A lifetime would not suffice to hear everything in Paris. But common sense would say that in a short visit can not miss landmarks like the Eiffel Tower, Trocadero, the banks of the Seine, Notre Dame, the restaurants in the area of Bastille, the Pompidou Centre, the Louvre and D’ Orsay and the bohemian Montmartre tourist super. It is best not to stress: any time spent in Paris seem little. And a good tip is to leave the car parked near the hotel (if possible in neighborhoods not so central as Montrouge) and move through the vast network of public transport in the city.

Photoghaphy by Angel T.

Routes:

Leaving the center of Paris on the Rue de la Chapelle is connected to the Northern Motorway (Autoroute du Nord), going towards the border with Belgium and northern Europe. The trip to Amsterdam is just 500 kilometers (15 euros toll), a path that you can spend all day if you want to stop at places like Lille (captive: the citadel of Vauban and the old Flemish style) and Ghent (Flemish style also famous for the imposing Cathedral of St. Bavo), Bruges and Brussels, a cosmopolitan and sophisticated, full of art-deco buildings. If very early part of Paris, Bruges can be a great place for lunch and then take a stroll through this beautiful city, crossed by canals, which survives intact medieval identity.

Photoghaphy by Jean-Emmanuel Orfèvre

After a couple of stops on the trip (another option may be the melancholy port city of Antwerp), you get to Amsterdam together with the fall of night. Amsterdam is one of the world’s cities where parking is more expensive. The farther from downtown, less cost of tickets and the best option is to leave the car at any of the P + R car parks (an acronym which in Dutch means something like «stop and walk»), which cost very little and are located on the fringes of the city, next to the bypass route.

Photoghaphy by Alexandre Prévot

Famous for its cultural and tolerance, Amsterdam is a city that invites to be explored on foot or by bicycle (the preferred mode of transportation by the locals), which can be rented at various locations downtown. A good start for the ride, especially if cycling is the Voldenpark, the largest city park, which is very close to two captive: the Van Gogh Museum and Rijksmuseum. From there, open the most central area, where the famous canals are more numerous and provide a framework for places of great interest as the house of Anne Frank museum, street markets and Boerenmarkt Waterlooplein, Dam Square and the sinful «Red Ligth Square», where prostitutes offer their services from windows and an abundance of coffee-shop where marijuana is sold legally.

Photoghaphy by David Feltkamp

For lovers of food, fashion and trends, there is no better place than the Jordaan, a kind of «Palermo Dutch,» filled with boutiques, art galleries, bars and restaurants, young chefs.

To a motorist’s no place like Germany where there are no tolls and no speed limit. Also, the route leading from Amsterdam to Munich not only covers a good part of the country, but through several parks and for many routes running parallel to the river Rhine.

Good luck!