We were in Paris for just a long weekend recently and as we have seen the usual attractions on previous trips, we decided to go for a walk. We came across the Discover Walks homepage and decided to try it out. We came a few minutes late to the meeting point at Notre Dame and we thought we missed it – but after a couple of minutes we saw the pink vest indicating the guide. We started out with the guide Raphael but was soon also joined by Bertrand – two guides in a group of only 5 people – what luxury   We went for the relative new 4 pm walk and I guess most people are not aware of this as the group was so small. But the tour lasted for a couple of hours and it was great doing a tour with a couple of local boys and we got to hear about Cyrano de Bergerac, about the Sorbonne university, about small book shops and jazz clubs and we could talk to the boys on where to eat and drink in Paris and much more of course. But best of all was of course getting guiding from local people who has a real passion for their own city. Thanks guys for the great tour – I’ll try out one of the other tours when I return to Paris Check out their homepage http://www.discoverwalks.com/ for more information.

I’m fortunate enough to be heading of to Paris again soon. I have been there a few times before and it was actually one of my first destination for a long weekend city trip in Europe back in 1994. I was totally blown away by the big city, the beautiful bridges across the Seine, the beautiful architecture, the museums etc. After that I  have been there on longer stays and it has been great to have time to just walk around and enjoy the sights, sounds and smell. The last time I went there was back in 2006 and you can check out the Paris trip report here. This time I’m even doing a food course – it is a cooking for friends course so I guess I have to find some “victims” when I get back home to rehearse a bit If you haven’t been to Paris it is really a place worth visiting in my opinion.