Sights Overview

You'll always have Paris. Like the champagne-frosted idyll Bogie and Bergman reminisced about in Casablanca, the time you spend in this endlessly resonant city will remain a lifelong reference point. Over and over, as in a reverie, you'll conjure up its sensory assault -- the sting in the nostril of a freshly lighted Gitane cigarette, the rippling of lights on the misty Seine, the confetti flutter of antique prints over the stand of a bouquiniste (bookseller), the aromatic bedlam of a street food market, the waves battering the prow of the Medusa in Géricault's epic canvas at the Louvre. And you'll get starry-eyed all over again.

Whether weaned on Hemingway or Henry James, Doisneau or Cartier-Bresson, Brassaï or Cecil Beaton, Westerners share an image of Paris as the city of lovers, from Rodin's brawny duo to La Bohème's Mimi and Rodolfo weeping in a chilly garret to Anaïs Nin's flappers naked under fur. The Hollywood propaganda machine melted the hearts of any stubborn holdouts: who could stand firm in the face of Leslie Caron's blushes as she danced in Gene Kelly's arms along the Seine in An American in Paris, Audrey Hepburn's fine-boned take on the Winged Victory in Funny Face, or the punched-in-the-gut look on Bogie's face when he remembered the German tanks rolling in?

The real love affair is with the city of Paris itself, and it can play you like a violin. Around every corner, down every ruelle, or little street, lies a resonance-in-waiting. You can stand on rue du Faubourg St-Honoré at the very spot where Edmond Rostand set Ragueneau's pastry shop in Cyrano de Bergerac. You can peruse the letters of Madame de Sévigné in her erstwhile mansion, now the Musée Carnavalet. You can hear the words of Racine resound in the hair-raising diction of the Comédie Française. You can breathe in the fumes of hubris before the extravagant tomb of Napoléon at Les Invalides. You can gaze through the gate at the Île St-Louis mansion where Voltaire honed his wit and then lay a garland on Oscar Wilde's grave.

No matter which way you head, any trip through Paris will be a voyage of discovery. But choosing the Paris of your dreams is a bit like choosing a perfume or cologne. Do you prefer young and dashing, or elegant and worldly? Something sporty, or divinely glamorous? No matter -- beneath touristy Paris, historic Paris, fashion-conscious Paris, pretentious-bourgeois Paris, practical working-class Paris, or the legendary bohemian Paris, you will find your own Paris, and it will be vivid, exciting, unforgettable. Veterans know that Paris is a city of regal perspectives and ramshackle streets, of formal espaces vertes, or green open spaces, and quiet squares.

Another draw is its scale: Paris is relatively small as capitals go, with distances between many of its major sights and museums easily walkable. The river makes basic orientation easy, dividing the city into the Rive Droite (Right Bank) and Rive Gauche (Left Bank). In fact, the best way to get to know Paris is on foot, though public transportation -- particularly the métro (subway system) -- is excellent. Arm yourself with the city map Plan de Paris (a handy booklet with a complete street-name and métro index, easily found in bookstores and tabacs) and simply stroll to your heart's delight. (Métro stations also have a detailed neighborhood map just inside the entrance.)

For the first-timer, there will always be several musts at the top of the list -- the Louvre, Notre-Dame, and the Eiffel Tower among them -- but a visit to Paris will never be quite as simple as a quick look at a few landmarks. Every quartier, or neighborhood, has its own personality and unsuspected treasures, and you should be ready to explore. Ultimately, your route will depend on your own preferences, stamina, and curiosity. The city can seem like a living art gallery: broad perspectives flashing from gold to pink to silver under scudding Impressionist clouds, a misty street straight out of Brassaï, a woman's abstracted stare over a glass of green liqueur at a Montmartre café. You can wander for hours without getting bored -- though not, perhaps, without getting lost.

By the time you have seen only a few neighborhoods, you should not only be culturally replete but downright exhausted -- and hungry, too. Again, take your cue from the Parisians and plan your next stop at a sidewalk café. So you've heard stories of a friend of a friend who paid $8 for a coffee at a famous café? Take it in stride. What you're paying for is time to linger, with the opportunity to watch the intricate drama of Parisian street life unfold.

You'll learn it's all so familiar and all so terribly…Parisian. Rillettes (preserved pork spread) and poilâne (the ubiquitous chewy sourdough bread from Poilâne bakery) and Beaujolais. The discreet hiss of the métro's rubber wheels and a waft of accordion music. The street sweeper guiding rags along the rain gutters with a twig broom. The coins in the saucer by the pissoir. The shriek of the espresso machine as it steams the milk for your café crème, the flip-lid sugar bowl on the zinc bar. The lovers buried in each others' necks along the banks of the Seine.

To paraphrase Stendhal, to know Paris is the work of a lifetime. So what are you waiting for?