You don’t have to enjoy irony to experience the best of Paris – but it helps. Its best-adored attractions - the Pei Pyramid at the Louvre, the inverted Centre Pompidou, not to mention the Tour Eiffel (aka the ‘giraffe cage’) overcame years of vilification to survive. The city ‘accidentally’ built its greatest opera house, the Opéra-Garnier, on an underground lake (that of ‘Phantom of the Opera’ fame); allowed lascivious aristocrats free-rein in the city catacombs (later the headquarters of the Resistance), and left ‘that smirk’ behind thick glass for the tourists (local’s prefer Duchamp’s bearded Mona Lisa in the Centre Pompidou). Even the shop and café-lined Champs-Elysées – did I say over-priced? – reveals a different face at four in the morning when drag queens flock out of the ever-popular ‘Queens’. Better still, the performances of Guignol (the French equivalent to Punch and Judy) leave Disneyland Paris languishing on the edge of town. Then there are the trendy ‘pub-philos’ and smoky bistros of the Quartier Latin (see and be seen à la Hemmingway); the shopping – ‘bric-a-brac’ and ‘antiques’ in Porte de Clignancourt, ‘prêt-a-porter’ in centre ville (Galleries Lafayette, Printemps); and the Willy Wonka-esque chocolatiers on the Rive Gauche. And remember – if you leave with an Eiffel Tower key-ring you obviously didn’t get the joke
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