I don't know about Paris being "the city of light." It was largely overcast while we were there. What strikes me about Paris generally is the conscious attempt, largely successful, to create grandeur. Paris has several major tree-lined boulevards that are reminiscent of The Mall in Washington, D.C. There are many grand buildings and monuments too.
We went to the top of the Eiffel Tower late in the evening, and the view is remarkable. I don't know exactly what I expected from the Eiffel Tower but the reality was different from the expectations: better, I think. If you go there, have "in advance" time-certain tickets to save much standing in line on the ground. Such tickets do not prevent line-standing once you're up on the tower. It was crowded.
The tower's grounds are overrun by third-world peddlers hawking souvenirs and toys. I was reminded of similar vendors in Mexico, Egypt and Asia; finding them in France did not make them more charming.
We made the obligatory visits to Versailles and the Louvre. Both buildings were very crowded, nearly to the point of ruining the experience. On the other hand, the gardens at Versailles were not especially crowded. It would have been nice to have more time in both sites. In both locations the services of a good guide were very helpful in understanding what we were seeing.
When we were in St. Petersburg a year or two ago we were told the Tsar had the city built to resemble Paris. Not having seen Paris the comment didn't "click" with us. Now that we've seen Paris the comment makes much sense. Like St. Petersburg, Paris has mile after mile of buildings that are maybe 4-6 stories high. It is not a particularly vertical city, on the other hand New York and Hong Kong definitely are vertical.
Built along the Seine, Paris is a city of bridges. We cruised the Paris portion of the Seine the night before we left for home. It would seem some effort went into having no two Seine bridges be identical, the variety is amazing.
There are lots of houseboats tied up alongside the banks, mostly converted barges. You expect these in Amsterdam but Paris has its share, too. We heard the houseboats are hooked up to city power and water, but not to the Parisian sewer system, so presumably they dump their waste water in the river. We heard the same thing in Amsterdam, how very unhygienic.
As a country, France "works." For the record, we encountered absolutely none of the fabled French rudeness. It is likely that our tour company - Grand Circle Travel - put together the trip to avoid our encountering rudeness, and they succeeded. The ship's crew went out of their way to be nice, helpful, and happy. We ate most meals on shipboard and they were excellent.
So we are home. For the next several months COTTonLINE returns to our usual content stream consisting of international affairs, domestic politics, scientific curiosities, and the odd entertainment review. The three months leading up to the November midterm elections should provide lots of domestic political action.
