France

12 April 2007 PARIS The essence of romance in an enigmatic and overwhelming city. A proper weekend; we spent only 3 days in beautiful Paris, but it would have taken at least 7 days to keep dreaming in that unreal atmosphere that only this city can give; in a few days, using the efficient metro system, we visited many prestigious places such as the Louvre museum, the Sacre-Coeur, the Eiffel Tower... and very many others. Reaching the foot of the Eiffel Tower, we saw a very long queue; all those visitors had to get tickets to reach the summit via a series of lifts that took you to the top of the iron tower. With a little apprehension we joined the queue and, strangely, noticed that it moved along quite quickly, so the waiting time for the ticket was relatively short; for just 11.50 euros we reached the top floor, where the panorama that presents itself to your eyes leaves you breathless.

When we returned to the foot of the Eiffel Tower, we headed for the Seine, where we took a boat that for just 10 euros showed you the city from another perspective; I recommend everyone to go there and to book only a B&B for sleeping and breakfast, because for lunch you can buy the classic baguettes with cold cuts in the supermarkets, for the evening sort yourselves out with a McDonald's or a quick hot dog; don't book excursions through agencies because, calculating value for money, it's much better to buy tickets on the spot. (an excursion through an agency costs about 150 euros per person; if you follow my advice, with a bare 22 euros you do the same things). HAVE A GOOD HOLIDAY!