Paris

The Germans liked it

I wish i was as cool as you lot, then i could hate the french too, i mustn't be 'with it' though

As for paris, i used to live about an hour away so would go at least once a month. It's the best city ever. Even when we had no money, it's good just to go and bum around, loads of cool stuff to do for free. We only went clubbing once though (due to being poor students), to the Rex Club, can't remember exactly where it was, but it's about a 10min walk from the latin quarter, where all the best bars/clubs are. When i went Jack De Marseille was playing, he's basically a less-well-known clone of Dmitri from Paris. Not sure where to go for trance/hh though. Don't go to Le Queen on the champs-elysee, it plays all kinds of music, but it's quite possibly the most expensive club in christendom, and it has the strictest door policy ever since studio 54.

The Paris underground (RER) map is the most complicated navigating you'll ever undertake, so might be good to print off a copy before you go, and check out what routes/journeys you're gonna need, i've wasted days underground just trying to understand these maps.

If you're looking for stuff to do:
Pere Lachaise - cool old cemetry with thousands of famous graves, like mozart, jim morrison, picasso etc.
Eiffel tower - worth a look, but the queue to get up takes about 3hrs, and it's not really worth it.
Champs-elysee - worth a look for the peugeot/renault/ferrari showrooms but not much else.
Pompidou centre - has loads of weird exhibitions on, no matter when you go there's always something interesting
Louvre - takes at least a day to fully look around, but even if you don't want to go in, it looks good from the outside, and is in a nice area with loads of stuff to do.
Moulin Rouge - after the eiffel tower this is the 2nd most over-rated bit of paris, it's a windmill with a peep show in it, no more no less. It's worth going though cos you get to look around Paris' version of Soho, and while you're there take the furnicular railway up the hill to sacre-couer. This is just a small chapel, but you get an amazing view of paris from here, plus you get to walk back down the hill through montemartre, the 'artists' quarter of paris, which is usually pretty entertaining.
La Seine - if you've got time just have a walk up and down both banks of the river, there's always loads going on,street performers, markets, bands, fairs etc. The left bank (rive gauche) is more artsy and intellectual, the right bank (rive droite) is more commercial and in your face. Both worth the time though.

For shopping, there's about a million department stores/boutiques around Forum des Halles, which is a stop on the RER, don't know which line though. Also try La Grande Arche, which is about 5mins from the RER stop at La Défense. Not sure about Kenzo, but i know that Gucci, Versace, Lacroix etc are on Faubourg St-Honoré, a classy little street with loads of designer boutiques, not far from the champs-elysée. Also have a look on the Rive-Gauche for YSL, Dior, and Luis Vuitton stores.

Can't think of anything else off the top of my head, but just go wander round and discover stuff yourself, it's the best.

there was a guy on fivelive this morning saying how we shouldnt be in europe cos the french screwed it up, he also cited the world wars as primary evidence that they weren't to be trusted to do anything

Quim

Cheers people, had a really good time

the only time we decided to go out, however, was the tuesday night, where we ended up in the red light district we were told to get of at the pigalle metro stop, from which we had to walk for nealry quarter of an hour to find a bar without prostitutes in:angel2: .. we went to this shit sleazy club, which i was informed played techno and house, but actually played mostly tacky dance stuff, such as mixes of justin timberlake. i payed ten euros for a vodka and orange:evil:, so we left..

we also went to visit the eiffel tower...most tourists are so lazy - we walked up the first two bits without a queue, but for the lifts there were massive queues

went to the pere lachaise (jim morrisons grave requires 24 police protection, its already being wrecked by people scribbling how much they love him and various drugs) and the louvre (although didnt have time to look round it all)... went to musee d'orsee as well..

there was loads of nice little shops in random places you wouldn't expect as well which there isn't in england, xcept london, bought some trousers and some camper shoes


only thing is; why does everyone smoke so much? you go for a coffee/juice in the day & theres a tabocco kiosk in the bar