The city of lights. Sounds kinda like a stupid name. All major cities nowadays are covered in lights. I think the name predates the invention of electric lights and might have been about something completely different, but it’s what I think of. At night though, they really earned the name with the spectacular lighting on their monuments, especially the Eiffel Tower. Two different nights I got to see the Eiffel light up in sparkling displays (which I didn’t know it did beforehand), and I was able to see it from two very distant spots due to the layout of the city. In the historic district or whatever they call the part with all the monuments, I believe it is illegal to build buildings above a certain height. Basically, it means there’s nothing blocking the view from the Eiffel Tower and allowing the view of said tower to be more widely available across the city (though there’s a bunch of tall buildings a few miles down from the Arc De Triomphe which looks pretty cool). So, we got pretty good views both nights. The other thing I noticed about France is how much bigger a lot of the places are then in Britain. I’m not sure if it’s because the country itself is bigger, but the Louvre and Versailles both felt huge compared to anything in the UK. Might also have something to do with absolute monarchy I guess, not sure. Anyway, we had a lot of fun, and, of course, the food was delicious. Also some good wine.
