Museums—The art treasures of the Louvre; the famous impressionist paintings at Musee d'Orsay; the Musee de l'Orangerie; Louis XIV's Palace of Versailles, just outside Paris.

Memorable Meals—Dinner at Restaurant Alain Ducasse at Plaza Athenee; the magnificent frescoes, marble halls and superb cuisine at Les Ambassadeurs; dining at a small neighborhood restaurant such as Le Pamphlet; the kosher falafel and pizza joints of Rue des Rosiers; after-dinner coffee on the terrace of Cafe de Flore.

Late Night—Bilboquet or another hip jazz club; the bars and restaurants along Cour St. Emilion at Bercy Village; the bars and cafes in the Marais or Rue Oberkampf.

Walks—From the Arc de Triomphe down the Champs Elysees, through the Tuileries Gardens to the Louvre; from Notre-Dame through the Latin Quarter to the Pantheon; along the Seine, crossing the Ile de la Cite or the Ile St. Louis; a midnight stroll along the romantic streets of Montmartre; down the Champs Elysees or around the Louvre at night to see the illuminations; along the Canal St. Martin, often referred to as Paris' most romantic street.

Especially for Kids—Palais de la Decouverte, a children's science museum (the 9,000-star planetarium is very popular); La Menagerie, Paris' oldest zoo; Jardin d'Acclimatation, a 25-acre/10-hectare park in the Bois de Boulogne, complete with enchanting riverboat rides and high-tech learning center; Cite des Enfants at the Parc de la Villette, a science and discovery village with hands-on exhibits for children.

Along the Right Bank (Rive Droite)—that is, along the north bank of the Seine—lie the grand boulevards (such as the Champs Elysees, in the 8th), stately facades, the Arc de Triomphe, the Opera Garnier (9th) and the Louvre (1st). Tucked away in the midst of all this grandeur is the trendy, labyrinthine Marais District (4th). Montmartre (18th), the northernmost area of the Right Bank, resembles a little village, with steep, cobblestoned streets and tiny, ivy-covered houses. The area around the Bastille (11th)—once an infamous prison—has become one of the trendiest pockets of Paris, with numerous cafes and clubs, as well as barge restaurants on the refurbished Villette Basin (19th).

Although the Left Bank (Rive Gauche) has the reputation for being slightly funkier than the Right, it is also very chic and home to some of the most expensive real estate in Paris. The Latin Quarter (5th) is always buzzing with activity, especially with students of Sorbonne University. The cafes of St. Germain (6th) are experiencing renewed interest among followers of such philosophers as Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, who once gathered there to debate existentialism. Montparnasse (14th), formerly the home of Picasso, Alberto Giacometti and other artists, is a bustling neighborhood adjacent to St. Germain. It's crowded with cinemas and famous brasseries.

La Defense refers to the cluster of skyscrapers on the northwestern edge of Paris that makes up the modern business district. The landmark of this quarter is La Grande Arche—a massive, futuristic arch of glass, granite and marble that serves as a modern echo of Napoleon's Arc de Triomphe.

Note: The ordinal number in parentheses following each street address indicates the arrondissement in which an address is located. For example, (7th) refers to the 7th arrondissement. The nearest metro stop is given after the arrondissement. Also, in an address, don't be confused by the word bis after a street number. If you see 10-bis, for instance, it indicates the door or building next to No. 10.

The Bourbon kings entered the scene in the 17th century. In the 1660s, Louis XIV ordered the expansion of the Palace of Versailles, which had been a relatively modest retreat, into a formidable palace. He moved the court from Paris to Versailles to escape rising unrest in the Paris streets. Under Louis XVI and his queen, Marie Antoinette, French subjects rose up and started the French Revolution in 1789, which brought the executions of thousands of people by guillotine—the king and queen among them. After the fervor of the revolution died down, Napoleon Bonaparte ruled France as emperor until his final defeat at Waterloo in 1815. Under Napoleon's rule, Paris gained some impressive military architecture, including the Arc de Triomphe.

A series of short-lived empires followed the Napoleonic era, but they were replaced by a republic in 1870. The avenues and broad boulevards that have come to symbolize the city date from 19th-century urban planner Baron Haussmann, who carved them out of the winding medieval districts. (The wide streets not only looked impressive, they also could support rapid troop deployment in case of civil rebellion.) The late 19th century ushered in France's richest artistic period in centuries, with the impressionist movement followed by the belle epoque, or "beautiful age," with its art-nouveau style. Renoir, Monet, Degas, Manet and Toulouse-Lautrec all lived or worked in the city during that time, and Gustave Eiffel oversaw the construction of what would become Paris' most celebrated landmark.

World War I cast a dark shadow over Paris and all of Europe, but the city rebounded in the 1920s and 1930s during the ebullient Jazz Age. Paris became home to such performers and writers as Josephine Baker and Ernest Hemingway, as well as many painters, including Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. During World War II, Paris was occupied by the German army, and resistance fighters working with the French government in exile were pitted against sympathizers of the so-called Vichy government.

Today, as throughout its history, Paris is one of Europe's most important artistic, political, religious, educational and commercial centers. There are plenty of monumental contemporary landmarks in the city, too. The pyramid at the Louvre, the Pompidou Center and the stunning Bibliotheque Nationale are prominent examples. Paris is a city in constant change, with many new faces, styles, ethnic groups and different religious persuasions, but it is also a city firmly rooted in its traditions. It is this constant pull between old and new that makes it such a vibrant place to visit.

The Latin Quarter got its name because it was the center for university activity in the Middle Ages, a time when scholars spoke Latin to each other.

The construction of Notre-Dame Cathedral took more than 180 years to complete. It contains the largest pipe organ in France. In the late 1990s, Parisian officials decided to clean the sooty facade of the church. High-powered lasers were used to burn off the outside grime. The steeple was left with the dirt on it to remind everyone of what it used to look like.

When the Pere Lachaise Cemetery opened in 1804, it didn't have any customers at first as people thought it was too far from the city center. Someone had the bright idea of transferring the bodies of Abelard and Heloise, the famous medieval lovers, and it has been a tourist attraction and busy cemetery ever since.

Paris' nickname as the City of Light has nothing to do with nature's light or the way it is illuminated at night. It refers to the artists and intellectuals who flocked there, making it a city of enlightenment.

Despite its name, the Pont Neuf (New Bridge) is the oldest surviving Seine bridge of Paris. It was built in 1578. The youngest Seine bridge is the Pont Simone de Beauvoir, which opened in 2006.

The noble, marbled Galerie Vero-Dodat between Chatelet and the Louvre, one of the first places in Paris to have gas lights, was built buy two butchers in 1826. Legend has it that they did so in order to shorten the way from the Halles to the prostitutes plying their trade at the Palais Royal.

Paris has been (and continues to be) the background if not the star of many famous movies, ranging from the new wave cult Breathless (1960) to the scandalous, erotic Last Tango in Paris (1972). Other Paris-set films include The Da Vinci Code (2006), Amelie (2001) and Paris Je T'aime (2006).