Paris

Paris is the most walkable major city in Europe. Each arrondissement has a character; the Seine separates two intellectual traditions (the Left Bank's philosophy, the Right's commerce). The famous things — Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower — are real and worth seeing once. But the city's better self is the day-to-day: a long lunch on Île Saint-Louis, the Tuileries on a clear afternoon, a walk through the Marais, an evening at a wine bar in the 11th. Don't try to do everything. Go back to the same café three days in a row.