DAY 57: AAAAAHHH, PARIS

PARIS takes no prisoners. That's why I have a love/hate relationship with her.

One minute, you are in the City of Love, having the most magical night of your life; the next, you have come back down to earth with a thud and are cursing the moment you stepped off the train.

Our second visit to Paris this trip certainly was a case of high highs and low lows.

We arrived early evening to our accommodation at Beaugency Hotel and decided to walk a few blocks to picnic in the park in front of the Eiffel Tower.

We picked up supplies at a convenience store along the way.

For the next four hours, we drank cheap but good red wine out of the bottle (well, there were no plastic cups to buy and we're Aussies after all!), shared a salad and ham/cheese/tomato sandwiches and a big bag of potato chips.

But the bonus was of course La Tour Eiffel.

We stared and stared at her. From the going down of the sun and the turning on of each section of golden lights, to the amazing sparkle effect on the hour from 9pm.

We must have been two of a thousand enjoying the same friendly, happy mood this Friday night in the French capital.

The next morning warranted a sleep-in and lazy contemplation of the day ahead.

Should we do the massive Louvre museum or tackle The Marais district - both of which we had missed the first time around.

In the end, we decided to head to the next hotel, where we were to pick up our Globus 15-day "circumnavigation" of France and store our luggage before getting back on the Metro for the Marais.

Bad move.

Despite being so careful for a month-and-a-half and probably still being a little drunk on atmosphere from the night before, we became a little blasé.

That's what pickpockets count on.

They target the weak, the stupid, the old, the young, the tired, the careful people who have momentary lapses in concentration. Anyone, really.

A large man who wouldn't move aside as we entered a train ... a light bump from behind that was an annoyance rather than an alarm bell ... The sudden realisation minutes later that a wallet was missing ... The feeling of dread that you've been "had" ...  

For two hours, we somehow had to put our anger and frustration aside and remember what was missing, where to find the credit card photocopies, the numbers for the international stolen card services.

OMG. Welcome (back) to Paris.

We have heard all the stories. We have heard the PA announcements telling us to beware. We have joked about the dangers. We are now victims and are once bitten, twice shy of ever becoming complacent again.

Luckily, an employee at the Metro at St Jacques helped settle our nerves and listened to our problem, while our Marriott Paris Rive Gauche Hotel  was very sympathetic, and the business centre attendant dialled the numbers for free and made our dilemna that much more bearable.

The rest of the day was spent in the hotel room recovering and getting ready for our next adventures in Paris aboard the Globus La France tour.

C'est la vie!

Lesson of the day: Don't let one bad experience spoil your trip.

DAY 56: GENEVA

WHILE the UN, UNESCO, Red Cross, WHO and every other major global organisation and acronym based in Geneva was going about its business on a Friday, we decided to take the day off.

Well, actually, we were in transit from Bern to Paris and had a few hours to kill.

What better place to spend them than basking in the sunshine by emerald green Lake Geneva.

Geneva is Switzerland's western-most city, surrounded by France on three sides, and is on the lake's south-west tip at the mouth of the Rhone River.

The river divides Geneva into left (Rive Gauche) and right (Rive Droite), just like in Paris.

Rive Gauche has Old Town which overlooks the huge Jet D'Eau water fountain.

At certain angles, the water spout when caught by the breeze looks like a giant white sail.

Tourists love to stroll Old Town, visit St Peter's Cathedral that dominates the hillside skyline, and take in the Horloge Fleurie (flower clock). You could pay a couple of Euro on a nice day to cross a bridge and go for a swim in the watepark on one of the five islands in the lake or have a coffee overlooking the ferries crossing the water.

Or you could do what we did and busy yourself doing nothing at all. Just sit on the rock wall and take in the majestic setting for a couple of hours. 

Office workers came and went with their lunches, boaties did maintence on their craft, paddleboat "cyclists" passed by and catamarans sailed the banks of the lake from Geneva to pretty hillside Lausanne.

Lesson of the day: To avoid causing an international incident with a waterski boat captain, read the numerous "no swimming in this area" signs before plunging into Lake Geneva.

DAY 55: BERN

"YOU can probably see the city in half a day. It isn't very big," the hotel receptionist told us on arrival.

But rather than a put-down of her home, she meant that Bern's CBD was very compact.

And size doesn't matter to the Swiss capital. Small is very good ... sehr gut ...  tres bon.

The city also seems very comfortable in its own shoes - even though some of the world may confuse much larger Zurich or beautiful Geneva (of Geneva Convention fame) as the capital.

Certainly, we covered most of the tourist sights marked on our city map in our first walk on arrival - from the Zytglogge (town clock similar to Prague's Astronomical Clock) to the Parliament Buildings and Berner Munster.

But a short stroll late in the afternoon turned into a three-hour circuit that uncovered many of the locals' drinking holes and favourite restaurant haunts a little further out from the bustling city centre and Old Town, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

From our central Hotel Continental, we walked down through Old Town and over the Nydeggbrucke (bridge) to the Bear Pit (Barengraben) - a symbol of Bern (a black bear is on its coat of arms), where Bjork (Mama Bear), Finn (Papa Bear) and Ursina (Baby Bear) live. 

While I'm not a fan of animals in captivity, bears have been kept in the city since 1513. The latest, expansive BarenPark on several terraced levels opened in 2009 to comply with new legal requirements and to go some way to answering some complaints. It is linked to the former smaller enclosure by a tunnel, allowing the bears to use both spaces.

Next on our independent walking tour, we took the uphill cobblestoned path to the Rose Garden (Rosengarten) section of the Botanical Gardens beside the Aar River.

In the lawned area, families and friends were playing a Swiss version of skittles, couples were having a romantic picnic, while most people were simply enjoying the panorama over the river, Old Town with the Bern Munster and Christ Church and taking in the spectrum of colours in the roses in bloom.

The beer garden and restaurant were buzzing with what looked like a large business function.

Back down at water level, an inventive surfer was riding the "waves" of the quick-flowing river using a waterskier's handle attached to a stretchable rope.

The cool, green botanical gardens were attracting the usual joggers and cyclists but further on, underneath one of the massive arches of the Kirchenfeldbrucke, Thursday night after-work drinks and candlelight dinners were well under way by the rushing waters of the weir under Old Town.

Back up and over the bridge, past the casino diners and back into the city, we found ourselves having one of the best-value and flavoursome meals of the trip at Spaghetti Factory with plenty of grind-yourself parmesan cheese and olive oil at the ready, washed down by a local Swiss Calanda beer and Italian chardonnay.

It wasn't a traditional meal but it helped create a fond farewell to Switzerland.

Lesson of the day:  There is much more to a city than its listed tourist attractions. Bern boasts quirky fountains, hangs flags everywhere, has erected colourful statues (including one of a giant eating children!) in places and squares, allows you to uncover bars, boutiques and businesses underground through open basement doors from the pavement, and its residents decorate windows with flower boxes and delicate curtains that are simply delightful.