by Javier Morales

Created on: June 26, 2007

Paris, France, with its awe-inspiring Eiffel Tower, romantic feel as the City on the Seine, and cultural history, should be visited every spring time in everybody's life despite what you might have heard about Parisians.

Stories have circulated about snobbish waiters or rude Parisians in general. That's a stereotype that is not entirely true. Parisians, by most accounts of tourists who visit there, are no different than New Yorkers.

If you respect their ways, they will respect you.

When visiting Paris, France, the sights and cultural value of the city outweigh everything else, especially in the spring when the climate makes a stroll by the Seine so inviting.

The city offers 10 must-see sights for first-time visitors. The following is a brief rundown on each of these destinations:

Louvre: The Louvre is the most visited art museum in the world (more than 8 million tourists visited there in 2006). Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, Madonna and the Rocks and the Virgin and Child with St. Anne are among the works of art on display. Alexandros of Antioch's Venus de Milo is also housed at the museum. The building was a royal palace during the medieval times.

Jardin des Tuileries: Also known as the Tuileries Garden, it occupies the large empty space between the northern and southern wings of the Louvre. The Seine is to the south. The Tuileries Garden covers about 63 acres. The spacious garden, which radiates in the spring, offers classic and modern sculptures, large basins, flowerbeds and wild birds. The space where it is located was once inside a palace adjoining the Louvre. That palace burned down in 1871, opening the space for the garden.

Centre Georges Pompidou: A uniquely designed art museum, library and music research building, is named after Georges Pompidou, who was the French president from 1969-1974. The building, which opened in 1977, includes large colored pipes on the outside of the rear. The colors of the pipes signify their contents: Yellow for electricity; red for heating; blue for air; and green for water.

Place des Vosges: It is Paris' oldest square, built under King Henry IV from 1605-1612. The Place des Vosges Paris' first attempt at urban planning consists of 39 houses each made of red brick with stone facings. Some of the houses are museums, showcasing its residents from 400 years ago.

Notre Dame de Paris: The Gothic Roman Catholic cathedral took almost 200 years to build, with construction starting in 1163 and completed around 1345. The cathedral, with its

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