Luv de Paris

A city you will fall in love with, a city where you would want to fall in love in. Its true what everyone says about this city, you have to be there to know why the whole world is crazy about this city (in spite of it being French:) ). Be it the food, or the history, or the fashion, or the art and the artists, or the architecture, or just walking around the city, it has everything. A city where you can spend hours just exploring its lanes and the art and fashion and style there.

Have spent two birthdays in Paris, and one of those was a whole week that I was travelling there, and that too alone, and I absolutely love the city! Don't really know where to start and where to end!

Champs-Elysees (or 'Shauzeleeze' as its actually pronounced as) is the high-street of Paris. A wide boulevard, lined with trees and the best branded shops on either side is a must-do. Just walk along the road, up to the Arc de Triumph. You can get a good view of the city from the top of Arc de Triumph.

You can window shop at Champs Elysees for sure, some of the best and some of the most expensive stuff is available there. Shopping in Paris is abundant. There is the Galerias Lafayette, a super store, with everything and anything under the sun. And not as expensive either.

Or just walk along the Seine, you may find small shopping areas, with small designers selling their (absolutely stunning) stuff.

Paris is a shoppers paradise, even for someone who hates shopping. You may find unique dresses in small shops which you wouldn't even notice, beauty and creativity is there just everywhere in the city, you cant miss it!

Go up the Eiffel Tower, the experience is good. The best time would be in the evening, when you can see the whole city in daylight, and as you reach up, the city lights up. Paris turns out to be quite a well-planned city given how old it is.

The roads are straight, the squares are actually hexagons (i think!) with 6-8 roads meeting there. The architecture is similar, all in the light brownish colour of Paris. The climb up the Eiffel is interesting, and scary for some too.

There is a restaurant too, at the first level of Eiffel Tower I think, should be a nice place for dinner, with a view of the city. From the top you can also see most of the monuments of the city, the Arc de Triumph, Invalides, Louvre, MontMarte etc.

Also in the evening, Eiffel is lighted up and every 15 mins, it sparkles. Is a nice sight!

Spend a day in Louvre. Its huge, and if you like history and art, you will love this place. It was earlier the French royal palace, and now houses one of the biggest collection of art. The famous Mona Lisa is also housed in the Louvre itself.

Louvre has a varied art collection, paintings, sculptors and other art pieces from across the world, and some of the Da Vinci Code pieces too.

You may not be able to do justice to Louvre in a day. If you can, go there multiple times, the place is worth it.

And spend a day at the Versailles palace, its the royal grandeur at its best. Its a huge complex, with hundreds of art pieces, and wealth at display. The garden at Versailles is majestic too, once of the best have ever seen. You can see a small French village created there, and sheep grazing around and fountains and garden landscaping and of course, flowers. A grand sight, and a good place to spend time if you have the luxury of time.

Walk along the Seine, enjoying the sights of the city. Its one of the best ways to explore the city, you can catch the younger sister of the Statue of Liberty also if you do that;-)

Notre Dame is a imposing church, inside as well as outside, just next to the Seine. Then there are the other usual places to visit, Montmarte (a church in white, on top of a hill),

Disneyland park (slightly outside the city), Bastille monument, walk on Rue-de-Rivoli (the street is so alive, it peps you up also!), couple of museums here and there and

then the opera house.

The French are actually more helpful than they are credited with.

The English spoken in French could be worked on though. It was funny my friend discussing with the cab driver, "no-no-no, i don't want to go to toureffel, I want to go to Eiffel Tower:)". Helps in many many ways to have a local French contact, they can give you many tips which can help you get around the city easily. If you can get the name of the place you are going to, plus how its called in French, saves a helluva lot of time! Also the food in the city is amazing, if you know where to go to!

There are many lesser known restaurant and cafes, with absolutely fantabulous food (will list some once I remember what they were called and how they were spelt!) And please please please, try the cheeses there. Even someone who hates cheese will freak out on the variety there, one for every taste.

Specially people like us from India who have grown up eating just Amul cheese, such a spread is difficult to imagine and even more difficult to not love! The open air cafes are a pleasure to sit in, just to enjoy the view of the city (when the weather is good that is!!) and the spread is tasty bakery items, simple but tasty! You can even get South-Indian food next to the Gare du North station if you want. Getting around the city is easy, with the Metro. The Paris map is also very helpful, most of the places to visit are all located close by to each other and its a pleasure to walk between them.