“I imagined a town as beautiful as it was large.  I saw only dirty, stinking alleys, ugly black houses, a small stench of filth and poverty. My distaste still lingers.” Wrote Jean-Jacques Rousseau, one of the early explores of the modern city.  My reaction although not as strong twenty five years earlier haunted my return in 2007.

I had gone for a romantic weekend with my extremely poor schoolboy French.  I had been told what a romantic city we were visiting; the sights and food beyond compare.  Unfortunately, being at the cheaper end of the market, our hotel was in the red light district and on stepping out of our hotel, for a quite romantic dinner on our first night, we were accosted by a prostitute.  Instead of being embarrassed, I realized later, I should have been grateful meeting the one of the few Parisians who was please to see us and who had a good grasp of the English language. 

The food I also found was poor, at least what we could find and afford, and so, despite the company, I came away with a very poor memory of Paris.  I put this down to the attitude of the arrogant Parisians since, when outside Paris, I found the French delightful, universally friendly and helpful.

I found the Paris that I returned to transformed by English speaking public transport officials, clearly making great strides to help the tourists.  This time I was in a hired apartment and so was able to enjoy the absolute delights of the local patisseries, small super markets and, best of all, the local markets.  The weather although spitting with rain in late spring did not deter us from the great way to enjoy Paris - Walking the streets and soaking up the atmosphere.

The heart of Paris is a relatively small city and, with a comfortable pair of shoes, in a day you can easily walk all the main attractions getting a perspective of the city.  Rushing form tourist attraction to tourist attraction, by metro or tube, is the most heartless way to visit any new city.  You are better taking one of the tour busses if you are pressed for time before heading into one of the museums.