Paris. The city of lights. Or something. We went there over Valentines weekend and I did so with trepidation. I've been through Paris, round Paris, under Paris and over Paris. But I've never stayed in Paris and spent time there. Whenever I mentioned this to friends I would always get the usual 'ruined by the French' comment along with others as below.....
'It's expensive' - yes it is but no more than London or Rome or Venice or many other great European cities. Take a bit of time to go off the beaten track and prices fall quite a bit.
'It's got dog shit everywhere' - no...no it hasn't. I'd argue Buchjarest was the worst I've seen for this, but Paris is clean, very clean. They passed a law on dog shit in the streets, and although no city is completely free of idiots leaving it behind, paris was s clean, if not cleaner than London.
'It's ruined by the French' - oh how I laughed at this..NEVER. Get the fuck over yourselves you gammon faced xenophobes. The french are fine, as are most of us, or the Romans, or Berliners....it's a shit lazy stereotype propagated by brexit twats. We found Parisians to be friendly, welcoming and polite.
'It's full of pickpockets, scammers and con-men' - Now this is the closest to being true. But again it's no worse than any other major Eurpoean city, where chancers see oportunities to mug off ostentatious or gullible tourists. We did see a pickpocket team by the Trocadero, and plenty of street sellers and 'cup and ball' con men. We also got partially done by the 'wedding ring' scam whereby a stranger walking acrfoss the road next to you claims to find a ring in the road, then says they can't keep it for religious reasons and gives it to you. Then tries charging you €50 for it being your 'lucky day'. However, we only had €2 in cash on us, and said we would hand it in to the police as we would want that if we had lost our ring. She accepted the €2....we see that as a €48 gain!
'The queues for the Eiffel Tower and other sights are horrendous' - yes they are, even in February. But..get the fuck over yourselves. Paris is the MOST visited city in the world, more than London, more than Rome, more than New York, so don't be surprised it's busy. Here's a thing though...a GJ tip if you like.....book your tickets and tours online before you go. There are plenty of 'skip the line' tours with TripAdvisor and Viator, both of which have never let us down. The price difference is small and the guarantees are worth a few extra quid, as is the lack of waiting around in endless queues. The Eiffel tower, Arc de Triomphe, Louvre, Place de Concorde, Champs-Elysees, Musee D'Orsay, Montmarte, Sacre Coeur and all the other stuff are terriifc places to visit. Notre Dame is behind a fence, and covered in scaffold so ...very limited stuff to see there.
'Public transport is shit' - no it isn't, well the metro isn't. It's clean and punctual. Is it as good as the London Underground...no, but it's pretty close.
'The food is shit' - au contraire mon amis, au contraire. The food we ate was amongst the best I've eaten, anywhere at any time. And I'm talking from the baguettes we bought on the street and in the Eiffel Tower cafe, to the food on the river boat meal and to the excellent food in the restaurant we ate in on Valentines night (Signature)
So, my advice is simple, go there. Take your cunty Union Jack/Cross of St George goggles off and see how the other side of the channel lives. Paris is a beautiful, clean , stunning , interesting and wonderful city that now vies with Berlin and Rome as amongst my favorites.
Later Mugs, GJ
