Send us Fan Mail
Is Paris worth the hype? From the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre to café culture and a night at the Moulin Rouge, Malcolm and David revisit the French capital with humour, hazy memories and rather different levels of enthusiasm.
This week on Unravel Travel, we look back on Paris city breaks, an Interrail adventure and business trips that involved rather more eating than sightseeing. David needs convincing about the city’s charms. Can Malcolm’s memories of art, riverside walks and Parisian cabaret change his mind?
Our first visit involved an overnight train from Nice, climbing the Eiffel Tower, visiting Jim Morrison’s grave and a dangerously literal approach to crossing the road at the Arc de Triomphe. There was an underpass. We discovered it eventually.
Malcolm then recalls a three-day trip to Paris with Petra just before Christmas, travelling by Eurostar and exploring much of the city on foot. From the Champs-Élysées to the banks of the Seine, we discuss the pleasure of simply wandering, the crowds around the Mona Lisa and why the Louvre deserves more than a quick dash between its most famous exhibits.
There’s also Impressionist art at the Musée d’Orsay, memories of Notre-Dame before the fire, and an evening of dinner and cabaret at the Moulin Rouge. Add snails, oysters, champagne and time spent watching the world go by in cafés, and Paris starts to make a stronger case for itself.
Along the way, we talk about:
• Visiting the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe and Champs-Élysées.
• The Louvre, Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo and exploring beyond the busiest galleries.
• Musée d’Orsay and its Impressionist paintings.
• The Moulin Rouge cabaret experience in Paris.
• Café culture, French food and our questionable schoolboy French.
• Travelling from London to Paris by Eurostar.
• The Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye as a trip beyond central Paris.
We finish with a taste of travel elsewhere in France: camping near Bordeaux, the Mediterranean coast around Perpignan, walking in the Dordogne, prehistoric cave paintings and the medieval citadel of Carcassonne. One spectacular thunderstorm leads to a rather undignified return to a campsite…
Whether you’re planning a Paris short break or remembering your own French adventures, join us for personal travel stories, friendly disagreement and plenty of laughs.
Does Paris live up to its reputation for you? Share this episode with your travel companion, and follow Unravel Travel for more trips, stories and conversations with Malcolm and David.
One small recording correction: at around 16:10, the Musée d’Orsay building is discussed—it was originally a railway station, opened in 1900. Hey, you can't be right all the time...
If you have a story to share or some feedback to give just contact us at contact.unraveltravel@gmail.com
Our theme music is Traveler's Blues by Jerzy Gorecki from Pixabay (with licence)
https://pixabay.com/users/jerzyg%C3%B3recki-2233926/
