Paris intrigues, astonishes, provokes, overwhelms, and ultimately gets under your skin. The City of Light is the apex of architectural beauty, artistic expression, and culinary delight, and it knows it. As drop-dead arrogant as the Arc de Triomphe, as disarmingly quaint as a lace-curtain bistro, it seduces newcomers with a Latin-lover style -- and its subtle siren song invites unhurried exploration. Paris is a city of vast, noble perspectives and intimate, ramshackle streets, of formal espaces verts (green open spaces) and of quiet squares. This combination of the pompous and the private is one of the secrets of its perennial pull. Another is its size. Paris is relatively small as capitals go, with distances between many of its major sights and museums invariably walkable.