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ExpeditionsTRIP TO PARIS 1971Paris-the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, the Champs-Elysees! I cannot remember all the thingswe saw and did in detail . Some things were more important than others . So I shall just describesome of the things .Paris greeted us with rain ; but this did not spoil the beauty of its centre . We were shown themajor historical buildings, which form the Paris we know through travel posters . Unlike those ofLondon, they are all close together, linked by great boulevards and bridges . The Louvre, its warmstone facades rising majestically out of the rain, was our starting point . From there, we were showna very impressive sight . Looking through the small arch which was the entrance to the old RoyalPalace, we could see the great obelisk of the Place de la Concorde framed by the arch throughwhich we were looking . It was almost like looking through a kaleidoscope-with traffic being theonly element of discord in this great essay in symmetry .From there we went slowly on our progression through the History of Paris . The AssembleeNationale, the great parliament of France . The Champs-Elysees, surely the most impressive avenuein the world . We then crossed the Seine on to the lie de la Cite, the small island floating like amysterious bark on the river . Here Paris was founded long ago . Lucretia, the Romans called it .There Saint-Genevieve saved the capital from its fourth century invaders-and there now standsParis's symbol of her faith : Notre Dame .Great soaring twin towers, buttresses floating through space to support massive wallspierced by delicate windows . And there at the end of the last war, in the square before this magnificentCathedral of Our Lady, the people of Paris came in their thousands to render thanks untoGod with the great hymn of praise, Te Deum Laudamus .Another memorable visit was to the Invalides, containing the tomb of Napoleon . Here theman, before whom all Europe trembled, was finally laid to rest . There, under the great dome, liesa simple tomb .One afternoon was spent on a trip up the Seine by boat . There we perceived many of theplaces we had already seen, rising up from the banks of this lovely river, with its graceful bridges .No filth, no smells, no cranes . Just beautiful buildings and a lazy, friendly river .No visit to Paris would be complete without seeing the glory of Versailles-home of the SunKing . There can be no other building in the world which so faithfully reflects the character of oneman . The grandiose gardens, every square inch of which are carefully calculated, shows the passionfor order which was Louis XIV's . The great Hall of Mirrors, designed as a great indoor street,tells the world how grandiose he was . The whole idea of creating a society for the aristocracyunder his own roof shows how intelligent he was . He never lived to see it finished and successivegenerations of philistines have tried to alter it. But it is still there, reflecting the glory of the RoiSoleil .On the Sunday we left Paris for Tours . The sun now shone brilliantly for our few days in thevalley of the Loire . Good food and gentle days spent going up and down the Loire and wanderingaround these graceful chateaux, the epitome of French elegance . Chenonceaux and Chambordstand out as the most elegant examples-both of them belonging to women ; Chambord toCatherine de Medici, wife to Francois I, and Chenonceau to Diane de Poitiers, his favourite,both of them transformed and enlarged by their exquisite taste . And on the death of her husband,Catherine forced Diane to exchange chateaux, and Catherine completed the jewel of the Cher,carrying the fragile lines of the building right across the river . And now, as one walks through itsrooms, there is an extraordinary sense of buoyant light .