Paris

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Few cities have honed their swoon-inducing skills as well as this one: every cobbled lane, every streetside café, every patisserie window seems to have been art-directed by some impossibly savvy set designer; every passerby apparently costumed by a couturier. Paris spoils you for everywhere else—yet somehow, despite centuries at the epicenter of global tourism, it has never spoiled itself. (No city has so successfully navigated the tricky business of historic preservation.) And although Paris does grandeur and drama better than any place, its greatest pleasures are arguably its simplest ones: the rustic charm of a humble neighborhood bistro; the tranquility of a churchyard; the lilt of a jazz combo; the crunch of a perfect baguette. Best of all, such indulgences are easily accessible and affordable (and often outright free). When was the last time your heart quickened by the mere act of walking down the street?