nice, where nothing was on, I spent some time sitting by the ocean before I continued my way.

Etats-Unis quai and the beach.

Waves on a pebble-and-stone beach.

I diverted a little back into the old town to visit the cathedral Cathédrale Sainte-Réparate de Nice – Cathedral of Saint Reparata. Construction started in 1650 in the Baroque style, and it went on for centuries until it was declared complete in 1949. The building has one bell tower and ten lateral chapels. It enshrines the relics of Saint Reparata, which arrived in Nice in 1690.

Catholic cathedral of Nice, a Baroque building.

After wandering Old Nice for a bit, I started the climb up the historic park Colline du Château, where the old Nice castle and cathedral stood. Today it offers panoramic views, ruins, playgrounds and… cemeteries for some reason. There is a “free” lift, but someone stood at the entrance, looking very much like they were charging a fee. I wanted to climb up the stairs on foot for the views anyway. Though it was before 16:00, the sky was already in sunset mode.

Sunset over the sea.

The ascent was not difficult, three or four flights of stairs before I reached the small building that tops the tower Tour Bellanda, the first viewpoint. The structure was originally a medieval defensive structure, but it was destroyed and rebuilt as a place to enjoy the views. I continued on, through the hill / park / historical site. There are several viewpoints towards both sides of the city, along with historical ruins, mosaic decorations, fountains, even the aforementioned cemeteries… All in all I had a lot of fun exploring.

Views of Nice - roofs, coast and ocean.

Collage of the Chateau de Nice: ruins, a waterfall and an octopus-shaped collage.

It had become dark by the time I left the parks, and I somehow ended up re-entering the city down some historical stairs which landed me right into the Medieval quarter again. After going back to the beach for some more wave sounds, I undid my path towards the hotel, taking the exact same route.

Medieval Nice at night, with the cathedral tower at the end.

Waves on a pebble beach at sunset.

There was a bookshop on the way, and I really wanted to stop and buy a book I knew was out that weekend, but honestly? D****e had brought so many presents for me that it would not have fit into the backpack… What I did buy was dinner and breakfast for the following day at the supermarket in front of the hotel – read: coffee and a sandwich. Oh, and a smoothie because it looked awesome.

I spent the last couple of hours of the evening in the hotel, watching bad creature films on YouTube before I went to bed.

14th November 2025: Hyde [Inside] Live 2025 World Tour {France & Monaco, November 2025}

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The sun was not even up yet when we reached the queue (I refused to learn what time D****e had set the alarm clock) for Hyde [Inside] Live 2025 World Tour at Le Bataclan, which was a couple of minutes away from our accomodation. We stepped out of the hotel, and had to walk right back inside for umbrellas and raincoats, because just as we set a foot on the street it started raining. The line had already been started, and in front of the venue door stood a stone memorial, flowers and candles. It was eerie. Throughout the morning, Paris cleaning services came to take care of the tributes. I had never stopped to think about what happened to mementos that people put up for vigils and memorials. In this case, the flowers were very carefully arranged in baskets and carried away to the permanent memorial in the park opposite the venue. The candles were also moved, still lit, there.

Flowers and candles in front of the Bataclan venue at night.

Origins of Le Bataclan can be traced back to 1864, when architect Charles Duval designed it as a theatre in the Chinoiserie architectural style, a current that depicts European interpretations of China’s artistic tradition, which was popular between the 17th and 19th centuries. The original name of the venue was Grand Café Chinois, and it was a typical Belle Époque establishment, known as a café-concert, with a theatre, a dance hall and a café. It became popular for its vaudevilles and went on to change hands, appearance, and functions several times. In 1969, starting with the band Soft Machine, it became today’s modern concert venue, featuring artists such as Velvet Underground, Ramones or Iron Maiden. In the 1980s, it was dubbed “the temple of hip-hop”. In the 21st century, it was revamped and repainted to resemble its original appearance and started catering to techno events.

Le Bataclan Building

After the massacre in 2015 during a concert of Eagles of Death Metal, Le Bataclan was closed for a year, with bands such as U2 cancelling their acts. The venue rose from its own ashes 364 days later with a minute of silence for the victims and an exclusive show by Sting. Aside from the tragic memory attached to the mass shooting, the building itself has been considered a historical monument since 1991.

One expects that a venue with such history, experience and tragedy would be able to smoothly manage a queue, right? Wrong. This was probably the most disastrous line I’ve ever had the displeasure to be part of.

The first security team arrived around 8:00, and they were obviously displeased. The queue at that time was about 20 or 30 people, who were sitting by the walls to brave the cold and drizzle, and respecting the doors of the nearby shops and houses. We were minding our own business checking out the doggies on walks when the staff started putting out barriers. No issue there.

Mid-morning, D****e and I went for breakfast and a toilet break, along with a visit to the Memorial to the victims in the park Jardin May Picqueray, where all the flowers and candles had been taken. It felt weird to take a picture of that, but I wanted to remember the image, the feelings it caused within me.

Memorial in front of the Bataclan concert venue, with a plaque and hundreds of flowers.

It was around 13:00 when the security guard had his power trip. The line was relaxed at this time. Some people were sitting, others were standing to the side, but the “expert concert goers” knew that it was around the time the band would be coming in, probably with the chance of spotting Hyde. The staff started putting out more and more barriers, forcing people to crowd behind them, so the whole concept of queue went to hell. Fortunately, a few locals who spoke both French and English were able to bring the queue, at leas the first hundred VIPs or so, to a resemblance of order.

It did not help that the soundcheck would be watched from the upper floor, and then we had to make it back to the main floor if we wanted arena spots. It was a damn mess. Then they started checking us in for the VIP experience – which I didn’t understand. Fine, the VIP tickets had our names on them so they could not be resold. But they did not ask for ID, which beats the whole purpose of it.

When they finally opened doors, we were subjected to a fast pat down, then we went upstairs. We had a few minutes of relaxing of sorts then – presumably to buy merch – but in the end it was stupidly stressful. What was the point of queueing for hours if when it mattered, we were back to a crowd? In the end, some fans managed to negotiate that the French and Japanese staff would allow people to step down the stairs in the order we had arrived – supported by the numbers we had written on our hands.

The soundcheck, which started at 18:00, lasted around 10 minutes was… lacking. There were three song bits and that was it. Whether that and “stress free” merch shopping justified the price… I honestly don’t think so. Early entry? Maybe. I mean, Hyde is a huge artist in Japan, where your entrance to the venue is determined by the number in your ticket. Fanclub members will always get the best numbers, so they are the only ones with a chance to do first row. This was my one and only time in a Hyde – or Hyde-adjactent project – when I was able to get barrier, and that was only because of D****e’s knowledge of the Japanese fandom and what time they would head there. I don’t think I’ll ever do that early of a queue ever again, even though we were extremely lucky with the weather. Besides a bit of drizzle early in the morning, the weather was stunning, especially for mid-November in Paris.

The concert was scheduled to start at 20:00, and it did so around 20:10. We were at the barrier around 18:15, and it turned out that the background flag was too big for the stage. All this time, I was trying really hard to concentrate on what was to come and not the flowers outside and what they meant. Maybe that atmosphere spoiled the concert a little. Maybe I’ve lost my passion. Or maybe it was the fact that I did something stupid, queued for too long, the next day I went off sightseeing, and a week after returning I had not completely recovered. I’m not sure. But I lack the normal fuzzy feeling I used to get after concerts. I thought not having that after The Raven Age was normal, because I was just checking them out. However, Hyde used to be one of my big artists.

Hyde was born Hideto Takarai in Wakayama, Japan, in 1969. He has been active since the late 1980s. In 1991, Hyde formed the rock band L’Arc~En~Ciel [ラルク アン シエル, Laruku an Shieru, Laruku for short] alongside bassist Tetsuya, a music ensemble that went on to sell 40 million records. From 2001, the band has been more or less separated, coming together on and off to launch a single or do a live in order to remain relevant.

During the period of inactivity, Hyde launched his solo career, often collaborating with arranger and guitarist KAZ from Oblivion Dust, with whom he formed the rock band VAMPS in 2008. VAMPS was active until in 2017 it went “on hiatus” with a press release in Japanese and English, and nothing was ever heard of them again.

Hyde went back to his solo activities right away, with a tour in summer of 2018, which felt a bit lacking. He collaborated with other artists such as Yoshiki and Starset. For a little while he was part of the “supergroup” The Last Rockstars alongside Yoshiki, Miyavi and Sugizo. The current tour Hyde [Inside] Live 2025 World Tour is the promotion of Hyde’s 2024 album Inside, so most of the songs from the setlist came from there, with some “old hitters” he holds the rights to, and a couple of covers.

The concert was good. Objectively good. I enjoyed it. But it was not that deep, belly-felt enjoyment I had before with songs like The Jolly Roger (during VAMPS times), or the one-and-only time I’ve seen L’Arc~En~Ciel.

Setlist:
1. Let it out
2. After Light
3. Defeat
4. Devil Side (VAMPS)
5. Taking them down
6. On my own
7. 夢幻 [Mugen, Fantasy]
8. 永久 –トコシエ [Tokoshie, Eternity, but written with weird kanji]
9. Faint (Linkin Park)
10. 6or9
11. Mad Qualia
12. Social Virus
13. Midnight Celebration II
14. Last Song
15. Pandora
16. Honey (L’Arc~en~Ciel)
17. Glamorous Sky
18. Sex Blood Rock N’ Roll (VAMPS)

HYDE: Inside concert in Le Bataclan. Hyde singing

The concert started at 20:10 with Hyde perched up a high tower. He was supported by guitarists Yas Nomura (Yas) and Julian, keyboardist Hiko (Hikonyan), drummer Shuntaro Kado (Kadoshun) and bassist Tomohiro Miki (Miki-T), all wearing masks – Hyde included, for the first couple of songs. The music was powerful, and the delivery impeccable.

HYDE: Inside concert in Le Bataclan. Hyde close-up

Hyde knows how to own his stage. For 6or9 he wanted us to crouch and jump and… no. I was holding onto the barrier, and there was no way I’d make a jump. I hid a little and then stood up. He also tried some French. He managed quite well with ça va? (“what’s up?” of sorts), but merci beacoup (“thank you very much”) sounded hilariously like the English word “mercy” and the Japanese standard-male I boku [僕]. He also enjoyed yelling swear words around.

HYDE: Inside concert in Le Bataclan. View of the whole stage.

On other concerts, Hyde has poured a bottle of fake blood on his head towards the end. Knowing what had happened in that venue, I am extremely happy he did not do such thing. During the goodbye, he sent “his condolences to those who passed away in this venue”. That almost broke me, honestly.

HYDE: Inside concert in Le Bataclan. Hyde wrapped in the French flag as he gives his condolences for the terrorist attack ten years prior.

All in all, it was a really good concert, and I enjoyed it a lot but… in a different way from I used to. More like I enjoy Starset. I thought it was just that I had a different connection to them, but I now believe it’s a change within me since the Pandemic. I just do not live concerts in the same way any more. I think I am okay with that. I really liked the aforementioned 6or9, Midnight Celebration II and, somehow, Glamorous Sky, which was a song I had never really felt a connection with before.

After the concert, we went through the typical Japanese ritual of waving goodbye to the artists as they leave, and someone from the flats above through a bucket of water at the car. They must have been annoyed by the noise, though it was a Friday and not even 23:00, along with it being a busy boulevard with lots of bars and restaurants around. D****e and I made a short pit stop at the nearby convenience store, which apparently was open beyond its usual time to carter to the concertgoers (I love when they do that). I got a sandwich and a coffee for the next morning, but I never thought about buying lunch too. Afterwards, I took a shower and we went to sleep (or try to) for a few (very few) hours.

13th November 2025: Notre Dame, twice {France & Monaco, November 2025}

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I left the house a little earlier than 6:30, and I reached the parking lot at 7:50, though the theory is a 38-minute drive – the joys of mid-week rush-hour traffic. But I made it, and it was only a few minutes’ wait for the shuttle-bus, so I got to the terminal pretty quickly after that. Security was smooth, boarding went well, and I got to snooze on my 9:45 plane. Pretty good jump, all things considered. We landed at Charles de Gaulle airport a few minutes early, and I was at the train station relatively fast. It was a short walk away, and it looked familiar – I had done it to get to my first-night hotel for the Saint Seiya Symphonic Adventure Weekend. I needed to buy a Navigo transport card too, on top of the price of the ticket, but after wrestling the machine, I just took the RER, and was downtown Paris around 13:00. I stepped out of the underground stop right in front of Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris.

Notre-Dame (Our Lady) is the Catholic cathedral of Paris. It was founded in 1163, and its construction spanned about a century. It was repeatedly modified afterwards, with some reconstruction. The building is considered one of the most important examples of the French Gothic architecture, including innovations such as the flying buttresses, rib vault, and the rose window above the gate.

The cathedral was damaged during the French Revolution (1789 – 1799), and converted into a secular “temple of reason” – the Cult of Reason tried to take over Christianity during the period. In 1831, Victor Hugo’s novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (original title: Notre-Dame de Paris) was published, and it sparked renewed interest in the building. Around this time, architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc was promoting gothic as the purest form of architecture, so he took up the refurbishing of the cathedral. He had a vision of restoration which implied “doing what the Medieval Builders would do with modern technology”, an approach that has earned contempt with time. He placed a spire on the roof of the cathedral, despite the original having been lost centuries before.

This spire was later destroyed during a fire in 2019. While the cause of the blaze has not been disclosed, flames ravaged the structure during 15 hours, destroying most of the wooden parts of the cathedral, and damaging the upper walls. The fire broke out around 18:20, and due to problems or mistakes, the firefighting brigade was not notified until almost 19:00. Paris firefighters had trained extensively to prevent a disaster in the building, but the old wood had been burning for 40 minutes when they arrived. Most of the extinction work was carried out within the walls of the building itself – I clearly remember that there were fears that a tower would collapse on the brigade.

Fortunately, the stone structure of the ceiling and walls withstood the blaze, and the building did not cave in. The cathedral holds relics important to Christianity, including the purported Crown of Thrones, and those were taken out for safekeeping. Furthermore, a number of artworks had been removed because there was restoration going on. When I was in the area in February 2020, just before the Covid lockdowns, I was shocked that the site still reeked of smoke.

Though the Catholic church as exclusive and perpetual right to use the building, Notre-Dame belongs to the French Government. It was declared historical monument in 1862, and it has been part of the Unesco Heritage Site Paris, Banks of the Seine since 1991. All these characteristics protected it from “daring” post-fire projects such as modernist windows or alternative spires. The first phase of reconstruction were consolidation projects, to make sure the water had not damaged the stone, building scaffolds which have not been completely taken down yet. Then the debris was taken out, and finally rebuilding work would start in 2021. Though some experts predicted decades of reconstruction, the cathedral safely opened for Advent in 2024, though there are still works going on.

Despite having a timed ticket for peace of mind, I did not need it. There were barriers to optimise a queue, but I only had to walk through. I went to show my backpack to the security guards, and they were extremely nice and laid-back. When I said I was coming from the airport, they waved me through after a quick visual inspection.

Exterior of Notre Dame.

My feeling when I got inside was “woah, white”. The walls were treated with a special solution that not only removed the soot, also did away with centuries’ worth of patina. The building was packed, so it was hard to wander around and enjoy, but Notre-Dame is one of my favourite pieces of architecture, and I loved being able to walk inside once more. Nevertheless, I preferred the old, greyish interior. To collaborate with the cathedral’s maintenance – or so I tell myself – I bought a commemorative coin. Then I decided I needed the second one (do keep score, this whole thing with the coins was to become a pattern in this trip).

Interior of Notre Dame.

I could see people working on the second floor behind the altar, it was a bit surreal. After I had walked the inside, I went around the building to check out the construction, then moved on along the Seine towards another of my favourite places in Paris, the Gallery of Palaeontology and Comparative Anatomy, Galerie de Paléontologie et d’Anatomie comparée, part of the French National Museum of Natural History, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle. The gallery is going to be “closed for refurbishing”, which I fear will make it lose its charm, so I really had to visit this time around.

The French National Museum of Natural History was established in 1793. However, the project that would eventually lead to this gallery did not start until the Gallery of Zoology had been inaugurated, in 1889. The building was designed by architect Ferdinand Dutert, with two floors and three levels, alongside a few balconies. It was erected between 1893 and 1898, when it was inaugurated. The structure is stupidly impressive and beautiful – the outside is made of brick and the interior has mainly metal and wood. Most of the second floor is actually a mezzanine, which originally held the collection of anthropology, and now the plant fossils. The first floor holds the palaeontology specimens, and at ground level stands the compared anatomy collection. It is a museum of its time, with that charm that contemporary ones do not hold.

Upon entering, my backpack was thoroughly checked – the guard even made me use my phone to give him light as he went through my stuff before he let me in. I paid my fee and stepped into the ground floor, with its cavalcade of skeletons. As you enter, a human figure greets you, and behind him stand hundreds of mounted skeletons, the Gallery of Comparative Anatomy, following a very specific order – and one day I hope to know enough French to understand. First there are the pinnipeds and land carnivores, then herbivores and after a small separation, the cetacean group. On the cases along the walls, birds and smaller mammals are protected. The the far right corner, there is a small (but creepy) collection of “aberrations”.

Gallery of Paleontology and Comparative Anatomy: model human in front of the skeletons of mammals.

Gallery of Paleontology and Comparative Anatomy: skeletons of modern cetaceans.

The first floor, which is accessed through a stone staircase, holds the Palaeontology Gallery, with casts of the specimen of diplodocus, a T-Rex, allosaurus, a replica of one of the Bernissart iguanodons, allosaurus, pterosaur, sarcosuchus… On the other side of the ward stands an impressive mammoth, known as Le mammoth de Durfort (the Durfort Mammoth). Discovered in 1869, it is one of the largest of its kind (Mammuthus meridionalis) ever assembled. It has been recently restored, too, so it looks rather impressive. To its side stands the only authentic skeleton of the only woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) preserved outside Russia.

Gallery of Paleontology and Comparative Anatomy: second floor looking at the dinosaurs and the gallery.

There is also a skeleton of a Cynthiacetus peruvianus, a toothed whale, one of the oldest cetaceans ever discovered. This creature lived around 37 million years ago, in the Late Eocene. The whole gallery is fascinating, if also a bit unsettling, especially the ground floor. I could’ve stayed there for hours, but my friend D****e’s plane had landed a little early and I had promised to meet her at the station.

Gallery of Paleontology and Comparative Anatomy: skeletons of toothed whale, giant sloth and early quadrupedal mammals.

I then ran into a problem in the underground. It turns out that you cannot put a ticket in a Navigo pass that you have used for the airport (at least on the same day), so I had to purchase yet another pass! We managed to meet and headed to the hotel, where we only got one room card because it was strictly not taking it out. They were very upset with me for not speaking French – I can speak a bit of it, and I read it pretty well when it’s simple (so no detailed anatomy explanations) and I’ve got time, but I can’t understand much beyond the super-basics to save my life.

D****e suggested going out for a walk, and we headed off. The street where Le Bataclan was closed off as there was a remembrance ceremony for the victims of the terrorist attacks. We then headed further towards Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris (yes, again. No, I did not complain). We were shocked about the number of police officers that were around, but later we learnt that there was another ceremony at the nearby town hall, which was lit in the colours of the French flag, like the Palais de la Cité opposite Notre-Dame. There was again no queue to enter the cathedral, and the building was open late, so we took another tour inside, as it was artificially lit. On top it being Thursday, there was a mass, maybe for the victims of the attack too. The night felt pretty heavy, to be honest.

Notre Dame cathedral, outside and inside, at dusk.

Paris town hall at night with the French flag projected on the façade.

We walked a bit further, strolling along the Seine. We passed by the church Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois on our way to take silly pictures with the Louvre Pyramid Pyramide du Louvre, the polemic skylight entrance designed by architect I. M. Pei and installed in 1989. Back then, it was incredibly controversial, especially due to how it clashed with the French Renaissance style of the square and buildings around it. I personally think the structure is ugly, but it has been there for most of my life, I can’t remember the Louvre without it.

Paris and the Seine riverbank at night.

Louvre Pyramid at night.

We then headed back towards the hotel area. We walked back by the memorial service at the town hall, they had launched drones up to the sky. For dinner, I had found a fun place called Stellar which reminded me of the rock band Starset, and booked it. I figured that if she was too jet-lagged, we could always cancel, but that way we had a secured spot. Stellar is managed by the group Ephemera, which creates “immersive restaurants”, and this particular place is “set in space”. The light is low, there are planets and stars hanging from the ceiling, and the solar system slowly slides around you in giant screens. It was really cool, and they were happy to help us in English.

Drones in the Paris night sky to commemorte the 13 November 2015 attacks.

Stellar makes a point of telling you where their dishes, recipes and ingredients come from. We chose three items to share: Truffle baked Camembert (from France), Galactic houmous (from the Middle East, but with a Mediterranean twist – olives), and Shallot flank steak (medium-rare, also from France, though the actual meat was Irish) with fries. The houmous was a bit too heavy, but everything was delicious. The decoration was amazing too, and we had a great time as planets and moons floated around us. Once you book, you have a table for 75 minutes, and they were so efficient that it did not even feel short – we were waiting for food for a very short time. We forewent desserts because we were full – even if I had somehow managed to skip lunch. That was not a great idea… I think I’ll try to chase a couple more of the immersive restaurants if / when I come back to Paris.

Food at Stellar in Paris.

We headed back to the hotel for an early night, though I did not sleep that much, if at all, and the night was very short.

13th – 17th November 2025: City breaks in France & Monaco {France & Monaco, November 2025}

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When back in May 2025, Hyde announced his [Inside] Live 2025 World Tour with several stops in Europe, I wished that I could feel the excitement that used to take over before the pandemic. But truth be told, both Japan and JRockers have made a bunch of questionable decisions as of late. It fell kind of flat, to the point I even considered not going. Hyde himself has said and done a few things I can’t agree with, and I did not know if I wanted to give him money. I was in Malta when the ticket sales started, and I decided something – if the concert was not sold out when I came back, I would go to the show in Paris, France (and see a friend or two, hopefully).

I found tickets upon my return, even VIP options. Though apparently there were a lot of issues with the upgrades, I was able to purchase a VIP package without a hiccup. Not that it had many perks – early entry, priority merch shopping, and soundcheck. However, French fans are hardcore, and I thought being a VIP gave me more leeway to find a safe spot in the venue.

Once that was taken care for, I started organising the trip. The concert was on a Friday in November, a month when I have usually finished work season, so I could take off for a few days. I fumbled with dates a little, and – just for kicks and giggles – I looked for things to do outside Paris. I found an insanely cheap train ticket for Nice, and it turned out that flying round trip to Paris was about the same price as flying to Paris, then taking this train, and flying back from Nice. Furthermore, I found a Nice hotel at a great price.

You might wonder about the sudden Nice idea. Nice was not the goal here (though I ended up enjoying it more than expected), Monaco was. Since I was a little child, there is one place I’ve always wanted to visit, but the stars never aligned for it – the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco. This time around, everything seemed to be fitting in flawlessly. I know I cannot afford to stay in Monte-Carlo, but Nice is about 20 minutes away using public transport.

I locked planes and trains. I found a hotel near the Paris venue to share with a friend, booked tickets for the Oceanographic Museum, bought a small Nice and Monaco guidebook, and turned on about a hundred alarms to remember to book free tickets for Notre Dame (three days before in May, two when I actually got down to it in November). It kind of looked like a trip like any other.

France & Monaco, November 2025

It was not.. There is something else I feel I need to address beforehand. Hyde’s concert was in the venue called Le Bataclan on the 14th of November. Ten years prior, on the 13th November 2015, 90 people died there.

During 2015, France suffered a number of terror attacks, linked – by self-claim – to the Islamic State, or IS. Thriving between 2013 and 2017, IS was designated as a terrorist organisation by the United Nations, as it enforced an extreme version of the Islamic Law and the war against the infidel. They stated they had control over worldwide Muslims, though most of them refused. On the 13th of November, a terror operation was launched in Paris, ending the lives of 130 innocents and 7 attackers.

Three suicide bombers attacked the stadium Stade de France, though they could not gain access. Another group ran rampart shooting at cafés and customers downtown. Around 22:00, a third cell broke into the Bataclan, shot at the 1500 concergoers, and took the survivors hostage. The attackers claimed to be avenging airstrikes against IS. Police attempted to enter the building twice, and tried to negotiate for 50 minutes, until there was a full-blown charge shortly after midnight.

Most of the victims died in the first few minutes of each attack, but some took their own lives at later dates due to PTSD. On top of the 130 casualties, there were 416 injured, about a hundred in serious condition. The attacks sparked rejection by thousands of people – there were vigils all over the world, social media campaigns spread like wildfire, and monuments were lit with the colour of the French flag. In Paris, a state of emergency was declared, people were urged to stay home, and residents opened their doors to those who became stranded and couldn’t go back to their own places due to lack of public transport. Schools and universities did not open on the 14th, sports events were cancelled, and the army was deployed in town. Even Disneyland and the Eiffel Tower closed down. On the 15th, the French Air Force launched its largest operation against IS, carrying out airstrikes in their claimed territories, mostly in Iraq and Syria.

French President François Hollande declared a nationwide state of emergency, which was extended until mid 2016. But then, the Nice attacks happened – around 22:30 on Bastille day (14th July) 2016, a man drove a truck into crowd celebrating at the promenade, killing 86 people and injuring 458 others. IS also claimed responsibility for the attack, and the state of emergency was extended again until 26th January 2017.

Thus on this trip, a lot of this was weighing on my mind, especially in Paris, as we were there during the ten-year anniversary. We saw the police officers, the candles and the flowers. People coming and going, people who might have been there that day. People who lost someone.

So thank you, Hyde, for foregoing your act of singing drenched in blood, because that would have been traumatising. On my account, nothing further from my intention than exploiting the pain of so many people, or making it about me, but there is no way I can describe those two days in Paris without referencing the memorials and vigils. I’ll do my best to do it in the most respectful and caring way possible. However, as I look back on the unadulterated joy my inner child felt in the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco, I wish I could return to that actual innocence, and not have to think about how the world can be a scary place sometimes…

Before the trip I did try not to read up much on the attacks and remind myself of what I had heard a decade before. My plane was scheduled to land in Paris Charles de Gaulle around noon, so I hoped to be downtown around 13:30. Though the RER is only about 45 minutes, the last time I landed there, we had to wait 40 minutes for buses to get to the terminal. Since people had been complaining about the queues at Notre Dame, I booked a free entry ticket for 14:15. I actually was up at midnight two days before to secure the entrance spot (and one the following day for emergencies).

I also purchased my Oceanographic Museum ticket in Monte-Carlo, and tried to find out how to book at the Casino, though whenever I tried, I ended up at the luxury items page. Don’t get me wrong, I would have loved a tour on a Ferrari through Monte-Carlo, or – even if I have no idea about car racing – a ride on the circuit. But I don’t have the budget for that, even in the lowest low season. Oh, and I bought a raincoat because the weather app forecast rain with a 95% chance on Saturday, and 100% on Sunday…

Thus, here are my adventures in Paris, Nice and Monaco in November 2025.

27th & 28th April 2024: Paris & the Fan Festival (France)

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27th April 2024: From the Fan Fest to Les Invalides

My grandmother used to say that nothing good happens before sunrise, and to be honest, when the alarm clock rang at 4:40 on Saturday, I was very tempted to believe so. However, there were planes to catch, and red-eye flights are called so for a reason. My sibling and I had tickets for Paris on a 7:25 flight, which required us to be at the airport with enough time to board ± 30 minutes in case we had to get to the Satellite Terminal. Since I started planning with time – back in January – I had booked a parking spot in the actual terminal parking lot, for just a couple quid more than the long-stay one, and I activated a service the airport has so your card is billed automatically when your licence plate is detected, for convenience.

We reached the terminal with plenty of time (± 30 minutes) but recent problems with French air controllers going on strike, I was anything but calm. However, we took off on time and I just huddled off to nap. Arrival in Orly was early, and we did not taxi much, nor need buses. We just stepped off at the gate, and headed towards the Orlyval. We bought a Paris Visit card each, in order to be able to ride the public transport system as much as we needed for the weekend, and hopped on the shuttle. After a couple of transfers and a short walk, we arrived at the exhibition centre Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, where Paris Fan Festival took place.

Paris Fan Festival is a yearly convention that focuses on everything geek / nerd / niche, whatever you want to call it: video games (and retro video games), Star Wars, TV series, Ghostbusters, manga, comics, K-pop, there’s something just for everyone. I think it’s a bit of what Japan Weekend aims to be, but openly. It felt a little like that Funko slogan “Everyone is a fan of something”.

My reason to be there was European comic, actually. Authors (and married couple) Stjepan Šejić and Linda Lukšić Šejić, whom I’ve been following for a few years now, were in attendance. Stjepan Šejić has worked for DC in works such as Aquaman, Harley Quinn, and Suicide Squad, but he has gone independent, focusing on his own content creation. So has Linda Šejić, who started off at Image Comics and currently works on her own web comics. I’m currently buying his works Sunstone, Fine Print and my favourite Death Vigil, and her Blood Stain and Punderworld, the latter based on the Greek myth of Hades and Persephone. I also have the Aquaman hardcover that compiles all of Stjepan’s issues, and the Batman-character self-conclusive Harleen.

Of course, I wore an appropriate “Velocirapture” T-shirt to the event. The goal was to get an issue of each collection signed, and maybe a commission and some merch. In the end, we could only get a commission from Linda – we almost got one from Stjepan too, but things did not work too well on that front. I hope to get one next time they’re reachable – I actually wanted to go and meet him a while back, but I was in the middle of a weekend in Cuenca back in 2017.

Paris Fan Festival: Stjepan Šejić and Linda Lukšić Šejić

My sibling and I wandered through Paris Fan Festival for a few hours. We had something to eat at a Paul’s bakery, which I had discovered in Toulouse, and whose prices were not stupidly inflated by being inside the convention. Unfortunately though, I had followed the instructions of the venue and I was not carrying any water, and just a small backpack. I could’ve completely ignored the rules though, just like… most everybody else did. I did learn a valiable lesson though – when travelling to conventions for people, you buy tickets for both days. Just in case.

One of the most interesting vendors at Paris Fan Festival was the Lyon Cinema and Miniature Museum Musée Cinéma et Miniature, which had brought many sci-fi props from their permanent exhibition. They had the tip of a pyramid, a hieroglyph stone and a mask from the original Stargate film, ), a compsognathus animatronic, and the velociraptor claws from the Jurassic Park saga (), Loki’s mask from The Mask, a xenomorph head from Alien, suits from one of the older Batman films and Armageddon, prosthetics from X-Men…

Samples of the Lyon Cinema and Miniature Museum at the Paris Fan Festival

As every other niche convention, were tons shops with merchandise, books and comics, not all of them legal. They held an exhibit of figures and statuettes. There were also a number of conferences – pity that the one about Jurassic Park was in French, too. Also, I discovered that France has a lot of “replica” culture – there was an actual “Imperial Army” (Star Wars), someone who had customised a car into the Ectomobile from Ghostbusters (2016), even people impersonating Tolkien’s orcs… It goes a little beyond cosplay… Supposedly, there was someone walking around with a dragon, but we did not run into them.

Paris Fan Festival snippets

Eventually, we left the convention to find our way to the hotel and drop the luggage, since comics are heavy, and Paris is on high alert and most places won’t let you through with backpacks. We wasted some time finding the hotel as it was raining cats and dogs – and they were remodelling, so the outer signal was not there. After check-in, we headed out again, and when we reached our next destination, it had literally stopped selling tickets – it was one hour and four minutes to closing time, and the recommended time is one hour and five minutes, so sadly, we could not get in.

It was a bit disappointing, but we moved on towards Arènes de Lutèce. Lutetia (Lutèce) was the Latin name for Paris when it was part of the Roman Empire, and the amphitheatre is one of the most important remains from that period. Built during the first century CE, it would have seated 15,000 spectators. It was restored and open to the public at the end of the 19th century. Today, it is the centre of a park.

Lutetia Amphitheatre

After that, we took the underground towards the high-end department store Galeries Lafayette Paris Haussmann. In 1894, two Parisian businessmen opened a shop that would eventually become the biggest department store chain in Europe. Through the following decades, the businessmen bought buildings around the shop in order to grow their emporium. In 1907, architect Georges Chedanne carried out the first main renovation in the Art Déco style, and Ferdinand Chanut completed it with a Neo-Byzantine dome, built in 1912. Today, the galleries focus heavily on luxury products, and not that we could afford any, but I wanted to see the dome.

When we arrived, we snooped around – it was packed, full with high-end tourists, mostly Asians. The brands selling their products were the most expensive ones – from Chanel to Cartier. As we were admiring the dome, we saw there was a glass walk hanging from the balcony on the htird floor. Of course, we had to investigate. It was around 17:30. We found the end of the queue, and saw that there was a QR to reserve a spot. I was able to book us in for 19:20 – surprising, considering it was the same day, and access is free – maybe it was a language barrier or something? I’m not going to complain.

There was a nearby gallery I also wanted to see, Passage du Havre, a typical Parisian shopping passage. It was less impressive than the Lafayette, but also surprisingly cosy – as my sibling put it “the other guys have Chanel, they’ve got Sephora”. It had some nice decoration and quite a different crowd. Furthermore, we had been up since 4:00, and ate quite early, so when we found a Pret a Manger, we decided to buy dinner there.

Passage Du Havre escalators

We went back to Galeries Lafayette for our “Glasswalk” experience, and it was really, really cool. The staff were also impressively friendly and we enjoyed ourselves immensely for the whole… five minutes of it. I really loved the dome.

Upper floor of the Galerie Lafayette

We finally headed off towards Napoleon’s tomb, the Dôme des Invalides in the complex Hôtel des Invalides. Hôtel des Invalids was originally commissioned by Louis XIV in 1670 as a hospital for disabled soldiers. The church-and-chapel complex was designed by Jules Hardouin-Mansart in several iterations from 1676 on. The complex is considered one of the most iconic examples of the French absolute monarchy Baroque style. When Napoleon’s remains were repatriated in 1840, a state funeral was held, and a mausoleum projected in the crypt under the Dome. Construction of the grave extended until 1861, when the former Emperor was finally entombed there.

We were going to see the light mapping event Aura Invalides, a spin off of sorts from the display in the Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal (Canada). The show highlights the history, architecture and meaning of the monument through light and orchestral music. The event lasts about 45 minutes, and it comprises three parts: First Movement: Creation, which focuses on the architecture of the monument; Second Movement: Collective Memory, through which you get to wander, seeing different effects in the chapels; and finally Third Movement: Universal Elevation, more spiritual and ethereal.

Projections inside the Invalides church

Les Invalides church by night

Afterwards, we headed towards the hotel to have a shower and sleep.

28th April 2024: No plans, really

After a nice breakfast at our hotel, we tried our luck at the Paris Fan Festival again. We got our drawings from Linda Šejić, but Stjepan Šejić had brought all the wrong markers and was not doing any more commissions. I offered my own pen, just to test the waters, and it was unfortunate that he did not take the bait.

Oh, well. You can’t win all the time. Instead of wallowing in our bad luck, we decided to get going and do something cool. For me that meant the park known as Jardin des Plantes, to visit two sites of the French Natural History Museum Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle. The day had started weirdly, with my underground ticket not working, but my sibling’s doing so. A lady who did not seem to enjoy being stuck at work Sunday morning waved us through without exchanging it. As the ticket was still not working when we left Paris Expo, another employee exchanged it.

The first site we visited was the Great Gallery of Evolution, Grande Galerie de l’Évolution, the biggest site of the French Natural History Museum. It has four visitable levels – the upper balcony (third floor), focused on “Evolution of life”, the second floor “Impact of man in life”, and the first and ground floors that deal “Diversity of life” (terrestrial on the first, marine on the ground floor). The way it is arranged makes it, in my view, a companion to the Gallery of Compared Anatomy – (which I still like best, to be honest).

The collection finds its core in the disappeared Zoology Gallery, whose building dates back from 1877. Designed by architect Jules André, the interior was a cast-iron structure with a central nave and a skylight. Although the original project was never completed, the Galerie de Zoologie was inaugurated in 1889. It closed down in 1966 for restoration, although works were actually only carried out between 1991 and 1994. During this time, taxidermist also took care of about a thousand animals. Today, the gallery holds a cavalcade of savannah animals on the ground floor, and more conservative vitrines and glass cases on the upper floors. The museum still keeps the 19th century allure and entertaining aura – we did not go into any of the VR experiences, as they were sold out (and, you know, in French), so we did not see the more modern area of the museum.

Great Gallery of Evolution

We started off on the third floor and made our way down to the ground level. There were a ton of taxidermy animals, collections of insects and shells, even a wool one, and some bizarre specimens such as a tiger attacking an elephant with a chair on top… To be honest, though, I think it is more of a regular zoology gallery, just arranged in a surprising way. I found the evolution angle better developed at Brussel’s Natural History Museum. The classical design is extremely cool, though, and it would have given a great feeling had it not for all the free-range kids wildly running around…

Afterwards, we headed off to the geology and mineralogy gallery, Galerie de Géologie et de Minéralogie, which had a really nice collection of gemstones, crystals and jewellery. And of course, fluorescent rocks which kept my attention for a very long while.

Mineral and geology gallery

It was almost lunchtime and we decided to head out towards a busier area to grab a bite. My Paris Visit ticket was not working again, and I exchanged it yet once more. I went through, but my sibling did not, so they had to wait in queue again to exchange that too. Apparently, I was keeping the tickets too close to my phone – even if it was the one without internet? I deemed my sibling responsible for the tickets from then on.

We stepped out at Palais Royal–Musée du Louvre, hoping there were places to eat, and we were right – there were a bunch of them along the street. The one that grabbed our attention was Café Brasserie Ragueneau, a small eatery close to the Louvre. There, I splurged on a Tartare de boeuf poêlé au foie gras (Pan-fried beef tartare with foie gras) just to be a snob. It was delicious. The foie gras version came slightly cooked, though the raw version would have been fantastic. Our waiters were extremely friendly too, and tolerated my poor French with a smile.

Pan-fried beef tartare with foie gras

After lunch, we walked to the last place on my list for the trip – the church Église Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois de Paris, which mixes elements of Romanesque, Flamboyant Gothic, Rayonnant, and Renaissance styles, though the tower – my favourite – was only added in 1860 as part of Baron Haussmann’s plan to reconstruct the city. The base of the church dates from the 12th century, and during the 14th and 15th centuries it was decorated with a balustrade by Jean Gaussel, multiple sculptures, and gargoyles. The interior is lighter than usual gothic churches, and there is a monumental set of carved wooden seats for the royal family. There are multiple windows with stained glass, although not all of them are the original Medieval ones, since they were destroyed during the French Revolution and replaced in the 19th century.

Church of Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois

The Louvre was not selling same-day tickets, so our idea to spend a couple of hours there went bust. Then, we decided to walk towards Île de la Cité to check on the cathedral’s progress, as it is supposed to reopen this year, when reconstruction from the 2019 fire has been completed. I wanted to check something called Tunnel des Tuileries, but I misunderstood – I thought it crossed underneath the Seine to get to the Isle of France; apparently I mixed it with a pedestrian tunnel under the Thames – it turned out to be a place of modern art, and it did not feel too safe. Thus, we continued under the sun, and reached the flower market Marché aux Fleurs Reine Elizabeth II.

We found out that a sort of stage has been built for visitors to sit in front of Notre Dame, and we saw a lot of people taking pictures of the pictures on the wall, which was a bit weird. We sat for a while, but not long because there was a guy singing really badly at the square.

Notre Dame under reconstruction

We went on and saw the park Square René Viviani, where the oldest tree in Paris stands. Next to the park is the church Église Saint-Julien le Pauvre and close to Église Saint-Séverin. We could not enter any of them, so instead we decided to sit down to have a coffee – in my case a “detox smoothie” because the orange-and-carrot blend reminded me of one in Japan I really like.

We finally set off to collect our things, and this is when I usually say I got home without an incident. Not this time. The public-transport tickets worked fine to get to the airport, we bought dinner and settled to wait. There was nothing much too strange, we were late – forty, forty-five minutes? I’m not sure, but not an obscene amount of time – the crew announced connections over the PA system, I thought that was nice of them. When we landed… I had a moment that I did not know where we were, which is strange, because the terminal is pretty straight forward. It turns out that in order for the travellers who had connections to South America to make it, we had landed at the Satellite Terminal, not the main building! Which meant over thirty minutes of “commute” back to the parking lot… I had taken a leeway of around an hour and a half after landing to get out, but we barely made it!!

A nice weekend to break out the routine, a lot of comics signed, and a lovely piece of artwork were achieved. Unfortunately, I caught a stupid, stupid cold, my first since the whole Covid thing started, and my immune system freaked out. It seems it’s back to facemasks on planes for me.

13th – 15th May 2022: Paris (France) & Saint Seiya Symphonic Adventure

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This has been a weird ride in more ways than one. Back when we did not know what kind of hell was breaking loose in Wuhan, I went to Paris for a couple of concerts with the idea of coming back in a few week’s time. Instead of that, Covid turned the world upside down. Four postponements later, and a stupid amount of money I am not even going to calculate, I finally set off to Paris, France, once more, to watch the Saint Seiya Symphonic Adventure. The concert that was supposed to happen on the 18th of April, 2020 finally took place on the 14th of May, 2022, and the promoter handled the postponements pretty badly, which led to a lot of people returning their tickets at some point.

Ticket. Frand Rex 75002 Paris, Overlook Events Presente: Saint Seiya Symphonic Adventure. Les Chevaliers du Zodiaque. Samedi 30 Octobre 2021, 19:30 h. Orchestre Chevaliers Dor. Eur 240,00. Accès VIP. The rest of the information is blurred.

Corny and problematic as it may be, Saint Seiya [聖闘士星矢] was my favourite anime as a child – it was exciting and my parents heavily disapproved of it, the perfect mixture for a pre-teen finding their place in the world. In December 2019, I do not even remember how, I came across the information about the event, described as a fully-immersive live-to-picture symphonic concert with the music from pop-culture […] synchronized to cutting edge video screen, lighting and special sound effects. Similarly to the recent Final Fantasy Remake concert, the idea is an orchestra concert with the original singers for some of the musical pieces, along with projections of the original cartoon. Overlook announced an afternoon and an evening concerts. However, by the time I found out that the event had been planned, tickets had been on sale for a while. I managed to get a fairly decent ticket for the afternoon concert, but and a very bad one for the evening concert as part of Christmas sales (which meant I got both tickets for the price of the normal “good” afternoon ticket). At the time, I was ecstatic, as you may guess, though a tiny bit bummed I had not learnt about the whole thing in time to get some VIP tickets.

Enter Covid-19. One postponement led to another, and then another. At some point in late summer 2021 I entered the ticket page for something, and I could not believe my eyes – someone had returned one of the second-tier VIP tickets, and… I got that one. I seriously could not believe it. One of twelve (with the name of one of twelve characters of the show), it came with goodies, access to the rehearsal, and the autograph session after the show. So I now had a good ticket and a fantastic ticket!

Then the event got postponed again, barely three weeks before. I was… miffed. Eventually though, the promoter got in touch with me and I was assigned a character, I bought plane tickets (again), booked a hotel (again – in this case I booked two, one at the airport and one near the theatre), and… held my breath.

When the Japanese singers arrived in Paris, I realised that it was finally happening. And thus, I booked my airport parking ticket and… held my breath again. Iberia’s check in gave me trouble, but I eventually managed to get my boarding pass (I could check in on the webpage, but only get my boarding pass from the app), and fill in the passenger form to get into France.

The plane left late on Friday evening, and it was a long weekend in Madrid, so I left with time – a lot of time. I learnt two things: one, my planning skills are awesome, and two, my car has run out of air-con gas, as I got caught in a bad traffic jam, and yet somehow I arrived within five minutes of my expected entrance time. The flight to Paris was stupidly uneventful and I was surprised at how nicely the security personnel actually behaved.

Upon arriving in Charles de Gaulle I walked out of the plane into the bus and then to the terminal. There was no kind of health check whatsoever, so I could just walk up to my hotel, which was strangely bustling for it being near midnight.

14th May 2022: Paris & Grand Rex

The organisers had sent me an email that I had to be at the Grand Rex theatre at 10 a.m. in order to pick up my goodie bag. It turned out that the email was wrong, and I was not to be there till 11 a.m. The Grand Rex is an art decó building which, like a bunch of things I saw, was under renovation.

Outside the Grand Rex. It is only a huge scaffolding as the façade is being renovated.

Throughout all the waiting for the different sessions I took a few strolls around the area of Grand Boulevards after dropping off my luggage at the hotel. I ambled round and saw two smallish triumph arcs – Porte Saint-Denis and Porte Saint-Martin.

Two monumental gates in the middle of crossroads. The traffic is horrible.

Also around the area are Mairie du 10e arrondissement, a Renaissance Revival public building, Église Saint-Laurent (Church of Saint Lawrence), a gothic chapel which was also under reconstruction, Église Saint-Vincent-de-Paul (Saint-Vincent de Paul Catholic Church). A bit further away stands Gare de l’Est, one of the six large stations in Paris.

Some buildings, including a gothic church, a neoclassical one, and a 19th century train station.

At 11:00, I finally got into the Grand Rex to watch the rehearsal, which lasted about an hour. I had been lucky to find a staff member who spoke English as I was apparently the only non-French-speaker in the VIP group, and he told me that the artists would come to say hello after the rehearsal. He added that as everything would be French and Japanese I’d be lost. I replied that I had better Japanese than French anyway. After the rehearsal we got to wave hello to the two Japanese special guests – popster NoB (Nobuo Yamada) and soprano Kazuko Ishikawa.

The staff member was very proud to point out the “Spanish person who had come from Spain” to the Japanese staff. Nob said “gracias” to which I replied in Japanese – the standard “we are looking forward to the act today”, which I guess threw everybody off a little, and got me an also standard “nihongo joozu” (you are good at Japanese” that the Japanese tell you when you’ve thrown the curveball of talking to them in their language. At this point, I became noticed.

I left the theatre for a while and came back for the first concert, which started late. The venue was rather empty, and during the break a bunch of people tried to parachute into better seats. I saw some other VIPs who had gotten a complimentary seat. As the lights went out the only thing that went through my head was “I can’t believe this is finally happening” again and again and again.

The inside of Grand Rex. The stage is a great arch with the words Saint Seiya Symphonic Adventure projected on a screen

But it was happening. The recital was divided in two acts – the first one aligned with the first arc of the anime, and the second with arcs two and three, what is call the “classical anime” as the final act was not animated up until a couple of decades later.

ACT 1
Opening
Pegasus Fantasy
The Galaxian Wars
Hyoga and Crystal Saint
Silver and Gold Saints
Zodiac Temples Part I
Ikki’s Wrath
Zodiac Temples Part II
Victory of the Heroes
Eien Blue

ACT 2
Saint Sinwa ~Soldier Dream
The Seven God Warriors
The Fury of Asgard
The Odin Sapphires
Yume Tabibito
Poseidon’s Lair

ENCORE: Pegasus Fantasy

Bluntly put, I loved it, but mostly because of nostalgia. The first one was better than the second, but there were issues with the sound, and the microphones, and at times the orchestra complete swallowed the vocals. The conductor was hilariously into it, bouncing in his platform. The harp was fantastic, and the soprano spectacular. NoB, the pop singer… is showing his age, but did a decent job of getting the audience hyped-up.

The orchestra on the stage. Images from the anime are projected on the screen.

Another of the guests was the voice actor who played the main character in the original French anime version, and boy did he bring down the walls. People absolutely loved him. To be honest, I was rather surprised at the audience’s attitude towards the whole thing, with clapping and yelling and – among everything – parachuting to better seats. I wonder whether this last thing is usual or just due to the stalls being rather empty (after all there was “free seating” in the first-floor paradise).

I went to the hotel between the first and second concert to retrieve my things and get some rest, but eventually I got back to the theatre. There were more people this time around, and my seat was undoubtedly better. It was there when I got “adopted” by the high-class VIPs, who had been very amused at my having been “lost” and then surprised at the fact that yes, I could speak some Japanese. Thanks to them I found my way to the signing session and got my programme signed by both NoB and Kazuko Kawashima. I did trip over my Japanese there, but I should have known I don’t do well trying to learn new words just before post-concert signing sessions.

Merchandise included in the VIP ticket: mug, t-shirt, posters and booklet, all with images from the Saint Seiya anime

A close up of the booklet - showing the signatures of the singer and the soprano, and the VIP badge.

15th May 2022: Angels, Unicorns and Organ Music

I checked in early in the morning and I fought the Paris Metro system to a) find an entrance where I could buy tickets and b) make the machine work so I could buy those tickets. My first destination was the largest cemetery in Paris – Cimetière du Père-Lachaise. This early 19th century cemetery holds the remains of personalities such as Oscar Wilde, whose grave is protected by a glass wall as it became a fad to put lipstick on and kiss it, which was damaging it; the grave looks like a Babylonian bull or angel. Another grave I wanted to visit was that for Jean-François Champollion – the man who discovered the Rosetta stone, whose tomb looks like an obelisk. And after some wrong turns I also found Frédéric Chopin (minus his preserved heart, which was taken to Poland); this tomb features Euterpe, the muse of music, crying over a broken lyre.

Graves at Père-Lachaise: a flying Babylonian angel (Wilde), an obelisk (Champollion), a muse weeping on her lyre (Chopin).

The cemetery was not as well laid-out as I had hoped so after a while wandering around I decided to move on. On Friday I had read that the museum of Medieval History and the old Therms of Paris had been reopened after a long closure. Thus, I decided to skip looking for more “celebrity graves” and headed towards central Paris. The Musée de Cluny – Musée national du Moyen Âge is built in a 1485 “town house” (more like a palace though, usually called a château) that was erected right on the the old Roman Baths that date the city of Paris back into the Roman period. Today it has been refurbished and holds artefacts and artworks from the Upper and Lower Middle Ages that have been brought from over different churches, including Notre Dame and the Sainte-Chapelle.

The most important piece in the museum is a collection of six tapestries, called “The Lady and the Unicorn”, dated from the late 15th / early 16th century. Five of them represent the sentences, and the sixth is a mystery (theories include “love” and “free will” – I’m a fan of the latter). They all feature the same medieval dame in a red background, accompanied by a golden lion and a white unicorn, and they are marvellous.

Collage: The foundations of the manor; an ornate church entryway, carved on the stone; a Virgin Mary statue; the tapestry of the lady petting the unicorn, with plants and a red background

A piece of art in its own right is the chapel of the town house. It was built around the same time of the house in the Flamboyant Gothic style. It contrast with the stark outside of the house, with its sever walls.

The ceiling of the chapel, which looks like a star fractal, and a view of the whole manor

I still had some time, so I decided to head over to the church Église de la Madeleine, a catholic church that looks like a classical temple (believe it or not to hail the Napoleonic army). It is built in the Neoclassical style, and it is enormous. However, it was also being renovated, so the outside was covered in hideous publicity panels.

Church of La Madeleine, it looks like a Greek temple, all columns with a triangular front, and the inside, showing Mary surrounded by the saints and the angels.

Finally, I went back to the hotel to pick up my things and walked back to the station – I did not want to carry my luggage around because I worried it would damage the posters I had got at the concert. I actually arrived and left from different airports, so I had to head to Orly this time. However, RER B joins both airports, so the closest station for arrival, Châtelet–Les Halles, was also the closest to leave. Upon coming out on Saturday I had caught eye of a small gothic church, and as I walked past this time I noticed that there was an open door and people went in and out. It was the church of St. Eustache, Église Saint-Eustache. The structure is Flamboyant Gothic, and the decorations are Renaissance and classical. It has one of the largest organs in France, and I was lucky enough that it was being played when I was there. It felt pretty magical, to be honest.

Top: A gothic church from the outside, with lots of windows. Bottom: the same church inside - high columns look like a forest, and the light filters through all the windows outsde, like water from a fall.

Afterwards, I hopped onto the train and headed for the airport. I got there earlier than expected, too, as I had planned according to some traffic restrictions that did not happen in the end. I debated some food, but everything was so expensive! The return flight was plagued with turbulence, and I got home exhausted and with a migraine, but it was well worth it! Also, travelling through Covid-19 was… weird. While I kept my facemask on most of the time, including the plane rides, the concerts, and whenever I was inside, most people would not – even the still-compulsory places. I was also happy to skip the “health checks” because I swear, the way I was feeling after landing, I don’t know if I had been running a temperature, and that would have been… awkward.

A view of Paris from the plane, also showing the wing

7th – 10th February 2020: Paris (France) for DIR EN GREY & BABYMETAL

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I organised a weekend in Paris because two concerts conveniently aligned on Saturday and Sunday, and I had Friday free, as well as Monday morning. It was a great mental break that I needed badly. ETA: There were rumours about a flu from China, and some of the airport workers were wearing masks. We had no idea what was about to hit us…

7th February 2020: Through the Strikes

I had found quite a convenient flight that left at 9:00 on Friday for 35 €, which was a great deal. At first, I did not understand why it was so cheap. It turned out, the plane came from South America and it was on a Madrid stopover – so it was pretty much full already. It was a huge aircraft with on-board entertainment. That came in handy when the pilot informed us that we were going to have to wait something between one and two hours to be able to take off due to the air controllers’ strikes in France. But at least we were flying and I had films to watch.

We took off at about 10:00 and our big plane made the jump in just one hour, as opposed to the 2h10 minutes of estimated travel, which meant we were almost on time! Of course, this did not sit well with the strikers, who had us wait first for the parking spot, and then for the stairs to deplane. I finally managed to leave the airport and get onto the train so I reached downtown Paris around 13:00. I wanted to inspect the damage caused to the cathedral Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris by the 2019 fire. My first impression, looking at the main façade and towers, was optimistic, but as I walked round the building, I could see the real damage and reconstruction efforts. Furthermore, it still reeked of burnt wood, probably because they were still pulling out debris. My optimism did not linger long, I’m afraid.

Collage of Notre Dame showing the cranes and scaffoldings in the repairs

As it was sunny, I decided to walk to the Sainte-Chapelle (Holy Chapel) and see its windows in good weather. The Sainte-Chapelle is a small two-level chapel inside the Justice Palace Palais de Justice de Paris in the Île de la Cité, smack in the middle of Paris and not far from Notre Dame – actually, both of them belong to the same Unesco World Heritage Site, Paris, Banks of the Seine. The chapel has a lower early Gothic level, and an upper level with impressive stained-glass windows which I love. As the sun was shining outside, the views were stunning.

Collage. Sainte-Chapelle: outside showing the spire, inside with some colourful windows and pointed arches

Collage of the upper floor of the Sainte-Chapelle. It shows different angles of the long gothic windows, covered in colourful glass

The weather was great – especially considering February in Paris, which is always more to the north than I mentally place it. Unfortunately, the forecast for the following day was quite miserable, and thus I decided to just walk along from the Île de la Cité towards the Arc de Triomphe (some 5 km away). On my way, I walked by the Louvre, Les Tulleries, the Grand Palais, the Petit Palais, the Alexander III Bridge, and into the Avenue des Champs-Élysées – the Banks of the Seine that the Unesco declared World Heritage.

Collage with different landmarks of Paris - the river, neoclassic palaces, Luxor obelisk, Champs-Élysées.

Finally I reached the Arc de Triomphe, which honours the fallen in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. It was commissioned by Emperor Napoleon in 1806, and completed in 1836, and you can actually climb it, which I might do some day. From there, I took a train towards Montmartre, where I had booked my hotel. I dropped off my luggage and walked up Square Louise Michel, a sort of urban park which leads up to the church Basilique du Sacré-Cœur (222 steps). There was a pretty carousel Carrousel de Saint-Pierre, and from the square, I could watch the Eiffel Tower Tour Eiffel against the sunset from the lookout Vue de Paris.

A view of the Sacre Coeur with a classical carousel in front of it

A profile of the Eiffel Tower in a blurry sunset in orange tones

I went back to the hotel for a while during twilight. On the way, I bought a snack in a nearby supermarket for dinner as I waited for the evening to get dark and the lights to come up. When it did, I took my last adventure for the day, and walked off to see the Moulin Rouge while I listened to KAMIJO’s song of the same name. It was a few minutes’ walk away from my hotel, and Moulin Rouge [ムーランルージュ] is one of my favourite songs of his. Since the man is obsessed with France, he has a few songs that fit my weekend. Truth be told, I did consider dinner and a show there, it is after all the most famous cabaret in the world. However, it was a bit expensive and I had read quite a few reviews about bad seats if you are alone. I did not want to waste money, and I did not know how tired I would be that evening in the end – and to be brutally honest,I really had not felt like packing fancy clothes for the evening.

The Moulin Rouge cabaret, all lit up in bright red for the night

8th February 2020: Louvre and DIR EN GREY

The weather forecast was accurate, and despite the lovely weather on Friday, Saturday dawned stormy and dark. I decided to go to the Louvre Museum Musée du Louvre, even if I had been there before. It is after all one of the greatest museums in the world.

The Louvre holds so many pieces (over 600,000) that it would be impossible to describe them all, but for me, its core is the Winged Victory of Samothrace, a Greek sculpture from the Hellenistic period, around the 2nd century BCE, and my favourite piece of art. The Louvre is a national art museum, which opened in the post-revolutionary France in 1793. It exhibits around 35,000 items – Egyptian antiquities, Sumer and Assyrian pieces, Greek, Etruscan and Roman items, Islamic art, neoclassical and Baroque sculptures, a collection of objets d’art (Decorative arts), paintings, prints, drawings… It is located in the former French Royal Palace of the same name.

A collage with several Louvre pieces of art - Winged Victory, sitting scribe, the three graces, Diane washing her hair, Hermaphroditus sleeping, Psyche and Eros kissing, Liberty guiding the people, Venus de Milo

I wandered there for a few hours and I might have lost my way in the galleries a few times. In the end, I managed to (re)visit all the artefacts and artworks that I wanted. Because there are hundreds of thousands of items, but I must always see the Sitting Scribe, the Borghese Hermaphroditus, Canovas’ Eros and Psyche, and the remains of the Gates of Istar. I had a bit of a headache, so I eventually went back to the hotel to get some rest and prepare for the DIR EN GREY concert and VIP experience in the Élysée Montmartre live house. DIR EN GREY or “Diru” is a Japanese heavy metal band known for its dark themes and scenography that I thought I needed to check at least once (the final verdict was that I don’t need to repeat the experience, but it made for a nice mental break). The band has remained stable since its formation in 1997, and it is composed by Kyo [京] (lead vocals), Kaoru [薫] (rhythm guitar, backing vocals), Die (lead guitar, backing vocals), Shinya (drums) and Toshiya (bass, backing vocals).

A dark stage with a drum set. Letters projected on the screen behind the stage read Dir en Grey Tour 20 This Way to Self-Destruction

Setlist:

    1. 絶縁体 [Zetsuentai]
    2. 人間を被る [Ningen wo Kaburu]
    3. Rubbish Heap
    4. Devote My Life
    5. 軽蔑と始まり [Keibetsu to Hajimari]
    6. Celebrate Empty Howls
    7. 赫 [Aka]
    8. Merciless Cult
    9. Downfall
    10. Values of Madness
    11. 谿壑の欲 [Keigaku no Yoku]
    12. Ranunculus
    13. The World of Mercy
First encore:
    14. Followers
    15. THE DEEPER VILENESS
    16. 詩踏み [Utafumi]
Second encore:
    17. Sustain the untruth

Listing of all the concerts in the Dir en Grey 2020 tour

The concert was the final of DIRU’s 2020 European Tour TOUR20: This way to Self-Destruction. When I walked by the venue on Friday evening, around 18:00, there was a small number of people queueing already. I did not care enough to queue all day, and I had a VIP ticket with early entry, so I just headed to the line about 15:00. When the queues were separated and organised, around 16:30, I was VIP number 42. The weather was miserable, and I could have totally skipped the downpour while waiting, but I was lucky enough to be against the live house and not in the middle of the boulevard, where the General Admittance queue was. Doors opened at 19:30 for GA, and the VIP experience was held beforehand. The VIP queue started getting in around 17:30. As present we got a VIP pass and an “exclusive VIP only merchandise item” which turned out to be a scarf – very appropriate with the weather. The experience itself was a group photo with the band. There were five cushioned chairs for the fans, and the band stood behind. They did not say a word, nor interacted with fans in any way, not even acknowledging a hello or a thank you.

Afterwards, I headed for the hall, and I found an almost-barrier spot in the left area, on the second row. The people in front of me let me grab the barrier between them so I had something to hold on while I waited. The special guest was a DJ, who was more focused on getting recorded by his buddy on the phone than mixing music. The main show started a little after 20:30.

DIR EN GREY’s music is quite powerful, with a heavy focus on strings and drums. They also have a huge flare for theatricality and they enjoy the shock factor as part of the aesthetics. The singer, Kyo, donned a Joker-like make-up appearance, with a fake-suicidal attitude on stage, using the microphone to mimic stabbing his chest, or the wires to hang himself. It became a bit disturbing because it was repeated more than once. The act also felt rather distanced, there was very little interaction with the fans. At some point, a pick flew in my direction and the person behind me actually felt me up to try and find it in the folds of the coat I had tied around my waist. That was probably even creepier than the act.

The guitars and bass were tremendously powerful, and the drumming was amazing. The crowd was extremely loud, and the singer, Kyo, later confessed that he had been pretty exhausted and burnt out from the tour, which maybe explained why the concert felt so distanced. The encores were the probably best part of the concert, the part that felt more real and relaxed. After the concert was over, I headed off to the hotel to catch some sleep. Since I remembered that the area had felt a bit rough when I was there in 2014, this time over I wanted close accommodation so I could get back quickly without needing to use the underground.

9th February 2020: Destroy the Bastille!

Sunday morning was around 2 ºC, and it was windy. I lingered in bed for a while to recover from the previous evening, and then I headed out – I should have brought the merchandise-scarf with me! I saw the Place de la Bastille, where the revolutionary prison used to stand. In the middle of the square stands the “July column” Colonne de Juillet, which commemorates the Revolution of 1830 (which is not the “famous” French Revolution, which happened between 1789 and 1799). A few minutes away, in the Square Henri-Galli, I came across the base of the tower Tour de la Liberté (Freedom Tower), which was unearthed while building the first metro line. There are only a few stones remaining from the foundations, but I’ll take my fun wherever I can – so I stopped and used my music player to find another KAMIJO song, Bastille, just because I could.

Monument to the French Revolution

A few brick stones forming a circle, considered the last remains of the Bastille

It was too cold to wander, but I had a great plan. I headed off to the science museum Galerie de Paléontologie et d’Anatomie comparée (Palaeontology and Comparative Anatomy Gallery), which was a short walk away. I had read about it and was curious. To be honest, I’m still trying to decide whether it was amazing, or the materials nightmares are made of.

The museum was founded in the 19th century, and it keeps the atmosphere – and the charm – of the old exhibitions. There are stands and wooden cases, and the smell of dust and old paper. The first floor holds a “Cavalcade of Skeletons” – the whole floor is occupied by preserved skeletons of mammals and birds. In the glass cases along the walls, there are taxidermy specimens, preserved animals and dissected specimens. In the far corner, there is “gallery of monsters” with natural oddities. It was enchanting, but at the same time deeply disturbing – especially the male human figure displaying muscles and blood vessels, with a vine leaf on his groin.

The second floor hosts the dinosaurs and other fossils, including a very cool toothed whale, giant crocodiles, a Bernissart iguanodon, a diplodocus, shark teeth… Most of the fossils are either casts or reconstructions – I swear I’ve seen that Irish elk at least three times before. Also, the T-Rex skull was adorably flawed, as it was imagined to be in the 19th century.

The third floor is… ammonite-land. There were cases upon cases of ammonites in different shapes, colours, rocks and materials.

Shots of the museum. Skeletons of animals - fish, oxen, crocodiles, elephants, whale. Fossils: Dinosaurs, fish, toothed whale, shark teeth, snails

After I was done with the museum, I decided it was too cold to wander the neighbouring Botanical Garden. Instead, I headed off to yet another one, the Musée national des arts asiatiques Guimet – the National Museum of Eastern Arts or Museum Guimet, which holds pieces of art from Cambodia, India, China, Japan, Korea and so on. There was a gorgeous dancing Shiva sculpture, collections of religious artefacts, calligraphy, samurai armours, even modern art and clothes inspired by the Far East. It was a really cool museum I had recently found about and was happy to visit.

Different pieces in the museum: Dancing Shiva, sitting Buddha, Calligraphy in the shape of a dragon, elaborate kimono, samurai armour, Indian goddess

After leaving the museum, I walked towards Trocadero to take the underground. I made a small detour to have a look at the Eiffel Tower Tour Eiffel, and saw a bunch of peddlers playing shell games with tourists. Someone lost about 400 €, I really hope they were in on the game.

The Eiffel Tower in front of a cloudy sky

Since it was too cold to continue walking around to find something to eat, I decided to get take-out, and I headed back to the hotel to get ready for the BABYMETAL concert. I had never listened to them before, but they are a sensation, the basic ticket was not expensive, and two concerts in as many days seemed convenient. They actually played in the same venue as DIR EN GREY on Saturday, so I found out by sheer coincidence on the live house’s website. At that time, I thought “why the hell not?”. Afterwards, they added Madrid to their Europe tour, so if I had known that beforehand, I might have acted differently. BABYMETAL is one of those insanely-profitable Japanese marketing stunts involving cute girls that had never really been in my radar more than in passing.

Notice with the date of Babymetal's concert

BABYMETAL is a product of the “Japanese idol factory”. It was created artificially to fill a market gap. Three girls were chosen to form an act that would mix the idealised cute idea of girl idols with the heavy metal genre. When they debuted in 2010, the term “Kawaii Metal” was coined. One of the girls left in 2018, so there are two main members and and support dancer on rotation. The members are Nakamoto Suzuka, “Su-metal”, the main vocalist, and Kikuchi Moa aka “Moametal” on back-up vocals and screams. The supporting musicians are called the “Kami Band”.

BABYMETAL’s long-awaited European tour is officially called Metal Galaxy World Tour. The VIP tickets sold for around 170€, and did not even entail a M&G, so even if I had had the chance, I would have not even considered them. Despite that, they sold out, along with the show itself.

When I left the hotel at 9:00, the queue had started organising, and the tour buses were already there. I had no intention to queue or try for a barrier. I had decided to sit back and relax, so I reached the venue around 18:45 for the 19:30 concert. There were tons of people waiting to buy merchandise, but I was good. Thus, I just headed to the floor, and found a spot in the back. Since the venue has sort a bit of an arena and some upper stands, there was a wall I could lean against and it was not the end of the room.

The crowd was quite different from DIRU’s, ranging from good ol’ metalheads to families with little girls between five and ten years old with a bizarre range of in-between: people with fox masks, goth and loli dresses, explicit heavy-metal t-shirts (a bunch of those T-shirts were much less kid-friendly than the show… everything you could imagine. I… don’t think most parents knew what they were getting into, and a few of the kids ended up crying.

At 19:30 sharp, the support act started – a German band called SKYND. Their sound was really good, but their lyrics are based on true crime, which makes them a bit on the disturbing side (and very much not kid-friendly). The name of the songs are all serial killers or similar criminals.

Setlist:

    1. Richard Ramirez
    2. Elisa Lam
    3. Katherine Knight
    4. Jim Jones
    5. Tyler Hadley
    6. Gary Heidnik

At 20:30, the BABYMETAL show kicked off with the projection of the Future Metal video as an introduction of sorts. The musical act relied heavily on the Kami Band, and Su-metal carried the weight of the vocals. She spent the whole one-hour concert jumping and dancing while singing, and her voice did not break even once. If she is not lip-synching, she has the most impressive lungs ever. Both she and Moametal encouraged the crowd, making a lot of eye-contact. Su-metal addressed the audience a lot, even – I think – trying French. The concert was non-stop, and it ended up feeling a bit short, but much better than I had expected. The one annoying thing were the daddies putting their babes up on their shoulders in the middle of the floor, when the kids gave clear signs of not caring or were distressed. But it was fun. Not sure I would repeat unless I made it a thing with friends or something, but I enjoyed the act, and had a good time.

Setlist:

    1. DA DA DANCE
    2. Gimme Chocolate!!
    3. Shanti Shanti Shanti
    4. BxMxC
    5. Kagerou
    6. Oh! MAJINAI
    7. メギツネ [Megitsune]
    8. PA PA YA!!
    9. Distortion
    10. KARATE
    11. Headbangeeeeerrrrr!!!!!
    12. Road of Resistance

A group of girls dressed in black dancing in front of a logo that reads Babymetal

I was back at the hotel before 22:00. Thus, I got a good night’s sleep before I left, once again happy that I had taken nearby accommodation.

10th February 2020: No bells of Notre Dame

My plane boarded at 10:00 so I had to leave early for the airport. The weather was rainy again, so I took the underground to Gare du Nord, and then the train to Orly. As I was riding the train, I had a nice view of the Paris at dawn, but the bells of Notre Dame were not tolling, and my inner child was sad about that. Despite issues with the airport security staff, the stupidly-expensive food, and the general unpleasantness of early-morning public transportation, I made it to my plane without actual problems. As it was a big plane again, I settled down to watch Jurassic World during the flight, because I’m a nerd. Going straight into work from the airport was not fun, but it a small price to pay

I only had three days, but this trip was a very welcome getaway, and even if the weather did not help, I got to do a lot of stuff. I had to discard a few plans and improvise due to the weather. However, there is that film quote, “We’ll always have Paris”. After all, I’ll be coming back for the Saint Seiya Symphonic Adventure. ETA: Or so I thought, at the time of writing the article…

3rd – 5th July 2015: Japan Expo in Paris (France)

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I went back to France rather unexpectedly because VAMPS announced an appearance at Japan Expo, a Japanese Culture convention held in Parc des Expositions de Paris-Nord Villepinte. I flew in on Friday and as I had time, I decided to go to the Louvre museum. I discovered the automatic ticket selling machine, so my queue was unexpectedly short once I was out of the security waiting area. I geeked out to my heart’s content and I reflected on how I had got used to geeking out alone and how comfortable I felt compared to my first time alone in a museum, back in the Dark Ages when I was 14.

Different exhibits of the Louvre: bronze sculptures, Egyptian sarcophagi, sitting scribe, Babylonian bulls, a marble, bathtub, Venus de Milo, Eros and Psyche, Victory of Samothrace

The following day I met up with some friends at the Japan Expo for the VAMPS concert act that had been organised. Japan Expo is one of the biggest European conventions about manga, anime, Japanese culture and everything in between, including concerts, food stalls, merchandising, and so on. The concert in itself was all right – one of the shortest ones I’ve attended, but in the end it was “just” an act in something bigger. I wish they had talked about the Sunday autograph possibilities earlier, though, because I could not attend due to my flight being in the morning.

Vamps promo claiming they were the guests of honour

24th – 26th May 2014: Paris (France) for Yoshiki Classical

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24th May 2014: Evening in Montmartre

I was going to atted Yoshiki Classical concert in Paris on Sunday, so I made planes with a a friend to meet up with her over the weekedn so we could do some stuff together. We booked a hotel close to the venue, Le Triannon. I arrived in Paris in the evening of Friday the 24th and met my friend direcly at the hotel – the first thing we noticed was that the area was not the safest, but we could still get to the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur to see it lit.

Sacre Coeur, a basilica on top of a mountain, lit in gentle green light at night

And also to see a nice view of the Eiffel Tower all lit up.

A shot of the Eiffel Tower from afar, lit reddish orange

25th May 2014: Under ground, above ground

On Saturday morning we went to Catacombes de Paris, the Catacombs of Paris. The ancient quarries and mines of Paris became the final resting place of more than six million people. In the late 18th century it was decided to eliminate a good portion of the quickly-overcrowding cemeteries and graveyads of Paris and for a 1786 the bones were carried to the catacombs at night. Today they are consisdered a museum and thus managed as such.

Creepy catacombs of Paris, with thousands of human skulls and other remains

After the catacombs we moved onto the Ille de la Cité, the “island of the city”, an island in the middle of the Seine, to visit Notre-Dame de Paris, our Lady of Paris, a magnificent Gothic cathedral built in between 1160 and 1260. In the 19th century an extensive renovation was carried out, and a few features were added, such as a the gargoyles and a replacement spire for the original one. We climbed the towers and were treated to a really cool Paris view before going inside.

Collage of Notre Dame; the main façade, the gargoyles, the inside of the main navev, and a view of Paris from the top

Leaving Notre Dame, we headed our the Île de la Cité and passed by Saint Germain l’Auzeroix, which mostly dates from the 15th Century and used to be the church for the Louvre inhabitants.

A restored gothic church with an octogonal tower

At the Louvre, by the way, there was a humongous queue, so as both of us had seen it before, we decided to skip going inside.

The Louvre palace from the outside

We passed by the Luxor Obelisk, an Egyptian monument which is over 3000 years old, located in the Place de la Concorde. I’ve always found that name very ironic considering that many people were guillotined there. But hey, the obelisk is cool and all.

A black Egyptian obelisk with golden decoration

We continued walking up the Champs-Élysées until we got to the Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile (the “Triumphal Arch of the Star”. Okay Paris. Okay.), which is one of the biggest triumphal arcs in the world. It was completed in 1840 and it honours the casualties in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

Commemorative gateway or triumphal arch in white stone

From there we took the underground back to the area of the Sacré-Cœur, which we could see at the end of the streets.

Sacre Coeur peering at the end of a street

And to finish the day, we had some Japanese food because why wouldn’t we?

26th May 2014: Bad weather, queue & Yoshiki

On Sunday, we started off back in the Île de la Cité and we walked around Notre Dame on our way as my friend wanted a walk along the Seine.

The back gardens of Notre Dame

We took the underground towards Les Invalides (Hôtel national des Invalides or The National Residence of the Invalids), a complex of buildings erected between the 17th and 18th centuries and that hosts the military museum and some notable graves, among them Napoleon’s.

Les invalides, a neoclassical palace with a golden dome

Afterwards we took the underground to Champ de Mars, the long park where the Eiffel Tower stands. The Tower was built as an entrance to the 1889 World’s Fair exhibition and it was controversial at first (and rather ugly if you ask me, but hey to each their own). Eventually, it became so famous that it was not taken down as originally planned, and to-date it is one of the most visited landmarks of the world.

Eiffel tower in the clouds

Eiffel Tower from underneath, with a tennis ball hanging in from the second floor

As you can see in the pictures, the weather might not have beent he nicest, but we made our best. We walked all through the Chaps to the Trocadero on the other side. There were very few people on the street so I convinced my friend to take a ride in the carrousel over there, because I’m insane like that. Soon after we had left, a group of random people decided to emulate us.

Classical caroussel, looking over the ears of one of the horses

After this, we said goodbye. I headed off to Le Triannon for Yoshiki Classical, and my friend towards the airport as she had work on Monday. Yoshiki is one of the most important figures in Japan’s musical scene. He is the leader of the iconic band X Japan, and also trained in classical music. He wrecked his health when he was young, though, so he is not in the best shape. His recital Yoshiki Classical was meant to be a reimagination of some songs of his career, just him and his piano and some invited artist. I have to admit that it was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever been to, and I don’t regret attending one bit. Although this was my first concert alone, I didn’t feel strange in any way.

A concert venue with some people waiting

I don’t know what I was expecting, but this surpassed any and everything I could have thought of. Yoshiki is a wonderful human, and he spoke in English during the whole event – he is living in America now, collaborating with people like Stan Lee and Marilyn Manson to do more great stuff. For me, seeing him in person and playing his piano was a heart-bursting experience.

Yoshiki Classical Banner

Although Le Trianon is a seated venue, tickets were not numbered. I arrived at the queue round 17:00 for a 19:30 concert. It was not a good line – French fans seemed to have no sense of personal space, and the person behind the person behind me was invading my space, and I’m not exaggerating.

Conversely, the venue was quite ready for us, entry was well organised and smooth. Theatre staff, speaking in French and Japanese, made sure that ticket holders did not bother the local commerce nor their patrons. Judging by the faces of the sellers around, they were not used to people queuing for the theatre.

Gates opened around 18:45, and I managed a seat on 7th row, in what I thought it would be a good position to actually see Yoshiki’s face as he played. The stage was equipped with the Kawai piano, a synthesiser, and the seats for the strings, along with a standing microphone. I took in the relative positions of everything to chose my seat. The screen showed the Yoshiki Classical World Tour banner, and staff members sold insanely expensive glow sticks.

By 19:50 the audience had started to get nervous,but the members of the press were being shown in to their seats, which meant that the interviews were over. The concert finally started at 20.05, with the entrance of the supporting musicians – three violins, two violas, two cellos. The assistant gave them the tuning note and the video launched behind them. It started with a fragment of the Golden Globes museum interview, where Yoshiki explained the two sides of him, the destructiveness of heavy metal and the peace of classical music. This was illustrated by short clips of X Japan drumming and other activities, such as playing for the Emperor, or Yoshiki Symphonic, all to the music of Miracle.Finally, Yoshiki walked in, sat in front of the Kawai and played the intro of Forever Love.

He did quite a lot of talking between the songs, with a few words in French, but mostly English. He explained that we would have two parts (I used the intermission to go get goods and buy an overpriced bottle of water).Throughout the concert he introduced the strings by name, he remembered all of their names even with effort (and named them Yoshiki Sextet with great mischievousness), and Katie Fitzgerald, the vocalist of his Violet UK project. he himself said that he had too many open fronts and that he had been recording with X Japan forever, but also with Violet UK. He put the blame on himself for being a perfectionist and thus never finding anything finish-worthy. Katie rolled her eyes at him. They seemed to have a good chemistry going on. At the very beginning he told us that he was used to being in the back of concerts, playing drums and that being so close and seeing us made him nervous. He joked that as it was a classical concert he would not stage dive.

As he played the piano the screen behind him projected images, some of them abstract, some of them related to the song, such as roses for Rosa, stills of the Saint Seiya film for Hero, or raindrops for Endless Rain.

He spoke about the history of X Japan and his own – he started playing piano when he was four, the same year he met ToshI. He picked up drums at ten, in Chiba. He reminisced about how he hunted down Pata, Taiji and Hide, ”having to break their bands to get them to come to his band”. Then he spoke of Taiji’s and Hide’s passings, and not talking to ToshI for about ten years. At this point he broke down. It makes one wonder about the kind of pain this man harbours in his soul. You could feel the rage as he pounded into the piano at some points, and yes, I am sure he was crying during the song he dedicated to his father, Taiji and Hide. He said that he had learnt that big venues and stadiums did not really mean anything, but that the support of the fans was what kept him going.

He played an improvisation of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, and a song he had heard on the radio the day before. He confessed that being on tour he lost track of days and places. He was aware of time and space enough to announce that the upcoming October concert in the Madison Square Garden may be the start of a new X Japan tour, but I do not think any of us believed him.

All in all, I knew that he is a great pianist, musician and artist, and after the concert I am completely sure that he is a good person, too. It’s not an act, a persona that he created for the stage. Nobody is that good at feigning pain. He picked up a bunch of presents from the crowd on the first couple of rows himself, be it flowers, plushies, flags, and was thankful for all of them.

Setlist:
1. Miracle (during the video)
2. Forever Love (X Japan)
3. Golden Globe Theme
4. Rosa (Violet UK)
5. Anniversary
[Intermission]
6. Amethyst (Strings only)
7. Swan Lake Improvisation (Tchaikovsky)
8. Hero
9. I.V. (X Japan), fragment
10. Hymne à l’amour (Édith Piaf cover)
11. Without You (X Japan)
12. Kurenai (X Japan), fragment
13. Art of Life (X Japan)
14. Endless Rain (X Japan)

Yoshiki talking to his audience

Yoshiki and Katie Fitzgerald during Hero

After the concert, I went back to the hotel. I would have loved to stay a bit longer, but it was night already and the area did not feel… Nice. In the following morning, Monday the 27th, I just headed for the airport and came back home. It was a very complete weekend!