Paris

Paris's beauty is overwhelming, a fairy-tale town come to life

Paris has been celebrated in such a torrent of media that for millions of people, the capital of France is an abstraction rather than a city. To most North American visitors, the city is still “Gay Paree,” the fairy-tale town inviting you for a fling, the hub of everything “European,” and the epitome of that nebulous attribute known as “chic.” Paris remains the metropolis of pleasure, the picture postcard of blooming chestnut trees and young couples kissing by the Seine.

Paris is the glamour capital of the globe; by day a stone mosaic of delicate gray and green, by night a stunning, unforgettable sea of lights—white, red, orange. Broad, tree-lined boulevards open up before you, the mansions flanking them looming tall, ornate, and graceful. Everywhere you look are trees, squares, and monuments—and train stations. For Paris is also the center of France’s extensive web of rail networks and a major international rail hub—a natural spot to begin multicountry rail travel of Europe.

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© 2009, Wiley Publishing, Inc.