It's peak summer season in Paris but few tourists are seen wandering the streets, going up the Eiffel Tower or visitng the Louvre, dashing hopes that the top tourist destination would see brighter days after last year's pandemic-linked desertion. "When you come out of a period of Covid, I don't think the first thing you want to do is visit a capital city," says one hotel manager. The City of Light has seen between 3.6 and 4.7 million visitors between June and August, down from 10 million in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic, according to tourism office figures. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES