Paris [antikvár]

I\- " -As iconic as an icon can get, the much-snapped Eiffel Tower (pi 16)1Well informed, eloquent and oh-so-romantic, the Ville-Lumiere (City of Light) is a philosopher, a poet, a crooner. As it always has been, Paris is a million different things to a million different people.Paris has all but exhausted the superlatives that can reasonably be applied to any city. Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower - at sunrise, at sunset, at night - have been described countless times, as have the Seine and the subtle (and not-so-subtle) differences between the Left and Right Banks. But what writers have been unable to capture is the grandness and even the magic of this incomparable city.Paris probably has more familiar landmarks than any other city in the world. As a result, first-time visitors often arrive in the French capital with all sorts of expectations: of grand vistas, of intellectuals discussing weighty matters in cafés, of romance along the Seine, of naughty nightclub revues, of rude people who won't speak English. If you look hard enough, you can probably find all of those. But another approach is to set aside the preconceptions of Paris and explore the city's avenues and backstreets as if the tip of the Eiffel Tower or the spire of Notre Dame wasn't about to pop into view at any momentYou'll soon discover (as so many others have before you) that Paris is enchanting almost everywhere, at anytime, even 'in the winter, when it drizzles' and 'in the summer, when it sizzles', as Cole Porter put it And you'll be back. Trust us.