Paris Orly → Malta

Don't miss

• 🏰Visit the Upper Barrakka Gardens in Valletta at exactly noon for the cannon salute from the Saluting Battery below — free to watch from the gardens, and the view over the Grand Harbour and the Three Cities simultaneously is the defining Maltese image.
• ⛪Book ahead for the St John's Co-Cathedral in Valletta — the plain exterior hides one of Europe's most astonishing Baroque interiors, including Caravaggio's largest surviving painting. Buy tickets online to avoid the queue; arrive at opening time (9am) before tour groups.
• 🌊Take the ferry from Cirkewwa to Gozo (25 minutes, €4.65 return) and hire a bike or a jeep to find the Blue Hole at Dwejra on the west coast — a natural rock chimney diving spot with extraordinary visibility; snorkelling is free and the water colour is genuinely unreal.
• 🍽️Eat ftira — the Maltese bread ring stuffed with tuna, capers, olives, and tomatoes — from one of the early-morning bakeries in the Three Cities (Vittoriosa, Senglea) rather than the tourist cafes in Valletta; it costs €2–3 and is eaten standing at the counter like locals do.