Paris (Taylor’s Version)

One weekend last October it felt like things in our life were spinning out of control. We were supposed to be moving into our house within days and it was a complete mess. We were trying to pack and coordinate a thousand things all at once. Needless to say, our stress levels were nearing an all-time high. In the midst of all of this chaos, we took a break to go see the Eras Tour movie in theaters with Kristin and her girls. That ended up being a very impactful experience. 

Fun fact about Alison and I, one of our coping mechanisms when life is stressful is to plan a trip (see also Fiji, Nashville, Miami - to name a few). After seeing the Eras Tour movie we decided we needed to see the show live in person. 

Now we had tried and failed a few times to get tickets. When the tour was announced we already had a trip planned to Denver the same weekend Taylor would be there. It seemed like the stars were aligned. We did everything we could to get tickets to that show and it didn’t work out for us. We thought surely the prices would come down as the concert got closer and we continually monitored them, but they didn’t. At that point, we thought we wouldn’t see the Eras Tour. The new US dates were announced at the end of 2024. We tried again and again but had no luck. It seemed like this was not to be. 

We had heard rumblings that the tickets to international tour dates were less expensive in the secondary market than they were in the US. During that very stressful weekend, we came home and began searching for tickets. We cast a wide net and found they were generally less expensive than in the US. After considering flights and logistics we decided we would travel to Paris to see Taylor Swift. We bought tickets and booked a trip. 

We really lucked out with the timing on this one. We didn’t know at the time that a couple of months later Alison would be pregnant. If we had gotten lucky with the Miami tickets we wouldn’t be going. Fortunately, the Paris show was near the end of the 2nd trimester so it came at a great time to travel. 

Alison and I have been fans of Taylor Swift from the beginning. Fun fact I was born five days after Taylor Swift. We both just squeaked into 1989. As she wrote songs inspired by events in her own life Alison and I were more often than not experiencing those same events in our own lives. When she was feeling 22 we were too. So many times her music reflects a lot of what we see in ourselves. That is why we are Swifties and is the reason we wanted to see this concert live. 

We left for Paris mid-day on Wednesday. That flight is a bit tricky because it is too early in the day to really sleep, we both tried, but we only got at most a few hours. It is hard enough to sleep on a plane, but if you aren’t really tired it is even harder. The plane had a lot of other passengers also going to see Taylor Swift. The flight attendants and pilots made a bunch of fun announcements and then they blasted T-swift tunes when we landed. They were excited for us. 

We arrived in Paris around 9am. I knew we would be fairly tired and with Alison being pregnant I thought it would be best this trip to skip the taxi line so I hired a car service to take us to our hotel. A nice fellow was holding a sign with our names on it and he quickly whisked us to our hotel. We stayed at the Niépce Curio. It is a Hilton hotel in a not-great area of Paris. Hotels were a bit scarce on this trip because of the Taylor Swift concert. We were only staying here for one night so it was fine.

Our room was ready, which is not a certainty given the early hour but was much appreciated after our long flight. We cleaned up, grabbed a quick lunch at the hotel, and headed out to explore Paris. 

This was our only day in Paris proper, which was fine. We were here in 2018 and we visited most of the major Paris attractions. This go-round we wanted to visit a couple of places we missed last time, but since we were tired we didn’t want to overload our itinerary. Our first stop was Sacre Coeur. 

To get to Sacre Coeur we took the metro. The metro is slick in Paris. I don’t know why we didn’t use it last time we were here. It is cheap and easy to use. 

"I love you" in 250 languages

Paris street art

Sacre Coeur was an excellent stop. It is a stunningly beautiful church. The area around it was quite vibrant and beautiful as well. We walked through the church enjoying the stained glass and art. Then we saw there was an option to climb to the dome where we would enjoy panoramic views of Paris. It was only ~290 stairs, which Alison decided she could climb pregnant so we did it. It was a fun activity. It was a little bit of a smoggy day so the views of Paris weren’t the best, but it was still fun to see Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower in the distance. 

Next, we got back on the Metro and headed to the Musée d’Orsay. Multiple friends recommended we visit. By the time got there it was approaching 4pm (our goal was to stay awake until at least 5pm) and given that we didn’t really sleep the night before we decided a museum was not the right activity for this moment. 

Instead, we decided to walk over to a park with a viewpoint near the Eiffel Tower. We never mind wandering through a city - sometimes it is the best way to get to know a place. Being in Paris and not seeing the Eiffel Tower seemed silly. The walk was quite nice. We walked past the golden dome, Les Invalides, which is a really beautiful place. When we got to the park it turned out it didn’t have a good view of the Eiffel Tower - it was blocked by some temporary buildings that have been erected for the Olympics. 

We are pretty excited for this upcoming Olympics. It was fun to see all of the preparations around the city. We are going to enjoy seeing some of these places we just visited on TV. 

We ended up walking all the way to the Eiffel Tower (there is a lot of construction, fencing, and buildings/seating around the tower for the Olympics). By the time we got to the tower, we were hungry and thirsty so we found a place to buy crepes and water. Then we found a grassy spot to have a little picnic in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. It was a pretty spectacular place to enjoy dinner. 

Dinner views

By this time we were well past our 5pm goal so we headed back to our hotel and called it a night.  

Our second day in Paris was all about Taylor Swift. We slept in to try to make sure we were fully recovered from our long flight. Since the concert is at night we knew today would be a long day. When we woke up we got breakfast and checked out of our hotel. We immediately got a cab to our next hotel. For the rest of the trip, we will be staying at the Waldorf Astoria Versailles - Trianon Palace. This hotel is situated right next to Versailles. Alison really wanted to visit Versailles the last time we were in Paris, but it didn’t make sense. This time we decided to make it happen. 

We arrived at our hotel and once again they had our room ready, which was great because we were still tired. Once we got settled into our room we took a nap. When we woke up it was time to get ready for the show. We ordered some room service, changed into our Eras Tour outfits, headed to the Metro, and caught a train to the La Defense Arena in Paris. 

We were so ready for this show. The weekend before we came to Paris Skylee and Anna helped us make some friendship bracelets. We love them. We thought we might trade some of our bracelets with someone at the show, but ours were so meaningful to us that we decided to hang onto them. 

We arrived with thousands of other Swifites and streamed into the stadium. It was a very orderly process. We made it in quickly enough and found our seats.  We were sitting in the lower bowl. These were great seats we could see the entire stage and we were relatively close to the action. We considered floor tickets when, but these would have been standing-room only. We even had those tickets in our cart, but we are so grateful we didn’t after it turned out Alison was pregnant for this show. We stood for most of the show anyway, but it was nice to sit down before the show and during a few of Taylor’s costume changes. If we were on the floor we would have been standing for 5 or 6 hours. 

Around 6:45pm Paramore took the stage. They were opening and got us all warmed up for Taylor Swift. We aren’t big Paramore fans but we had fun. 

Paramore Set List:

Hard Times

Burning Down the House

Still Into You

Caught in the Middle

Rose-Colored Boy

The Only Exception

That’s What You Get 

Ain’t It Fun

This is Why

What can be said about the Eras tour that hasn’t already been said? It is an unbelievable 3+ hour show. Taylor took the stage right at 8pm and took us on a journey through 18 years of music. Early in the show, she talks about how her music means so many things to so many people, but her hope is that when we hear these songs again we will think about this show. How could we not - it was beyond memorable. 

Paris was Taylor’s first show after she released the Tortured Poets Department album. It wasn’t clear if or how she would incorporate these songs into the show. I thought she would add a new Era because that felt like a very Taylor Swift thing to do. And she did. TTPD was our favorite part of the show. The staging and energy were amazing. There were a couple of songs we liked before the show, looking at you “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” that we loved after seeing it performed live. And how could we not love “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” it is such a great song. 

Every moment of this show was great, we were on our feet for every song dancing and singing along. The energy is unbelievable. Outside of TTPD, there were a few other highlights that stood out. Champagne Problems is such a powerful moment - it is one of our favs and hearing it live is so great. I also loved Style - that song speaks to me. Alison really loved hearing Wildest Dreams and the whole Midnights Era. Alison loves Midnights so much. 

Set List:

Lover Era

Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince

Cruel Summer

The Man

You Need to Calm Down

Lover

Fearless Era

Fearless

You Belong With Me

Love Story

Red Era

22

We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together

I Knew You Were Trouble

All Too Well (10-minute version)

Speak Now Era

Enchanted

reputation Era

…Ready for it?

Delicate

Don’t Blame Me

Look What You Made Me Do

FolkMore Era

cardigan

betty

champagne problems

august

illicit affairs

my tears ricochet

marjorie

willow

1989 Era

Style

Blank Space

Shake It Off

Wildest Dreams

Bad Blood

The Tortured Poets Department Era

But Daddy I Love Him

So High School

Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?

Down Bad

Fortnight

The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived

I Can Do It with a Broken Heart

Surprise Songs

Is It Over Now?/Out of the Woods Mashup

My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys

Midnights Era

Lavender Haze

Anti-Hero

Midnight Rain

Vigilante Shit

Bejeweled 

Mastermind

Karma

We will always be glad we came to Paris to see Taylor Swift’s Era Tour.