Shedding light on the City of Light

---

The plan of action was running as smooth as silk - 5 nights in London, and 5 nights in Paris, and with the London leg of our journey already completed, the Parisian episode felt like it was destined to have coined such phrases as 'onwards and upwards', and 'the sky's the limit'. This was the second trip to the city of great architecture, countless restaurants of note, and the undeniable sense of feminine chic, and since I was still acting as a tour guide, I was behaving like a stop-at-nothing tourist trying to cram in those vital travel experiences into the duration of our stay there. Since it is now the summer of 2009, I am having to cast my mind back a whole 4 years to reflect upon this experience, but on the whole, the memories of this stay in Paris are still comparatively fresh in my mind. Discoveries for myself include the catacombs (eerie, but well worth a visit), and the museum at the Invalides (all part of the city's artistic flair), and I was floored by the sheer volume of eateries in Paris, leading me to believe that Parisians spend half their time consuming food. Highlights included a terrific night out at the Moulin Rouge, and an unmissable chance to witness the seemingly-endless stream of roller-bladers whizz past whilst we were dining al fresco at a streetside restaurant. My only gripe here (and I do resent coming across as a whiney type of traveller!) is that Paris is perhaps just too obvious, and a tourist magnet for all the right set of reasons. The reason I readily point this out is that there are architectural gems of note, and fascinating cityscapes all over the world, and I prefer to attribute equal weighting to all of what this planet has to offer, and I deem it slightly unfair when other cities are dubbed 'the Paris of the East / North' and so on. All in all, there are probably about 5 bona fide pluses for each minus you would associate with Paris, and that factor alone makes it worth the trek, and with my level of spoken French still being in relatively fine shape, it made the whole experience turn out at least as well as could have been anticipated.

---

Photos

Catacombs
Creepy contents of the Catacombs in Paris

Sacre Coeur
Sacre Coeur church lit up at night, not bad to say I had only owned the camera for a couple of weeks...

Fountain
Fountain in Place de La Concorde, but no great danger of being sprayed here!

Mt Saint Michel
The Mont St. Michel, a possible sideline day trip from central Paris

Monument
Needle-like monument in Place De La Concorde - is this the 'pinnacle of Paris'?