Paris

Paris, the capital of France, is located in northern France on both banks of the Seine River, 145 km from the river's mouth on the English Channel. A total of 2.2 million inhabitants live in Paris proper, and almost 12 million live in greater Paris, which is one of Europe's largest metropolitan areas. Paris owes its prosperity in large part to its favorable position on the Seine, which has been a major commercial artery since the Roman period.

The first thing you see when entering Paris is the Eiffel Tower. Three hundred French folk built the Eiffel Tower, over only two years, for the 1889 World Fair. The Tower was simply the front gate to the Fair and an amusement with 2 francs being charged for people to walk up its structure. The builder, Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, paid for the entire construction and was given a twenty-year lease to recover his costs. At the end of the twenty years it was to be dismantled. The French largely hated the Tower for most of its twenty years with many protests at the ugliness of the Tower. Newspapers of the day reported that the Tower was killing all the fish in the River Seine and had changed weather patterns across France.

At the end of the twenty years, under threat of an official order from the French government to pull down the Tower, Alexandre Eiffel convinced the military that the tower could be useful for military communications via newly invented radio transmission. The first antennae were installed at its top just in time for World War I thus saving the Tower forever. Sadly, over 300 people have committed suicide off the Tower and now the lower floors are wrapped in a visually unpleasant steel mesh to stop further deaths.

A short list of must see attractions in and around Paris;
• The 9000 seat Notre Dame Cathedral
• The Louvre – former Royal Palace housing the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory of Samothrace, along with 3000 other world artistic treasures
• The Invalides – Napoleon’s Tomb
• The Champs-Eleysees running through the city centre (ANOTHER Egyptian Luxor Obelisk is at its centre)
• The Arc de Triomphe
• The Paris Opera Theatre – largest in the world
• The Palace of Versailles
• Claude Monet’s home
• Rouen, where Joan of Arc was martyred
• Jim Morrisson, Sarah Bernhardt and Oscar Wilde are buried here.

Getting around Paris was much easier than reported. We got to most of the sites by either bus or river barge. The highlight of the day was a late dinner cruise down the Seine over a classic French meal, duck breast with pears and roasted potatoes millefeuille, poire William reduction, washed down with a 2001 Canon Fronsac Ch. Cassagne Haut Canon " La Truffière ". Even in our underdressed tourist couture, it was still a genuinely emotional experience.

As I took in the surreal scenery on deck an Australian woman standing beside me, Alyce, began quietly crying. Alyce was so overcome with the opulent splendor of Paris, particularly the riverside milieu, that she had to let it out. I empathised with her emotion and offered a glass of my red wine. It was at this time that the roaming violinist arrived beside us on deck and began playing an Edith Piaf classic Non Je Ne Regrette Rien.

Alyce’s heart-sourced tears rose in audibility and passion and threatened to upset my own fragile state of well being so I refilled my own glass of red, nodded to the violinist, bid adieu to Alyce, and moved to a different part of the barge, problem solved.

Now where was I? Paris is a city that stirs emotions and moves even the hardest soul, if only from one end of the barge to the other, non, je ne regrette rien!!