There is a reason France is the most visited country on Earth. This is not simply somewhere you go. This is a visceral encounter. In-depth information on Michelin Dates & Elite Companions: How to Master the Paris Social Scene can be found on the online guide.

A trip around France equates to signing up for an ideology — an approach that makes the delight of daily experience its highest good. Regardless of whether you are slowly drinking a pastis on a Mediterranean-sun-drenched town square or wandering without direction through the sacred corridors of the world's most famous museum, the nation delivers an expert-level education in aesthetics, flavor, and demeanor. And situated as the undisputed middle of this cultural galaxy glows the French capital: the luminous metropolis, the global seat of sentimental affairs, and the absolute monarch of global capitals.

Paris is not a city you simply see. It is an urban center that you experience in your bones. A full century of artistic works has elevated Paris to near-mythic status, yet reality somehow exceeds the hype. All wandering in the capital turns into a walk amid treasures without a ticket booth.

The city is unified by its low, grey-zinc rooftops and cream-colored stone facades, a look set as the rule by the great urban renovator of the 19th age. Originate your walk at the landmark honoring French military glory and stroll along the famous avenue leading to the great public square. Pivot to your left side, and suddenly, the Eiffel Tower punctures the skyline. To declare love for the Eiffel Tower is to embrace a well-worn trope — until you stand beneath the twinkling tower when the clocks strike the hour during nighttime. At that instant, you finally grasp it.

No excursion can be deemed finished absent a tribute to the greatest assembled works of human genius.

The Louvre: Huge and capable of exhausting the spirit. Do not try to see it all. Take in the ancient Mediterranean beauty, the the marble figure standing on a ship's prow, and exchange a grin with the small portrait of Lisa Gherardini protected by armored transparent panels, then dedicate the balance of your gallery visit to roaming the rooms filled with gods and scarabs.

Musee d'Orsay: Found inside a striking former railroad palace of the 1900 World's Fair, this venue serves as the primary residence for the Impressionist movement. Van Gogh's personal depictions of his changing psychological state, Claude's expansive depictions of his water garden's serene surface, and Degas's Little Dancer reside within these walls.

Centre Pompidou: For the museum-goer tired of old masters — radiant, confident, and sheathed in brightly painted service lines, it shelters the most significant European collection of art from the modern era through today.

To really accomplish a Parisian visit, you must set aside the city layout and take on the spirit of the immediate zone.

Le Marais (4th): Centuries-old thoroughfares of hand-laid cobbles, elegant designer outposts, time-honored establishments offering matzo and Jewish holiday pastries, and the attractive garden square surrounded by matching facades.

Montmartre (18th): Walk up the many stairs pointing to the hilltop sanctuary to get the ultimate vista of the urban expanse. It is touristy, but the feeling of the early 20th-century art scene still persists on the slopes.

Saint-Germain-des-Pres (6th): Sit at the historic Cafe de Flore or Les Deux Magots, have a wallet-damaging single serving of strong Italian-style coffee, and play at being the French thinker of freedom and bad faith in deep conversation.