I was close to Paris for my 21st birthday for a week and thought I should get into Paris for a day to try to cram as much in as possible and the first thing to say is: this certainly isn't the way to do it. Do a long weekend, just in Paris.

I saw the obvious, the Eiffel Tower, Champs-Élysées, the outside of the Louvre and Notre Dame Cathedral as well as bits and bobs in between and Paris is a beautiful city.

Firstly, the Eiffel Tower is impressive, bigger than I thought to be fair and you just have to fork out to dosh to get up there. Yes, there are queues with no apparent beginning or end but it is just too good to miss out on. The views at each stage are staggering and worth getting over any cases of vertigo.

My gripe is that on the very day we went (and this may account for the rediculous queues) good old Tom Cruise decided to pop the question to Katie Holmes, so the top of the tower was off-limits for much of the day and the backlog of people wanting to get up there later was unbearable and we ran out of time. Yeah cheers mate, very romantic yada-yada but no respect for anyone else. Will have to go back to check it out.

Another must see and an obvious one to visit is the Notre Dame Cathedral, another beautiful and stunning building which is very impressive indeed, equally so inside. the architecture is flawless and stringently based on, I believe, the golden rule. There is also some fine detail in the facades which is superb. The HUGE windows look absolutely stunning when seen from the interior, the light coming through contrasted with the low light make for a stunning display the detail an sheer scale is awesome. Keep quiet.

(Minor detail: There is a nice little baguette shop on the left-hand side as you look at the cathedral down a side street which we had a quick spot of lunch from.)

Your also bound to want a trip along the Champs-Élysées, I only managed a trip on a bus along it but was still able to see the the Arc de Triomphe.

The roundabout or to put it technically the free-for-all around the monument is awesome to see, if you are bold and brave enough to drive it then good luck, the amount of damaged vehicles that clearly get into accidents daily is worth the trip alone. I'd certainly happily leave it to the bus driver.

You certainly need to walk around the area though it is very beautiful and known as La plus belle avenue du monde ("The most beautiful avenue in the world"). The shopping is certainly geared towards the loaded but I wish I had spent the time to look around, just for the experience.

Paris is certainly a beautiful city that is packed full of impressive architecture, monuments and sculptures and you need a fair bit of time to get around it. I'm sure its in the mind of most people as a destination to get to at some point and hopefully I have provided a bit of reinforcement.