nothing like french to make you appreciate spanish.

I am still working on my Salamanca and (more comprehensive) Paris entries. However, I would just like to say that while Paris is wondrous and awesome and kind of like New York in that I think you could stay continuously entertained for years, it:

A) Is more expensive than Madrid. The Metro is 1.70 euros per ride instead of 1.00, and the train ride from the airport was 8.75 euros! compared to 2 in Madrid.

B) Has a hideously foul airport (compared to Barajas, which is the nicest airport I have ever been in, bar none.)

C) Has super long lines for various attractions that, while wonderful, are comparable to things in Salamanca or Madrid that do not have such long lines, and also cost somewhat less.

D) An uneducated English-speaking traveler can sort of read signs in French by guesstimation but all speech sounds like a garble of extremely similar vowels that don't really show up in English at all. Why is Spanish so much easier to learn than French when modern English is the grandbaby of Old English and Old French????

Moral of story: The movies are right, Paris is cool, but you should also go to Madrid.

Random side note plucked from the middle of the Paris narrative: Saint-Chapelle is awesome. As far as actual "sites" that I saw (as opposed to just walking around a lot), that was my favorite.