by John Warren

Created on: April 06, 2007   Last Updated: April 17, 2007

Paris, the city of lights, shopping, and breathtaking structural design, is undeniably one of the world's most beautiful cities. The city itself is a museum, displaying the greatest achievements of classical, modern, and post-modern architecture. A timeline of Europe's greatest architectural feats stretches through the center of this vast city, marking the city's best buildings from the Louvre's enormity to the Grand Arch of La Defense. Some of the city's best known sites; the Eiffel tower, the Arch de Triomphe, and the Louvre, are great destinations and are open to the public year round. However the best time to visit Paris is in the fair weather months of spring, the days are warm and the nights are cool, and perfect for walking the Champs Elysees or dining outside at small caf. Any travel guide in any bookstore will be adequate in directing you to the tourist stops and sites in Paris, but to help you fully enjoy your spring trip you will need to know about the few well kept secrets of the wonderful city of lights.

Let's start with food; Paris is heralded around the world for its great food, but unless you have a lot of money to spend on expensive restaurants, it can be hard to find decent inexpensive meals with good service. Au Pied du Cochon, literally translated "The Foot of the Pig", is a 24 hour restaurant located near St. Eustach, that has the BEST French onion soup in all of Paris. Not only does it have great food, but it is reasonable priced and served quickly. This restaurant has a wonderful outside seating area that is never more enjoyable than in the spring. Also there will be no waiting two hours for a meal at the Foot of the Pig.

Some of the best and most informative tours in Paris are actually under Paris. The catacombs and the sewer tour are two of the most fun sights to see in the city, unless you're claustrophobic. These two sites are great examples of necessary sanitation structures that humans have created to dispose of their waste, whether it is their bodies or their bodily fluids. If in the spring the temperature gets too hot, pay a few euros and hang out in the naturally air conditioned catacombs. As for the sewers, trust me, once you take the tour you will never allow your children to play in another public fountain ever again.

One of the reasons Paris has such a breathtakingly beautiful architecture is because of its business district, La Defense. La Defense was created to preserve the historical structure of the city. Instead of building the necessary buildings inside the historical city, as cities like London and New York did, Paris built a separate downtown to fit their business needs. By doing this, they did not have to disturb any historical buildings. Everyone who visits Paris must visit La Defense, especially in the spring when the weather is perfect for walking.

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