Paris
Paris is confident that it's the world's most beautiful, fashionable and artistic capital. Visit just once and it's hard to disagree. Walking through the heart of Paris you often feel like you've wandered onto an art film set; much of the city has been scrubbed clean in recent years and it's never looked more fabulous. Its inhabitants are the definition of style, its architecture includes some of the most spectacular buildings and monuments in Europe and the ambience is by turns exciting, alluring and effortlessly romantic. France's capital city, Paris is quite distinctively divided into two parts by the Seine River, which meanders through the city, bisecting the centre. Thus everything in Paris is defined as Rive Droite (Right Bank) on the north side, or Rive Gauche (Left Bank) on the south side. Both sides compete with each other in great museums, churches, monuments, shops, hotels and restaurants, while in the middle of the river, atop the L'Île de la Cité, rises the towering bulk of Notre Dame cathedral, arbitrator between the two rivals.

But in truth this rivalry is only superficial. Paris is a whole unto itself, and Parisians are fiercely passionate about their home like nowhere else on earth. The city and its inhabitants have an independence born of fiercely fought revolution - not only political but also ideological. For centuries the city has attracted artists and philosophers, and within a day you can tread in the footsteps of such historical luminaries as Sartre, Voltaire, Hugo, Rousseau and Descartes - little wonder Paris is called the City of Lights. The creative spontaneity that inspired these revolutionary minds is still running through the city and can be felt on the streets even today. Perhaps this is why Paris has its reputation for romance: nowhere else has such passion or feels quite so alive.

Discover Paris
Paris has a familiarity for first-time and frequent visitors. Its instantly recognizable architectural icons, along with exquisite cuisine, chic boutiques and priceless artistic treasures make it the most visited city in the world. Paris is inspiring and what travelers appreciate most is its intimacy. Its quartiers (neighborhoods) are like a patchwork of villages, and while it’s one of the world’s major metropolises – with all of the culture and facilities that go with it – there is a real sense of community at the local shops, markets and cafes. Yet because every little ‘village’ has its own evolving character, you can discover and rediscover hidden corners of the city.

Tourist Office Paris
25 Rue des Pyramides, 75001 Paris

Paris Visit Pass
In Paris you have the metro (subway), RER (Suburban Railway) and buses. Paris Visit Pass is allowing unlimited travel on the bus, metro, tramway and RER networks in Paris and its suburbs. The Paris Transport travel card is perfect for those wanting to visit Paris and make unlimited, unrestricted trips around the Ile-de-France region! The Paris Transport comes with a booklet of reductions in a range of partner establishments.

The essentials of Paris
1) Eiffel Tower
2) Champs-Elysées
3) The Louvre
4) Montmartre
5) Musée d'Orsay

Eiffel Tower
Built for the Universal Exhibition of 1889, and to commemorate the centenial of the Revolution, the 1,063 ft (324m) Eiffel Tower was meant to be a temporary addition to Paris's skyline. Designed by Gustave Eiffel, it was fiercely decried by 19th-century aesthetes. It stood as the world's tallest building until 1931, when New York's Empire State Building was completed.

Champs-Elysées
Paris is a wonderful city for aimless wandering and the Champs-Elysees a good place to start your tour of Paris. The Champs-Elysees is the best known boulevard of Paris, situated on the so called Right Bank of the Seine. The boulevard bustles with expensive restaurants, outdoor cafés and fancy stores. From the finish line of the Tour de France, to the funeral procession of Charles de Gaulle, a lot of France's most monumental events took place on this impressive boulevard. At the head of the Champs-Elysees, the Arch of Triumph majestically towers above the traffic in the middle of the Charles de Gaulle square. Beneath the archway lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier where war veterans stoke up the memorial flame every evening for the ones who got killed during the Second World War. At the other end of the Champs-Elysees lies the other prestigious square, Place de la Concorde. During the French Revolution around 1300 people got killed beneath the guillotine. Amongst whom were Louis XIV, Marie-Antoinette and Robespierre. Today the centerpiece of the square is the 3,000 year old Egyptian Obelisk from the Temple of Ramses at Luxor, a present of Egypt in 1829.

The Louvre
This incredible museum, former residence of kings and queens, holds one of the broadest and richest art collections in the world today. From Egyptian art of 5000 BC to nineteen century masterpieces, the useum is divided into 7 departments and is so immense, that there is too much to see for a one day visit. Actually a Louvre tour seeing every piece of work in the collection would take several weeks. The most famous pieces of art in the collection are probably the Mona Lisa from Da Vinci and the Venus de Milo, dating around 130 BC.

Montmartre
With its altitude of 130 meters (425 ft.), the bohemian neighborhood of Montmartre is the highest point in Paris. The Du Tertre Square is the perfect place to find a nice painted souvenir of Paris, a nice portrait of your loved one or a funny caricature of yourself. The area is perhaps best known for the Moulin Rouge Nightclub where artist Toulouse-Lautrec painted his famous paintings of Cancan dancers. The Byzantine style Basilica Sacre-Coeur stands proudly at the top of the hill overlooking the whole city and is almost as high as the Eiffel Tower.

Musée d'Orsay
In 1986, 47 years after it had closed as a mainline railroad station, Victor Laloux/s turn-of-the-century building reopened as the Musée d'Orsay. In the conversion to a museum much of the original architecture was retained. The museums presents the rich diversity of visual arts from 1848 to 1914 and explains the social and technological context in which they were created.

Excursions
Versailles
Versailles is by far the most renowned castle of Paris and its surroundings. The enormous palace was built out of envy by King Louis XIV. The palace is rightly one of the most visited monuments of France. Versailles was the headquarters of the state and more than 20,000 people among which nobles, administrative staff, merchants, soldiers and servants lived in the enormous castle of the Sun King. The gardens of Versailles are amazing and utterly beautiful with its geometric flower beds, fountains, statues and canals.