Paris is always Paris!

In this travel account I'll limit myself to telling of a lovely weekend in Paris and what it's possible to do in three days. I had already been there twice before, where I'd been able to see not only the architectural beauties of the city but also what most "precious" it keeps in the Louvre and other, lesser museums. This time, with 2 friends, I limited myself to favouring and above all enjoying the city, its most characteristic neighbourhoods, the typical Parisian life by day and by night. On the morning of Friday 31 October we took an Air France flight from Bologna to Paris CDG (160 euros), by 9.00 we had already left the airport and with a 8.40-euro ticket we took the RER train that takes you into the city.

We got off at the Gare du Nord and here we bought an "Orange" ticket that for 18.00 euros lets you use the metro, the bus and even the funicular indiscriminately for 3 days in zones 1,2,3 of the city. Our hotel was right next to the Place de la Bastille, 50 metres from the metro. The hotel (Lyon Mulhouse) is very nice and has an excellent quality/price ratio. The first day we spent visiting the Bastille area, the Arc de Triomphe, Place Vendôme, la Madeleine, the Opéra, the Louvre and strolling along the whole of the Champs-Élysées and Rue de Rivoli, full of tourists and of Parisians out for a walk. We stopped to eat a crêpe and a baguette in a typical brasserie, watching the Parisians and their behaviour.

In the evening we took advantage of being in the Bastille area, because right here there are some streets full of venues for young people that keep the area lively until 4.00 in the morning. The streets where you can eat and drink in places like "Habanita", the "Barrio Latino" and others are Rue de la Roquette, Rue de Lappe and all those around them. The second day we spent visiting the area of the Hôtel de la Villa, Notre Dame on the Seine, the Panthéon, the Sorbonne, the Eiffel Tower and the Sacré-Cœur at Montmartre right at dusk, where we were able to see Paris from above and the Eiffel Tower lit up in white and then in blue for a few minutes. Halfway through the day we treated ourselves to a stop in a typical brasserie of the Latin Quarter and of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, neighbourhoods full of vitality and of places where you can eat, drink and chat "the Parisian way".

I recommend a visit to Rue Mouffetard. In the evening we went back to the venues next to the Place de la Bastille, where we ate a paella in a Spanish place the likes of which sometimes you can't even manage in Spain. In these areas you can have an aperitif from 17.00 to 21.00 for a maximum of 4-5 euros per cocktail, while from 21.00 onwards the price rises to 8-10 euros. On Sunday morning we spent breakfast in a typical Parisian "boulangerie et pâtisserie", then treated ourselves to buying a few small souvenirs in the little shops and markets of the centre. To all those who are thinking of going.....DON'T MISS THE CHANCE, because Paris is always Paris!!

Aldo