On 3/18 I arrived in the City of Lights around lunchtime, ordered a prosciutto sandwich from a roadside cafe, checked into my opera neighborhood hotel, and promptly passed out until nighttime.
I say it too often, but there's something sublime about seeing a new place for the first time at night. Time feels different in the dark -- almost like it halts. And I get to wander pathways rendered otherworldly by light and shadow and step out of my own life for a while, overwhelmed only by this newness.
First evening look at the Opera Garnier in all its wedding cake-y glory.