We really enjoyed the Alphonse Mucha museum and the Communism museum in Prague. Both times we stayed in Mala Strana and loved crossing the Charles Bridge every day and the views of the castle lit up at night. Now I want to return!!!! Prague is a beautiful city for strolling and admiring the fabulous architecture. But dress warm!!!!

Paris for the museums and nightlife. Prague for the Christmas markets. I like Prague a lot but wouldn't spend a whole week there.... 5 days max.

Hi everyone,

Thank you so much for all of your responses. You all gave me so much to think about.

Let me throw in one more city I thought would be an interesting alternative to Paris: Lyon.

Any thoughts?

Provincial capitals are not comparable to Paris.

The folks in Lyon would disagree, Michael! 😁

Because my DH was not well, we had to cut our Lyon visit short but here's my trip report. Scroll down to 14 March to get past the Menton section:

https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...d-lyon-832984/

I'm looking forward to reading your trip report.

Edited to add that my photo link to Flickr isn't worth the aggro...only one Lyon shot.

This trip will be in the dead of winter. The more indoor and covered venues available, the more protection from potentially bad weather. I can't imagine a city of half a million competing with a world-class city of 2+ million.

Why do new posters tend to sound lie tourist board employees?

Maybe just enthusiastic newbies. But the trip is over, wonder where they went.

Prague as a secret sanctuary is really hilarious given sometimes it is so crowded you can barely move along on that bridge.