Those of us who were able to take Mr Hemingway’ advice in our salad days could not agree more. We’re still dining out on the memories and so will you.
Paris has almost exhausted the superlatives that can be reasonably applied to a city.
Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower and the Champs-Elysees have been described innumerable times. What writers rarely capture is the magic of strolling along the broad avenues that lead from impressive public buildings and exceptional museums to parks, gardens and esplanades.
First-time visitors often arrive with expectations: intellectuals pontificating at cafes, romance along the Seine, rude people. To be sure, if you look for them, you’ll find those things. But another approach is to set aside these preconceptions and explore the City’s avenues and back streets as if the tip of the Eiffel Tower wasn’t about to pop into view at any moment.
Paris is enchanting in every sense, at any time of the day. And, like a good meal, it excites, it satisfies, the memory lingers. In A Moveable Feast, the American author Ernest Hemingway wrote ‘If you’re lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.’
Those of us who were able to take Mr Hemingway’ advice in our salad days could not agree more. We’re still dining out on the memories and so will you.
Better by the minute
Eurostar journey times from five major UK cities to Paris. (Timings factor-in changing trains in London and the 30 minutes check-in time for Eurostar.)
Edinburgh Waverley
7hrs 30mins
Bristol Parkway
5hrs 25mins
York
5hrs 10mins
Birmingham International
4hrs 40mins
Derby
4hrs 50mins