Paris

April 3 - 6, 2008


Once in Paris and never again

So we've spent some days in Paris. We stayed at a nice hotel, Le Méridien Etoile. The food was good - accept the bread - it seems that the French people only can bake pein riche. The weather was nice - warm and sunny - only some few hours with rain.

We visited the typical tourist attractions such as La tour Eiffel, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, Moulin Rouge, Montmartre, Basilique du Sacré-Cœur, Avenue des Champs Élysées, La Fayette, La Grande Arche, etc. We went to Lido, which wasn't as spectacular as we had expected. But the champagne was good and the show was nice.

There are a lot of old and beautiful buildings in Paris. Unfortunately the fronts are very dirty from the air pollution.

We liked the part of the city called Montmartre. There are many narrow lanes, old houses, a lot of galleries and small shops. And of course the fantastic church Sacré-Cœur.

In our opinion Paris = bad air, much too many cars (they are driving like idiots there, and there are not very many cars, which don't have any damage), full, hectic, chaotic, dirty and loud. And it's extremely expensive there. Some examples: a handbag for "only" 2800 Euro, shoes as from 500 Euro, a Cappuchino as from 5 Euro, a drink arround 9 Euro, etc. The only thing, which is quite cheap in Paris is taking a taxi.

The people are elegant dressed, hectic, dekadent and very superficially. This is how we experienced them.

We have already had the "pleasure" to see the CDG airport several times. It was like always. It is dirty, worn and chaotic. It's unbelievable that the airport of the second largest city of Europe - also called "Metropolis" looks like a dumping ground. We've seen approx. 30 airports in the world, but this one is definitely the worst.

However, it was nice to see Paris but we don't think that we will ever go there again.

Au revoir Paris!