Visited France in April of 2005. Paris was great! Especially the food and the sights. I enjoyed learning to speak some French, visiting museums, galleries, etc. Shopping was fun – our hotel was around the corner from Rue Daguerre – a great little mall with lots of fresh food vendors.

The down side:
1. Everybody smokes – everywhere and all the time. I particularly hated this when we were eating as it masked the taste and smell of the food. In Victoria (where I am from), smoking is banned in most public places and definitely anywhere where people are eating.
2. Dog poo – it seems to be standard issue for Parisians to own a little (usually white) dog. Evidence is everywhere – on the footpaths and sometimes on my shoe.
3. the Aussie dollar was piss-weak against the Euro so everything was quite expensive.