Paris - The Unexpected

The Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, the Paris Opera ... the big attractions are on the map and always to be found - and enjoyed. A city like Paris has always got hundreds of events under way, big and small. Music and arts are everywhere: painters with their easels reproducing a view, or musicians playing alone or in bands.

At the Arc de Triomphe Du Carroussel a steel band from Trinidad and Tobago entertained with driving rhythms and mellifluous petrol-drums tuned and played almost to sound like brass instruments. Caribbean music alternated with American big band jazz and European romantic tunes. Dancers paced around the edge, banner wavers stepped in procession after them, though the musicians themselves were both a dance troupe and a choir as well.


Travelling is fun when you find famous landmarks, but even better when you meet people from different nationalities and cultures who are able to appreciate each other's traditions. At that moment they become one group enjoying what the world has to offer, with no distances to divide them, just sharing human warmth and expression.