"Paris" a Paris Travel Page by Jen611

The last 3 nights of our trip to Italy and France were spent in Paris. Our first impression of the city was that it was huge! It is hard to tell the scale of the city by maps, so on our first day, we set out to explore various sights on foot. By late afternoon, we were ready to collapse. We decided we should take advantage of the city’s great subway system, the “metro,” but even that involved a lot of walking and stair-climbing, as the subway stations appear to be very large and spread-out. No wonder everybody in Paris is thin, despite all of the wine and rich foods! Needless to say, we were glad to have comfortable shoes.

Some of the key sights we saw in the 2 and a half days we were in Paris included: Eiffel Tower (although we opted not to wait on line for 2 hours to get to the top), Arc de Triomphe (we climbed to the top of this one), La Defense and the modern business district, the Marais district with the Centre Pompidou (nice shopping and cafes), the Latin District (younger crowd, also cheaper shopping and cafes with more international cuisine), Notre Dame, the Louvre and Musee D’Orsay, and a night-time cruise on the Seine. Such a big part of truly experiencing Parisian life is to simply forget the maps and just walk around, explore the various districts and walking along the Seine, and enjoy a drink or meal in an outdoor café. It is hard to get lost, even though it is a big city, and the nearest metro station sign will tell you where you are. A tradition we noticed is the parade of people strolling the Champs Elysees at night. The sun didn’t seem to set until almost 11pm (a phenomenon which was strange to us), and there were always a lot of people out in the gardens and on the streets until late. Most shops on the main streets, especially the Champs, stayed open until midnight, and we would often find our way back to the hotel from the day’s events via walking along that grand boulevard.