Paris Las Vegas Hotel
I am a Francophile. I am in love with, obsessed with, and thrilled by all things French, Parisian, and even French-Canadian. I was born to and raised by a French-Canadian, and lived for a few years with my Gramman, who hailed from Quebec. My aunt and Gramman would speak French when I was a kid. I read Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast and other works set in France (as well as by other writers doing the same in the expatriot 20s—Fitzgerald, Dos Passos, Stein, and Joyce). I collect Paris books, art, and doodads. And I have of late had the thrill of visiting Paris Las Vegas casino and hotel.
Granted, there are so many more options, so many varied and varying possibilities in the Las Vegas area of hotel, food, entertainment, touring site, and lifestyle choices for visitors and tourists that my focusing (or fixating) on only one might seem out of sorts. But, that’s my emphasis. If you are an Italio-phile or a circus lover or feel passionately about other cultures or phenomena, I understand. You will be more excited about The Bellagio, with its water-wonderful night light shows; or the Luxor with its simulated pyramid and mystical Egyptian theme; or you will stick to the allure of the Las Vegas tradition at the Monte Carlo, the Flamingo, Ceasar’s, the MGM, or The Sands. I have to talk about Paris Las Vegas.
The Paris Las Vegas hotel is affordable. It is even “cheap” or inexpensive, to use a nicer word, when you take them up on a non-weekend offer—a package deal of casino gambling coins/cash, a coupon or two for discounted dining, and even, in some luckier cases, an airline ticket price reduction. The Paris Las Vegas is also clean, quiet, well-maintained, and staffed by clever, courteous, and accessible people. The theme is lovely in the rooms and in the accompanying café, and the food is delicious.
But the best part for me of the Paris Las Vegas is downstairs in the Paris Las Vegas casino. The walk to the entrance of the Paris is a cobbled walk of shops and eateries on either side and a ceiling painted like the Paris sky (must be “painted). Inside the Paris is really outside: the décor, temperature control, ambience, and furnishings all contribute to the feel of being outdoors in Paris, near and under trees and, even, in some parts of the casino, under the Eiffel Tower! From the outside of the casino building, you see the Tour d’Eiffel to scale, built as it is around and atop the Paris Las Vegas hotel and casino. Inside, you are at the ground floor of inside the legs of the great and one-of-a-kind architectural phenomenon.
I have always wanted to go to Paris, France…not to gawk and take pictures of fat friends eating at a boulangerie or standing in front of and pointing to (as if photo viewers will miss it) L’Arc de Triomph, but to live. I would like to write, think, smell, see, and hear it all, become a part, become acclimated by immersion. But that isn’t happening any time soon, so I “settle” for the wonder and delight that is the Paris, Las Vegas, bien sur.