that puts the sparkle in life like none other...it's Paris. Thanks for joining us!

Few cities have such a rich cultural, artistic, and historic heritage. And few cites are so

confident in their expertise in good living. Paris is understandably a magnet for people

determined to live life to its fullest-and as travelers, we get to share in that uniquely

Parisian joix de vivre.

Returning for another look at this great city, we'll discover a side of Paris few travelers

experience: ride a unicorn into the Middle Ages, take a midnight Parisian joyride, immerse

ourselves in Monet's garden, bask in heavenly light through extraordinary stained glass,

go on a tombstone pilgrimage, and savor the Parisian cafe scene.

Grand as the city is, as we'll see, it's still a collection of smaller communities each with

a charming and uniquely French way of embracing life.

Every neighborhood has a time-honored gathering place. Petanque, also known as boules, offers

the perfect escape for friends. This competitive, yet convivial game, where friends toss metal

balls with the same precision their fathers did, provides the ideal antidote to the pressures

of modern life.

Ahh, the Riviera-on the banks of the River Seine. Each summer the Paris city government

closes an express way and brings a colorful urban beach to its people. They truck in potted

palm trees, hammocks, lounge chairs, and 2,000 tons of sand to create this popular fun zone.

It's a perfect chance to see Paris at play... and play with Paris.

Away from the river, parks provide another peaceful oasis-great for enjoying the moment

with friends and family.

And Sundays, a happy horde of roller-bladers-glide through town with a police escort. Young,

old, fast, or slow, it's another way this city has become a playground for its citizens.

And Paris is now enthusiastically bike friendly. Bike lanes are commonplace and bikers are

welcome to use bus lanes. The city's innovative loaner bike program-with hundreds of these

efficient bike racks-lets Parisians make quick one way bike trips rather than bother with

cars or buses. The cost: almost free.

Having all this fun, it's easy to forget that six centuries ago, Paris was a cultural leader

as Europe was awakening from a long medieval slumber.

Just a couple blocks off the river, the Cluny Museum-filling a medieval mansion, takes us

back to Paris in the late Middle Ages. In the 1400s trade was begining to boom and the

Renaissance was moving in like a warm front from Italy.

The Cluny Museum is an under-appreciated treasure. Its rich collection of medieval art offers

a rare peek into that mysterious age. The sumptuous ivory pieces; vibrant enamel work;

and gorgeous statues reflect a surprisingly refined-and far from "dark"-society.

Its centerpiece is a 15th century series of tapestries called "The Lady and the Unicorn."

In medieval lore, unicorns were solitary creatures that could only be tamed by a virgin. In secular

society, they symbolized how a man was drawn to his lady love. In religion, the unicorn

was a symbol of Christ.

These exquisite tapestries were inspired by both secular and religous traditions. They

give us a look at life-sensual life-from a time when the people of Paris were just stepping

out of medieval darkness. It's a celebration of all the senses:

Taste. A woman takes candy from a servant's dish to feed it to her parakeet.... while

the little dog licks his lovingly woven chops.

Hearing. The elegant woman plays sweetly on an organ, calming an audience of wild beasts.

In this fanciful world, humans and their fellow creatures live in harmony in an enchanted

garden.

Sight. The unicorn cuddles up and looks at himself in the lady's mirror, pleased with

what he sees. The lion turns away and snickers. As the Renaissance dawns, vanity is a less-than-deadly

sin.

Touch. That's the most basic and dangerous of the senses. Here, the lady "strokes the

unicorn's horn," and the lion looks out at us to be sure we get the double entendre.

Medieval Europeans were celebrating the wonders of love and the pleasures of sex.

The words on our lady's tent read: To My Sole Desire. What is her only desire? Is it jewelry?

Or is she putting the necklace away and renouncing material things? Is it God? Love? The unicorn

and lion open the tent. Is she stepping out... or going in to meet the object of her desire?

Human sensuality is awakening, a dark age is ending, and the Renaissance is emerging.

Another reminder of the sophisticastion of the Middle Ages was the art of stained glass.

To see the best 13th century glass in its glorious original setting, visit the nearby

church of Ste Chapelle.

Embeded in a historic complex of governmental buildings, the church's muscular Gothic buttresses

support the stone roof. The walls are essentially window holders for the church's stained glass.

Stepping inside, you're overwhemled by the most dazzling Gothic interior anywhere. In

the Bible, it's clear: light is divine. Let there be light. In a Gothic church, light

pours through stained glass like God's grace shining down on earth. Gothic architects used

their new technology to turn dark stone buildings into lanterns of light.

In the 13th century King Louis IX obtained the supposed Crown of Thorns. He needed an

appropriate place to house this precious relic. So they scrambled and built this church in

just six years. Because it was built so quickly-with one architect and one set of plans...almost

unheard of in Gothic times, the architecture is unusually harmonious.

The altar was raised up high to better display the Crown of Thorns.

Filling the walls on all four sides, the 15 story-telling panels illustrate Bible passages

from Creation in Genesis to the story of Christ. Remarkably, most of the stained glass here

is original. What you're looking at is exactly what visitors have marvelled at for eight

centuries.

For a stark contrast in glass, head out to to La Defense- a forest of skyscrapers nicknamed

Paris's petite Manhattan.

So often we travelers only hang out in the historic old quarters of Europe's great cities.

To see the contemporary side of Paris-a celebration of modern commerce-hop on the metro and visit

La Defense.

With its striking architecture and 150,000 people a day commuting here to work and even

more to shop and play, it's the engine of a modern-day economic power. Stroll the Esplanade.

The glassy buildings-which house shopping malls with hundreds of stores, convention

centers, and towering corporate headquarters-playfully compete for your attention.

With the social ethic embraced by French society, getting a building permit often comes with

a requirement to fund public art. That's why the Le Defense Esplanade is like an open-air

modern art gallery, sporting pieces that make going to work just a little more fun.

La Grande Arche, inaugurated in 1989 on the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution,

is the centerpiece of this ambitious complex. The arch is big-Notre-Dame Cathedral could

fit under it. Thousands of people work in its 35 stories. And as everywhere here, the

architecture is people-friendly.

Back in the old center, it's time for a little shopping. Paris is a leader in the fashion

world, famous for its high end design. My Parisian friend, Delphine Prigent, is showing

me how even window shopping some of Paris's many fine boutiques can be a cultural experience.

Rick: These windows, they put so much energy into their windows.

Delphine: Yes, they have to because, you know, like, shopping is, like, a national sport

in France and we call it lèche-vitrine. So lèche-vitrine means window licking.

Rick: Window licking. Delphine: See all these different details

that they put on the window-it's very bright, very colorful.

Rick: Very appetizing, you could say. Delphine: Yes. It has to be very appetizing,

yes. Rick: There are a lot of sales.

Delphine: Yes. This is a typical period in July to get sales in Paris. But the trap is

that when you go inside you always finish by buying the new collection because they

put the new collection just beside. You always buy something from the new collection at full

price. This is my- Rick: So the sale catches you inside. And

then you buy the new collection. Delphine: Yes, it catches...yes

Department stores were invented in Paris. These venerable institutions-beautiful monuments

to fine living-offer a chance to check out what's in vogue.

The Galeries Lafayette is a classic example. Its belle époque dome dates to 1912. And

shoppers are welcome to catch their breath-or perhaps have it taken away-on the store's

rooftop where a grand city view awaits.

You can enjoy another delightful dimension of Paris in its parks. There's always a garden

or park nearby offering a fine place to stroll and simply enjoy a quiet moment in the middle

of the city. One of the biggest city parks originated as the king's back yard, the Tuilleries

Gardens.

The King's yard included an indoor garden called the Orangerie. While the Orangerie

no longer contains plants, today it's filled with a garden of Impressionist and early 20th

century paintings-select works by Renoir... Cezanne... Gaugin...and others.

And its main attraction is Monet's Water Lilies, floating dreamily in the oval rooms the artist

himself designed to showcase his masterpiece. This series of expansive, curved panels is

the epitome of Impressionism. It immerses you in Monet's garden at Giverny-his home

and studio outside of Paris.

Like an aging Beethoven who composed his most dramatic works while loosing his hearing,

the nearly blind Claude Monet spent his final years painitng these symphonies of color on

a similarly monumental scale.

We're looking into his pond-dotted with water lilies and dappled by the reflections of the

sky, clouds, and trees on the surface. Monet mingles the pond's many elements and then

lets us sort it out.

The true subject of these works is not the pond itself. It's the play of the light reflecting

off the water. Monet would work on several canvases at the same time-each one catching

the light of a particular time of day.

Get close and see how Monet worked. Starting from a blank canvas, he'd lay down thick,

big brushstrokes of a single color, horizontal and vertical to create a dense mesh of foliage.

Over this, he'd add more color for the dramatic highlights, until he got a dense paste of

piled-up paint. Up close, it's messy-but back up, and the colors resolve into a luminous

scene...just pure reflected color.

Working, he'd move with the sun from one canvas to the next. Panning slowly around this hall,

you see the pond turn from pre-dawn darkness to clear morning light to lavender late afternoon

to glorious sunset. Sublime and tranquil, Monet intended this to be a place of reflection.

Back when Monet was painting, Paris was busy with artists. Capturing the light, that was

their passion and wandering these elegant streets and inviting parks, it's easy to imagine

them gaining inspiration here in Paris, nicknamed the "City of Light."

A short walk takes us to the palatial mansion, studio and garden of another great impressionist...

Auguste Rodin. Rodin was a modern Michelangelo, sculpting human figures with powerful insight,

revealing through the body their deepest emotions. Now a museum, this historic mansion presents

the full range of Rodin's work.

His early works match the belle époque style of the late 19th century-noble busts of bourgeois

citizens and pretty portraits of their daughters.

But Rodin had working-class roots and because of his populist sentiments, the art establishment

snubbed him. That's no wonder. Look at the intensity of this symbol of France as she

screams libertié, egalitié, fraternitié.

With his ground-breaking Bronze Man, Rodin came into his own and was recognized as an

artistic force. From this point on, he left convention behind and blazed his own artistic

trail.

Here, his Hand of God shapes Adam and Eve from the mud of the earth to which they will

return.

Unlike Michelangelo, who selected a piece of marble and then carved a single work of

art, Rodin created models which could then be reproduced and sold as authorized versions.

In The Kiss, a passionate woman twines around a solid man for their first, spontaneous kiss.

We can almost read the emotions that led up to this meeting of the lips. The Kiss was

the first Rodin work the public loved. Rodin enjoyed his garden as do visitors today

who find it a place for peaceful meditation a century after the artist last planted a

statue here. He sculpted the famous Thinker in 1906. Leaning

slightly forward, tense and compact, every muscle working toward producing that one great

thought, Man contemplates his fate. Said Rodin: "It is a statue of myself."

Speaking of contemplation, I punctuate my museum going with a little cafe sitting. This

makes particularly good sense in Paris: home of so much beautiful art-and the ultimate

cafe culture. With over 12,000 cafes, there's always one nearby.

Cafes are where friends rendezvous...and we're meeting up with Steve Smith, co-author of

my France guidebook and a consummate cafe sitter.

Rick: You know café, that's a tip in itself isn't it? Just café in Paris.

Steve: It's a good tip. It's a place to order what you want, when you want, on your own

terms, in your own time really. You could be indoors at a restaurant watching the person

next to you eat or out here watching the conveyor belt of Parisians go by. And you're living

with Parisians. In fact it's their living room. You know most Parisians' apartments

are a little bit bigger than your hotel room. Rick: Half the locals here are probably living

down the street. Steve: Almost all of them who come here come

on a regular basis and they're on first name basis with their waiter.

Rick: So a lot of Americans find tipping a little bit confusing.

Steve: In France the waiter's tip is included...15% of our bill goes to the waiter. You've already

paid him. Tax and tip are included. Rick: What do you do then?

Steve: If your waiter was nice to you, or your waitress, leave a couple of Euros. That's

very polite, round up. If your bill was 18 Euros leave 20, something like that.

Rick: Now a lot of Americans are frustrated by what they call slow service.