On our first night in Paris, I turned to Marisa and said, "It just feels like another big European city."

We had arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport before six pm but didn't make it to our hotel by the Bastille until after seven, where we met up with Peter and Sina.They'd been in Paris since lunch time.

We found a place for dinner nearby and fumbled our way through ordering (even more complicated when you have two vegetarians) and paying.We walked around some more, made it to the Seine, crossed onto the Ile de la Cite (Roger: there should be accents over a few of those vowels, but I can't be bothered with them), and took photos in front of Notre Dame.Then we walked home past the Hotel de Ville (which is massive).

I wondered that night, as I lay on my single bed squeezed between Marisa's and Peter's single beds, if my muted reaction to Paris was my own fault.Was I just Euro-jaded?Or had I not seen the real Paris?But would seeing the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triumphe in the flesh be that different from seeing it on the TV and postcards and t-shirts?

Well, the next evening, after visiting both of these and plenty more, I said this: "I take it back.Paris is different."

And Marisa said this: "I don't know what I was expecting, but I thought it would be different.I thought it would be chessier.But it's not cheesy at all."

Which sums Paris up pretty well.It's touristy, without being cheesy.The funny thing is, between the four of us, we ate A LOT of cheese.

Our Saturday in Paris started off on the right foot: the weather was stunning.24 degrees, blue sky, no wind.Great for walking the streets and taking photos.We started out taking the metro to Charles De Gaulle - Etoile, the huge round-a-bout with the Arc de Triumphe and the dozen or so streets coming off it like the points of a star (hence: etoile).Then we walked down Avenue Kleber, snacking on a breakfast baguette, until we got to the Trocadero and its stunning views of the Eiffel Tour from the North-West.

We walked across the bridge to the base of the tower, which was completely crammed with people.We cut through the lines to check out opening hours and prices to see whether we should go up now or wait till later, and read that the top level was not open at that time.When we came out the other side we could see little red dots of workmen doing maintenance on the upper part.No point going halfway up the tower, we decided, and walked down the Champ de Mars (taking lots more photos of the tower) until we came to the Ecole Militare, then made our way past the Hotel Invalides and over the Pont Alexandre III, which is pretty decked out as far as bridges go: they certainly didn't skimp on the statues or the gold paint.

Then it was past the Grand Palais and down the Champs Elysees to the Place de la Concorde, which doesn't look so big on the map, but it is absolutely huge.We had to cross the road about six time to get to the other side, with fountains and obelisks and statues to keep us entertained on the way.

By then it was time for lunch so we found a supermarket (after some intense searching) and took our picnic into the Jardin des Tuileres.Picnic/Garden... it seemed like a good idea, but then we found out all the grass in the Jardin de Tuileres was roped off, and all the seats in the shade were taken.(By this time Sina and I were starting to feel like our skin needed a rest from the sun).In the end we found a patch of grass inside the children's playground and laid our feast out there.

After lunch it was on to the Louvre for a looksee outside.We had planned to go inside on Sunday afternoon, but a fellow tourist gave us two free passes stamped the 3rd of May, so we basically had a 4 for the price of 2 deal.

By the time we got inside, got our tickets, check our bag, and looked at the map, it was 4pm, which gave us two hours to whip around before closing time.

The Louvre is not the sort of place you can see in two hours, but we focussed and got to see a lot of the 'big' works (Venus de Milo, Winged Victory of Samothrace, Mona Lisa, Madonna of the Rocks) and some of my favourites from my Art History days (see photo of me and Baldassare Castiglione).

Definitely a place I would like to go back to and spend an entire day... but as we only had two full days in Paris, there was plenty more to see and do outside the walls of the Louvre.

We crossed over the Seine again and saw the Notre Dame in daylight, then had a few drinks in a bar/restaurant, then decided to stay there for dinner.Sadly, there were no frog's legs on the menu, but there were escargot.Me and Marisa shared a plate of six for an entrée while the Germans watch on with interest (if they were disgusted, they hid it well).

This is how Marisa described the taste of snails: a cross between mussels and bone marrow.The only thing I would add to this is: a whiff of lawn clippings.

All in all, pretty nice.I can see why people eat them.

One of our meals for the main course was a salad with roast duck, cured duck, and foie gras.Since we've been in the UK we've seen a lot of cooking shows, and every second one seemed to mention foie gras.I had ethical qualms about the whole force feeding side of foie gras production, but until I tasted it, I couldn't say whether the dubious treatment of the animals could be justified by the end result.

This is how I described the taste of foie gras: like twenty different flavours, all occurring one after the other, and none of them being entirely pleasing.

Marisa didn't really like it either.I guess we just aren't fatty liver people.

After dinner we caught the metro back to the Eiffel Tower to take in the lights display and take more photos.

Our hotel was one of those ones where you have to leave your key at reception, and the reception closed at 1am.We made it back in time.Just.

It was a mammoth day.One in which we achieved more than we set out to (freeing us up to see more the next) and got closer to the idea at the heart of Paris.

On Sunday we walked to a market which looked close to our hotel on the map... It was worth the longer than expected walk: lots of amazing produce: zucchinis the shape of grenades, white asparagus the size of microphones, lots of cheeses I've never heard of.We bought some bread, cheese, tapenade, olives, tomatoes, and grapes, but the best buy was a kilo of large, juicy strawberries for 2 euros.It wasn't all cheap, or local (our strawberries were from Spain I think), but those French sure do a god market.

We then went to Pere Lachaise cemetery, where such luminaries as Chopin, Balzac, and Delacroix are buried, but most tourist go for the two foreigners: Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison.Personally, I don't really see the point in going out of your way to see a famous person's grave (isn't it better to listen to their music, read their books or view their paintings?), but we went, we saw, we photographed.

Then we caught the metro to Montmatre and ate our lunch on the steps up to the Basilique du Sacre Coeur.The church sits on a hill looking back at the heart of Paris, and it was only five euros to climb to the top of the dome... we figured if we didn't make it to the top of the Eiffel Tower (which we didn't) the view from the top of the Sacre Coeur would be a good fall back.Which it was.We must have spent half an hour to forty five minutes up there, just walking around, taking in the 360 degree view, spotting Parisian landmarks (you could see them all, pretty much) and, of course, taking photos.

Then it was down to see the Moulin Rouge, which we didn't expect to be that exciting during the day, and from the outside, which it wasn't.But we weren't about to fork out 80 euros a head to see a can-can... Instead we bought a six pack of beer and sat on the side of the Seine with the locals and drank in the late afternoon sun.

I think the classiness of Paris is summed up by the speed at which the river cruises whiz through the heart of town.It's like they're saying: we've got a lot to look at, we don't need to drag it out, if you really like something, spend more time here you silly foreigners.

Not that I ever felt like I was treated like a silly foreigner.We all tried to speak French in the first instance (between the four of us, we probably knew eighty words), and I think this helped.Being proud of their language, their culture, is another facet of the classiness (or the uncheesiness) of Paris.Compare this to a place like Prague, which is now the Stag Do/Hen's Night capital of the world...

Anyway, that's the meat of our long weekend in Paris.I feel like we could go back for another three nights and see a whole new city.But it's probably wiser to go somewhere else in France, where I'm sure it's completely different.Hopefully it still has that ring of class, and I'll know a soupçon more French.

Craig