France is the world's biggest tourist destination with some 72 million people visiting the country last year. Many choose to come to Paris in the summer when most Parisians are not there! 

This year, thanks to the recession, more Parisians are going to be staying at home... and finding out what they've been missing. Our correspondent John Laurenson sent us this postcard from Paris in the summertime.


I'm writing this inside a Left Bank café called the Rouquet, a place that hasn't changed since the 1950s.

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:  John Laurenson sent his "Postcard from Europe" from Paris

Motorists honk unhappily along the Boulevard Saint Germain, but the plane trees form a green roof over the street, filtering the sun and giving the place a relaxing air. A sparrow hops in, grabs an abandoned chip off the floor and flies towards the door, lop-sided because of the weight of the thing.

The Patronne sidles up and tells me she's been here for 55 years. She remembers Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir coming here every morning. They'd hide away in the little room at the back. Get a bit of peace and quiet before exposing themselves to the rubber-necking crowds at the swankier cafés - the Flore and the Deux Magots down the road.