How is France

Smelling of the Garlic with an air of surrender

I got back from Paris at 4am on Sunday. I went up the Eiffel Tower, saw the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs-Elysees on Friday, was in the Louvre and on the Place de la Concorde on the Saturday (saw the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo etc).

I had to pay a Euro in our youth hostel to use the internet cafe for 15 mins at full time to see the live scores come through from Sky Sports.

It seemed to take an absolute eternity for our result to come through - but it was worth it!!!

So the tourist brochure tour then?

An alternative itinery:

Sit on the steps of Sacre Couer, a far better view of Paris than the overpriced tower (a magnet for pickpockets).
Walk through the markets of Montparnasse on a Sunday morning.
Have an evening stroll through the Bois de Boulogne - that'll open your eyes!
Go and watch salsa at the quais de Seine or be a devil and join in! (its a free 24 hour a day salsa party)
See Le Catacombs, admittedly very touristy but worth going.

Never sit at a table for dinner within a mile of pretty much all the places you mentioned. It'll be mediocre and expensive. Always eat where the locals eat in any european city.

Funnily enough, the youth hostel was holding Salsa Dancing lessons on Friday nights.

I know what you mean about food though. There was a cafe around the corner from my youth hostel in the 19th arrondissement which was charging 5/6 Euros for food. Some of the places in the centre of Paris were charging 15/16 Euros for a meal for one!

If and when I go back again I'll go over to Montmartre and the cemetary where Sartre and Serge Gainsbourg are buried at Pere Lachaise.

The view from the top of the Eiffel Tower was spectacular!

The view from Sacre Couer is infinitely better and its free.

Have to agree with Mr I there POK, I went with the ex also didnt eat anywhere near the photo-ops places and stayed out of the city, really enjoyed it but prefaired castle of versailles better than the other tourist stuff. Also the latin quarter was very good had a few great meals there.

Yeah, if and when I go back to Paris I'll go to Versailles. The only reason why I didn't go there this weekend was it's a good half an hour-forty minutes by train from Paris to Versailles apparantly, but next time I'll probably go there, as well as Sacre Coeur.

The friends from university that I travelled with were going to go out one night in the Latin Quarter actually, but we ended up in a bar on the other side of the Arc de Triomphe, where a Coke was 4 Euros!

I was going to find an English bar in the Latin Quarter and see whether they were showing the election results on Sky or BBC that night.

They fun never stops when your on holiday

Kent, at your age you should join the couchsurfing website. www.couchsurfing.com. That way you can go to various places in France regularly without the worry of hotel costs. It will obviously help with your studies too.