Paris

Hello, the four of us left Messina for Paris with the flights organised and booked by the CTS, which really helped us and saved us money.

Having said that, I'd like to explain the reasons why we chose to travel in this period, leaving out the holiday days (Christmas and New Year): the reasons are three, namely: the first for purely sentimental reasons, that is to spend these holidays with family; the second for organisational reasons, since it would have been harder to find flights and hotels on those days; third, not least important, for economic reasons, since including those days the prices would have risen slightly.

That said, I'd like to start by describing perhaps the only negative note of the trip, namely that we were a bit disappointed by the lack of Christmas atmosphere, since the city was devoid of lights and garlands except at the main monuments. Otherwise everything was a success, starting with the purchase of the 3-day museum pass (€36.00) which let us enter free and above all avoid the queues at: Pompidou, the Louvre twice, Orsay, the Arc de Triomphe, Versailles. But it doesn't include, be careful, the climb up the Eiffel Tower, which costs €10.40. As for transport, we didn't buy any pass or subscription, but with a book of 10 tickets we got around the city for all 5 days, cost €10.50; we didn't quite understand how long a single ticket is valid for but it would seem to be 2 hours from when you validate it.

The beauty of the monuments is objective, whereas a ranking is more a subjective matter; my preference was for Versailles, marvellous and imposing, then the Eiffel Tower by night is beautiful with the sparkling effect that's activated about every hour, while as museums the first of all is the Orsay with all the impressionist paintings that I'd seen all my life in books, magazines and on TV, and that now were about half a metre from my nose. Finally I'd like to throw a spear at the Mona Lisa....... well, I'd really like to throw it to smash her, too acclaimed, she makes you queue to see her and if the crowd is big you can't stay more than three seconds looking at her since security pushes you so the other visitors don't crowd, in my opinion it's not worth it apart from being able to say I was there.

Another thing I advise you to visit are the characteristic districts, the most beautiful are certainly: Pigalle, Montmartre, the Latin Quarter and I'd add the Marais which we visited by mistake but is really worth seeing.

Pigalle is the sex district with its venues, including the famous Moulin Rouge, surrounded by hundreds of Sex Shops, all strictly to be seen at night; Montmartre is perhaps the most romantic district, with its artists' square surrounded by little buildings now completely turned into little shops and various small restaurants, but with great atmosphere nonetheless, and being positioned a bit on a hill it commands a wonderful panorama; the Latin Quarter is rich in lights and colours and I advise you to always keep it in mind for your lunches or dinners; and finally the Marais, the district of homosexuals of every kind, very lively, perhaps the liveliest district since it's the only one where we managed to have dinner after 11 pm; in fact all over Paris restaurants stop seating after 11 pm.

I'd have a thousand other things to tell you but I might risk going too much into detail, details that perhaps don't interest you much as they're the fruit of the wonderful personal experiences that you too will live if you set out to visit this European capital. One thing is certain, I'll go back.