Paris

When you ponder a trip to Paris you think Eiffel Tower, Sacre Coeur, Mona Lisa; you don't normally think offside, watch your house, how's he a ref?

Unless, of course, you're one of the many thousands of Irish football fans who are heading to France's capital later this month to watch Giovanni Trapattoni and his Boys in Green attempt to qualify for next year's World Cup in South Africa.

Rugby fans have been travelling to watch Ireland play France for years in the Six Nations competition, and now the football team seem to be following the trend with their second visit in consecutive World Cup campaigns.

Cue memories of Ireland's last visit to Paris in the qualifying group of the 2006 World Cup.

Over 30,000 Irish fans made the trip and while the mobile phones didn't work, the vast majority made their way to the stadium where they out sang the locals and enjoyed a very entertaining game, which finished level.

Just being present at the Stade de France for the French National anthem, which the Irish took over, will rate among my favourite sporting memories of all time.

But while many Irish fans arrived just before the game and left soon after, I made sure to leave a bit of time to experience what is certainly one of the greatest cities in the world.

I arrived in the centre of Paris by Eurostar from London on the day of the game.

As is the case for this game, flights into Paris were bumped up so it made sense to travel to London first. It was also a great excuse for a night out down the West End.

So with plenty of time before the game, I planned to take a wander around the vicinity of the hotel, but the streets had turned into one giant festival of green as the Irish refused to pay the exorbitant pub prices and settled for takeaway Kronenbourg by the box that every corner shop was only too willing to dispense with.

The post-match festivities went into the early hours but I managed to haul myself out of the hotel earlier than expected to hit the tourist trail.

Staying in the northern 18th district of Paris, the Sacre Coeur at Montmartre was nearby, so a short stroll and a couple of hundred steps later, I was outside the fantastic church with the finest panoramic views of the city that you could hope for.

Breakfast was served on the steps outside - the bakeries in Paris are on virtually every corner and a pain au raisin and a takeaway coffee were more than enough to shake the cobwebs of the night before and set me up for what remained of the morning.

The winding streets around Montmartre are a joy to stroll around, especially if you are going downhill, with souvenir shops aplenty and local artists painting Parisian streetscapes or the odd caricature if you fancy.

Down the hill and into the metro station and you're whisked to the other side of the city within 20 minutes.

The Paris Metro may appear complicated and daunting for a first-time visitor but it is so efficient and user-friendly that once you complete your first trip, you won't travel any other way in Paris. There are different options for tourists but your best bet is to purchase a carnet - a book of 10 tickets - and it will more than suffice for a couple of days.

Next stop the Eiffel Tower. I'd been up the tower a couple of times as a kid and once more a few years back so I decided not to go back up. Instead I took a break, relaxed for a while with the newspaper and watched the frantic tourists going up and down and being ripped off by the local traders.

Take a stroll over to the adjacent Trocadero to take your perfect picture of the tower and its surrounding splendour. Then back underground for five minutes and you surface in the middle of the giant roundabout at the top of the Champs-Élysées, which is home to the Arc de Triomphe and the grave of the Unknown Soldier.

The Arc is a magnificent structure with a viewing deck up top, but the best view is looking straight down the main avenue, which runs downhill all the way to the Place de la Concorde and the Presidential palace.

The upper part of the Champs-Élysées is full of great shops and restaurants so you might need to walk down one side, cross over at Avenue George V and walk back up the other side. And if you're feeling flush, pop into Le Fouquets restaurant to experience Paris dining at its finest.

There was no time for shopping, or eating, on this whistle-stop one-day tour but I did stay over ground strolling all the way down the Champs, through the Place de la Concorde and onto the beautiful Rue de Rivoli.

Rivoli is again filled with designer stores but walking the covered footpaths that are steeped in history, while appreciating the grandeur of the area, should suitably distract you and keep you out of the shops. Your only difficult decision will be what attraction to visit next.

For me it was the Louvre. I lived in Paris for a year back in my college days yet never even so much as peeked inside this amazing museum. So this was my chance to get up close and personal with La Gioconda or Mona Lisa to her mates.

When I did finally get to meet Paris' most famous citizen, I felt something closer to disappointment than to amazement. The painting has never been one of my favourites and to see it up close and personal didn't change my mind.

To be fair, it is housed among some paintings that would leave your jaw dragging on the marble floors, so it is definitely worth the visit even just to bring you into contact with all the other works of genius that are housed here on the banks of the Seine.

Speaking of which, a walk along the banks of the river is another must and for me it continued the journey to the Ile de la Cité to marvel at the amazing Notre Dame.

You could walk around this part of Paris forever and on into the pedestrian area of Les Halles where you'll find yet more shops, cafés, museums and markets.

But for me the evening was kicking in so I took a stroll in the other direction up to Boulevard Saint-Germain, into the Latin Quarter and on up to Rue Mouffetard for a well-earned night out to finish off a very memorable, if all too short, trip back to the City of Lights.

Ed Leahy

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