Introduction to Paris

Mona Lisa's smile is for visitors who think they have seen everything in Paris. In the city of light, romance and Hemingway's "Moveable Feast" you can't help but have certain expectations. Paris is the capital of fashion, art and people-watching; a city where Chanel-clad ladies walk poodles along grand boulevards; a place where the waiters are rude but the food is délicieux. Paris is all of that and more. Your love affair begins once you look beyond the Eiffel Tower, explore the backstreets of Notre-Dame and make Paris your own.
Things to Do
Comfy shoes are essential for this city of a thousand walks, landscaped gardens and cavernous galleries. Reserve your ticket for speedy access to the Louvre, which sidles up to the sculpture-dotted Jardin des Tuileries. Across the Seine on the Left Bank, take your pick from Impressionist hangout Musée d'Orsay, Notre-Dame's Gothic grandeur and Musée Rodin's Kiss sculpture. OK, you really can't leave without seeing Paris light up from the Eiffel Tower, open till midnight.
Shopping
Parisians luxuriate in shopping -- bidding shopkeepers bonjour and pausing to lèche-vitrines ("lick the windows" or window shop). Saunter the boutiquey Marais for home-grown fashion, and voguish rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, home to concept store Colette, for haute-couture. Where else can you find such palatial department stores as Art Nouveau Printemps and rival Galeries Lafayette? Antiques, bric-a-brac, vintage Chanel -- it's all at Saint-Ouen's enormous weekend flea market; arrive early for bargains and stay for brunch.
Nightlife and Entertainment
Ballet at the glittering Opéra Garnier, Molière classics at the Comédie Française and cancan at the (in)famous Moulin Rouge -- Paris nightlife reaches from sublime to borderline sleazy. A young, trendy crowd parties around the Bastille, gay Marais and the effortlessly hip bars in Oberkampf, where DJs play at industrial-chic Nouveau Casino. Dress to the nines to slip past picky doormen in clubs around Champs-Elysées like celebrity-magnet L'Arc, and rock the Seine dancing to techno on moored party boat Batofar.
Restaurants and Dining
Good food is a birthright and its appreciation a rite of passage in Paris, where a meal --sometimes even coffee -- can last hours. For chandelier-lit opulence, choose an Art Nouveau brasserie in Opéra, or book weeks ahead for a table at Gérard Depardieu's exquisite La Fontaine Gaillon. Literary Saint-Germain and lantern-lit Marais overflow with appetizing little bistros. For Eiffel Tower views, nowhere beats Branly Museum's rooftop Les Ombres, where Arno Busquet gets seasonally creative in the kitchen.