Day 19 - August 26 - Lyon - Paris

Returned to the French capital for a day and a bit of intensive sight-seeing.

After a longish bus journey, I had what is probably so far the highlight of the trip - a night at the famous Moulin Rouge cabaret.

I like going to the theatre but don't recall going to a cabaret before. It was sort of like a circus combined with a series of spectaculat musical and dancing pieces. The base of the show was the massive musical numbers with dozens of dancers, but they were broken up by juggling, acrobats, a clown act and a ventriloquist act. There was also a woman who swam in a giant water cage filled with snakes.

The singing was for the most part in French so I didn't get the words obviously but there was enough just to look at. Dozens of dancers in the most spectacular costumes... some of the women were topless. But beautiful energetic vigorous dancing... it made me feel like getting up and dancing and singing myself. I 'really don't know how they did it, as it was intense physical work and they'd \rush off and be back a few seconds later in an even more elaborate costume.

If you go to this page and click on the entry ""La Revue Ferrie" you get some idea of the spectacle of it. But it's much better in person - you are all seated at tables where they serve dinner first, we were in seats right next to the stage, and so this is all happening about 10 metres away.

The support acts were all excellent too. Juggling and acrobatics may sound ho hum, but believe me, they were not. Amd the ventriloquist's act was as funny as could be imagined... and suprisingly to em, in English, though I guess the audience was 90 percent made up of tourists.

I just can't praise it enough. Yes it was pricey but you are missing something special if you go to Paris and don't experience something of the theatre life. Next time I would try another show but I wouldn't mind seeing the same show again.