"Ah, Paris..." a Paris Travel Page by londonlover

My whirlwind one-day, semi-guided tour of Paris was completed during my 2004 trip to Britain. We had an extra day, so I decided to fill it with an introduction to Paris. Since my French is extremely limited, I decided a semi-guided tour was a good start. Of course, it only scratched the surface, but having done that, I now feel much more comfortable about planning my own return visit one day soon.

I would recommend London-based Golden Tours (http://www.goldentours.co.uk/) as a well-done guided tour. We left London's Waterloo station on an early AM train, were given a 2-hour guided bus tour of the city by a friendly guide, given an hour on the Eiffel Tower (admission and fast-track to the 2nd floor included), and dropped off for about four independent hours before being bussed back to Gare du Nord for the return train to London that evening.

I loved Paris so much more than I had expected to enjoy it...I would definitely recommend following all the accepted etiquette about learning to speak at least a little French, being very polite to shopkeepers, etc., but I think the whole "Paris is rude and dirty" rumor is a big fat lie. :)