Magic and Movement: Tango at Paris’s Palais Garnier
Everyone knows Paris is magical right? Beautiful in the rain, full of high fashion and fine food, and so sophisticated it might give you a serious crisis of confidence? All of these things may be true, but it’s just a city. However, as can be said of any big, old city, when you pack hundreds of thousands of people into a place laden with history and rich culture, it’s only a matter of time before some actual little bits of magic happen.
We had one of those “I think my soul is leaving my body” moments on our last trip. We’d read about tango on the banks of the Seine, and one of us was a little more excited about the prospect of watching than the other of us was (*looking at you, Luke*). Sadly, despite running all over the city for a week straight, we never made it to that part of Paris.
Boyfriend Perspective: Miles. We walked miles. 141,000 steps. How DIDN’T we make it there??? I’ll tell you how, too much other stuff to do on the list of ambitiousness. In the end I think we finished about 2/3’s of what we wanted to do and we NEVER STOPPED WALKING.
On our last night in this storied city, we had just finished dinner overlooking the Eiffel Tower and watched its sparkling lights illuminate the sky at full dark. It may be touristy, but boy, is it gorgeous. We wanted to finish off our evening with drinks at one of the most famous bars in the city, so we hopped the metro to the 9th arrondissement and “Sank Roo Doe Noo”.
Cue the Argentine magic!
Girl yes, look at that flourish! That’s how you tango in Paris!
Tango at the Palais Garnier
Close up on some beautiful tango :)
Feeling full and happy, we hopped off at our stop and started walking the few blocks to the bar. As we were recounting the events of the evening, strains of music suddenly made their way to us.
Boyfriend Perspective: Meagan is on the constant prowl for stuff like this. We heard that music, and I swear, her ears literally perked up and I think I disappeared, along with traffic, because she damn near got herself run over trying to walk over to the plaza dance floor.
We turned the corner of the Palais Garnier, and there, at 10:30 at night, a small crowd had gathered to watch a group of probably 30 people dancing the Argentine Tango under the opera house lights. Couples ranged in age from 17 to 70, and all moved with a practiced grace that even had Luke fascinated.
Eventually, after taking tons of pictures and trying to absorb the fact that this was actually happening, we went on our way to finish our perfect night in Paris.
But Paris’s popup tango scene is just more proof that this city really is magic.
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Originally published at Two Restless Homebodies.
