Welcome to the City of Light (no, not Las Vegas...) - Paris, France! For over 2,000 years, Paris has been considered as one of the world's most important and attractive cities -- a place for study, culture, and entertainment: its gastronomy, haute couture, painting, literature, and intellectual community especially enjoy an enviable yet snotty reputation.

But today, the French countryside was lucky enough to experience a glimpse of a site that is truly foreign-yet-well-traveled and always in good taste -- our can of beans! Okay, so this one may ruffle the feathers of a few die-hard Parisians, but hey - they did have a good time, and sometimes "nouveau" is good for you!

Paris was founded more than 2,000 years ago on the banks of the Seine river. Paris itself covers 41 square miles, but the 'burbs and other areas cover around 890 square miles of land. Now, when us uncouth Yanks think of "Paris", the first thing that comes to mind is the Eiffel Tower, and as luck would have it, here it is! The tower itself is 984 feet high, with a television antenna on top that gives it a total elevation of 1,056 feet. The Eiffel Tower was the tallest man-made structure in the world until the completion of the Chrysler Building in New York City in 1930. (Building envy.) When the French government was organizing the International Exposition of 1889 to celebrate the centenary of the French Revolution, Gustave Eiffel's concept of a 984-foot (300-meter) tower built almost entirely of open-lattice wrought iron won out. The tower was erected in only about two years (1887-89), and was soon a top tourist attraction and movie-backdrop location.

Here in Paris you'll also find the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs-Élysées, which translates to "Avenue of the Elysian Fields", one of the most famous Avenues in the world (behind Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood, I imagine...), which stretches 1.17 miles (1.88 km) from the Arc de Triomphe to the Place de la Concorde. It is divided into two parts by the Rond-Point ("roundabout") des Champs-Élysées. The lower part, toward the Place de la Concorde (and beyond, the Tuileries Gardens), is surrounded by gardens, museums, theatres, and a few restaurants. The upper part, toward the Arc de Triomphe, was traditionally the site of luxury shops and hotels, restaurants and pavement cafés, theatres, banks, and offices but, since World War II, has become the scene of fast-food restaurants, movie houses, souvenir vendors, sidewalk hawkers, airline offices, and shopping malls. (Hey - the beans felt right at home!)

Also in town is Notre Dame cathedral, the most famous of the Gothic cathedrals of the Middle Ages. Notre Dame lies at the eastern end of the Île de la Cité and was built on the ruins of two earlier churches. Pope Alexander III laid the foundation stone in 1163, and the high altar was consecrated in 1189. Notre Dame Cathedral suffered damage and deterioration through the centuries, and after the French Revolution it was rescued from possible destruction by Napoleon, who crowned himself emperor of the French in the cathedral in 1804. Of course, the cathedral is the setting for Victor Hugo's historical novel Notre-Dame de Paris (1831). The story of Quasimodo and Esmeralda has been filmed dozens of times, from Charles Laughton's 1939 black-and-white portrayal to Disney's 1996 animated version, complete with singing, dancing gargoyles. The beans took in the splendor of the church, and were smart enough to remember to yell "Sanctuary!" when the cathedral chef came after them with a can opener.