Paris, France

Paris, France

July 2012, taken with a Canon 200IS and then edited slightly

Excitement ensued as we boarded the Eurostar in the beautiful St Pancras for our 2-hour journey to Gare du Nord.

The metro stations in Paris are essentially London tubes except filled with more grime and shifty-eyed people. The pervading stench of urine once underground was actually quite charismatic.

Once inside the Musée du Louvre, the sporadic French sun decided to make a temporary appearance and shone brilliantly through the glass planes; white light cascaded onto the marble floors below.

Napoleon's dining room, as seen in the Richelieu wing of the Musée du Louvre. Despite the abundance of tourists, the whole of Napoleon's apartment was hushed, as if  it was expected that Napoleon's well-heeled shoes might be heard clicking down the corridor at any second and demand an explanation for our intrusion.

Notre Dame de Paris. A spectacular building, with an even more spectacular queue, so we were quite content viewing it from atop a bus.

The Luxor Obelisk  is covered in Egyptian hieroglyphics stands proudly at the centre of the at the Place de la Concorde. I would have loved to have spent hours deciphering the etched images, but sadly the obelisk was 21 metres too tall and the bus had carried me on.

This tourist's head mars the otherwise average picture of l'Arc de Triomphe.

And what would a trip to Paris be without a staple photo of la Tour Eiffel? (we didn't go up because it was a) too expensive and b) had mile-long queues, but walking around the tower was just as good, in my opinion).

The Dôme des Invalides - Napoleon's tomb is here. I would have liked to have gone in, but unfortunately we were a bit pushed for time.

The copious number of sex shops weren't as crude or daunting as I thought. On the contrary, I thought they really livened up the streets of Montmarte.

If you are after a view of Paris from up high, rather than pay through your teeth for a trip up le Tour Eiffel, I would recommend making your way through Montmartre to le Sacre Coeur where, after a short (free) trek uphill you can gaze upon the city that lies beneath you and admire the beautiful basilica behind you. Just watch out for the men who pounce on you with bracelets, tie said bracelets onto your arm so tightly you can't remove them, and before you have time to object then demand money for them.

The two above pictures were taken inside the Panthéon. The Panthéon is absolutely spectacular, indescribably huge and massively underrated as a tourist attraction in Paris, in my opinion.

Victor Hugo's tomb in the crypt of the Panthéon.

As the connoisseurs and inventors of macarons, a trip to Paris would not be complete without sampling some of the city's delicacies.