I made the mistake of booking at the truly egregious Aloha Hostel. This place has to rank as one of the worst in Europe: one key per noisy room, bed bugs, rats, cat burglars coming in through the windows (a Keystone Kop swarm of young police file in and out), hoodlums hanging out in the common room, and the city's worst showers. It's a cheap place -- a very cheap and sleazy place indeed.

Now, you must remember that I wasn't planning on coming to Paris this trip. In fact, I actively campaigned against it when Mike wanted to go with his son. I've been here a few times before and always had a good time, but I felt that I should see other places this trip. I came here only because of the cheap flight and the fact that I needed to get back towards Amsterdam.

But I hadn't planned on returning to Bruge and Bruxelles either, and I'd enjoyed revisiting them but wasn't certainly wasn't astonished by my visit. I was surprised by how much I liked Stockholm and how rundown Berlin looked, but after all, it was a first visit for me to these places. How can someone be surprised by a fourth trip to Paris? I don't know, but all I can say was that I was truly floored to discover how much I loved this place.

Of course, I guess I'd always loved it, but now I have a lot more perspective about places behind me. Walking the streets of Paris, and seeing the incredible sights in this magic town, are definitely a world travel highlight. This is certainly no secret as Paris is by far the world's most touristically visited city, and has been for a long time. It's not at all like me to go along with the crowd, but in this case, I have to admit it.

There's so much to see and do here that there are major attractions that I never got around to visiting during three previous trips: climbing the Arc De Triumph (good, but the Eiffel Tower is still much better); Invalides and Napolean's ostentations tomb; the historic towers of Notre Dame Cathedral; the infamous Conciergerie prison; the marvelous Musée National du Moyen Age - Thermes de Cluny, with its Roman baths and wonderous Middle Ages artifacts, including the famous "Lady and the Unicorn" tapestries; the grand Pantheon, the final resting place of many notables, but for me a place to pay hommage to Voltaire; and the most insanely grand of all European palaces: Versailles.

Armed with an extremely useful (because unlike most museum cards, this one often takes you right in without waiting in lines) Paris Museum Card, I'm happy to revisit some old favorites as well. I'm the first one into the tiny Sainte Chapelle, and the experience of seeing it empty is completely different from my shoulder-to-shoulder first visit. I make two more visits to the Musée d'Orsay, savoring over the great art there. Conversely, I found that my second visit to the Musée national d'Art moderne - Centre Georges Pompidou, left me only slightly more lukewarm to the pieces there than the first wasted trip there.

Perhaps most memorable were my fourth and fifth marathon visits (we're talking opening until closing each day) to the mother of all museums: the Louvre. The gargantuan collections here dwarf even huge museums such as the British Museum or the Hermitage. The quality is amazingly high too. Despite the tremendous number of visitors who swarm through here, you can find empty rooms full of outstanding pieces, many with informative plastic cards explaining the works. The hordes are primarily congregated around the Mona Lisa, and a few other famous works, and there are plenty of rooms here for exploring. During my current two visits, I found myself drawn more to the Antiquities sections, while previously I concentrated more on the paintings. I think I know a whole lot more about history and ancient works now than the last times I was here. This led to a re-evaluated view of the Louvre because I could better understand the quality and importance of their Antiquities collections. Plus the paintings aren't too shabby as well. I remain marvelously impressed, much more so than before.