When you think of Paris, what do you think of (besides the Eiffel Tower)? What do you associate with Paris and France in general?

The Louvre, the Tuileries gardens, art galleries, the Seine (have a trip on a bateau-mouche, which can be especially magical at night), the Champs-Elysees, shopping on the Boulevard Haussmann (Printemps and Galeries Lafayette), cafes, and of course the food. And the Metro, absolutely indispensable for getting around it all.

Some of this is all on the same dead straight line... start at the Louvre, and you can walk through the Tuileries, on the other side of the Place de la Concorde (an enormous square that I would hate to try actually driving through) the Avenue des Champs-Elysees begins, and that ends at the Arc de Triomphe.

The architecture of central Paris is surprisingly uniform. This is down to Napoleon III, who engaged "Baron" Haussmann to tear a lot of it down and rebuild. Not worrying much about what people think when you do public building projects seems to have hung on... it can be the only explanation for that glass pyramid in the middle of the Louvre courtyard. You'll either like it as a modern addition to an old building, or think it totally doesn't belong there.

Montmartre is a hill to the north of the centre famous for artists and you could see street art going on. Go up the hill - you can walk or take the funicular railway (Metro tickets work on it) - to the Sacre-Coeur church at the top and you will have a nice view over the city.

And then there is Versailles, the monumental royal palace - from back when France DID have a king, of course. (Their revolution was about the same time as the American one. So they feel a little bit of something in common - did you know the Statue of Liberty was a gift from France?) It's a way out from the centre so you'll need to use the long-distance express Metro, the RER.

The downside of France is the snotty French attitude towards anyone who can't speak French properly, which is particularly marked in Paris. Obviously people who work in the tourist industry will be helpful but don't expect anyone else to be the same. Knowing at least some of the language will help a LOT, if only because you won't understand menus otherwise.

Just for something else I've done while in Paris, possibly the world's most famous stained glass is in Chartres Cathedral. It's very detailed and it does what windows of this kind were meant to do back when most people couldn't read. If you can't read the Bible, you can still see the Bible stories because they're in the windows as kind of medieval strip cartoons! Take a train from the Gare Montparnasse to Chartres and you don't need anyone to tell you where the cathedral is. It's by far the tallest thing in the town. Just walk towards it. And you can get a guided tour in English. Malcolm Miller has been doing them since 1958 and he's about 82 now but as far as I know, still taking people round twice a day.

The mention of Montparnasse leads me to my favourite Paris joke. It is said that the best view of Paris is from the top of the Montparnasse Tower, because it's the only place you can't see the Montparnasse Tower from!

Paris

Beautiful parks
Versailles
The River Seine
Fashion
Notre Dame Cathedral
wonderful food

France in general
The Alps and skiing
Mediterranean beaches
beautiful countryside
picturesque villages

If you're lookng for a party theme just check out tourist websites, or just look at a few Google images of Paris and France for ideas. Or you could focus on French food such as baguettes, macarons, eclairs, croissants etc.