In February Paris is always worth a getaway

Once it was the poems of Jacques Prévert, then in the early 1990s came the film The Lovers on the Pont-Neuf by Leos Carax and in between the song Je t'aime... moi non plus, originally sung as a couple by Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot to consolidate the myth of Paris as the most romantic city to travel to in winter. When Saint Valentine's Day approaches, in particular, the Ville Lumière with its lights, its bridges, its bateaux mouches on which to board at the last moment before they set sail, keeping ready a bottle of champagne concealed in the jacket pocket to toast on the Seine, represents an irresistible lure for Italian lovers. One can even leave at the last moment on a direct train from Milan and Turin, perhaps reading during the journey, to get in advance of the atmosphere of the French capital, the book entitled Giornale di uno straniero a Parigi in which Curzio Malaparte writes: 'It is the only kindness left in Europe, by now, the kindness of the Parisian people of the Rive Gauche, the gentleness and sweetness of these sweet voices, and of the new leaves. A somewhat rippling sky over there, towards the dome of the Invalides, towards that gentle sway in the sky...'.