Discovering the City of Light and making it your own has always been the most compelling reason to visit Paris. If you're a first-timer, everything, of course, will be new to you. If you've been away for a while, expect changes: Taxi drivers may no longer correct your fractured French but address you in English -- tantamount to a revolution. More Parisians have a rudimentary knowledge of the language, and France, at least at first glance, seems less xenophobic than in past years. Paris, aware of its role within a united Europe, is an international city. Parisians are attracted to foreign music, videos, and films, especially those from America, even though most French people violently disagree with the political dictates emerging from George Bush's Washington.

Though Paris is in flux culturally and socially, it lures travelers for the same reasons it always has. You'll still find classic sights like the Tour Eiffel, Notre-Dame, the Arc de Triomphe, Sacré-Coeur, and all those atmospheric cafes, as well as daringly futuristic projects like the Grande Arche de La Défense, the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie, the Cité de la Musique, and the Bibliothèque François-Mitterrand. And don't forget the parks, gardens, and squares; the Champs-Elysées and other grand boulevards; and the river Seine and its quays. Paris's beauty is still overwhelming, especially at night, when it truly is the City of Light.

WHEN TO GO

Spring in Paris may be the stuff of romantic legend, but the most delicious time of year to visit is the fall, especially September and October. This autumn season is called "La Rentrée" (as in return to work from the customary whole-month-of-August vacation), and the city bristles with energy as new shops, clubs, and restaurants open, a cultural season begins, and everyone catches up after the summer holidays. Or consider winter: It's usually mild, and December, January, and February are the trough of the annual tourist calendar, so you'll be getting Paris at its most Parisian.

HOW TO GET THERE

Paris is served by most of the world's major airlines at its two major airports, Roissy Charles de Gaulle (15 miles north of the city, often abbreviated to CDG and primarily used for international flights) and Orly (ten miles south of the city and divided between Orly Sud for international flights and Orly Ouest for domestic ones). Both airports are served by the RER, or regional train system, and the RATP (Paris transit authority, www.ratp.fr) offers regular and reasonably comfortable bus service from both CDG and Orly into town. Leaving Paris for the airport, the RATP bus departs from Rue Scribe not far from the American Express Office. For Orly, the bus leaves from the Denfert-Rochereau metro station.

Paris has six main railroad stations (gares). The Gare du Nord is the Paris terminus for Eurostar service to London, and also the high-speed Thalys train route to Belgium and Holland; trains to northern French cities such as Lille and Amiens also leave from this station. The Gare de l'Est serves eastern France and Germany, the Gare St-Lazare is the place for Normandy and Ile-de-France trains, the Gare d'Austerlitz is the station for Spanish arrivals and departures, the Gare de Lyon covers southern France, Switzerland, and Italy, and the Gare Montparnasse services Brittany, the Loire Valley, and much of southwestern France. All train stations are connected to the Paris Métro (subway) system. Eurolines (www.eurolines.com), the major trans-European bus line, has its main station just outside of the Porte de Bagnolet metro stop.

GETTING AROUND

Paris has an outstanding mass transit system, the RATP, which includes the Métro (subway) system and buses, with several new tramways currently under construction. Tickets can be purchased at Métro stations, tourist offices, on buses, and also at tabacs (newsstands that sell cigarettes). If you're going to be around for a while, an unlimited weekly pass on all buses and trains in zones 1 and 2 (central Paris) or a monthly pass is your best bet. Note that the weekly pass is a better buy than the heavily promoted Paris Visite pass. The Métro is open from 5:30 a.m. to 12:40 a.m. daily. Buses run from 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., with some routes continuing to offer service until 12:30 a.m. After 12:30 a.m., the only transportation available in central Paris aside from taxis—look for them at cab stands or hail one on the street when the sign on its roof is lit to indicate that it's available—is the Noctambus, which originates in Châtelet. The RATP also operates a Batobus (www.batobus.com) boat service on the Seine from April to October; it's convenient, but also a very pleasant way to get from one sightseeing attraction (Notre-Dame, for example) to another, like the Tour Eiffel.

Scooters with small gasoline engines are increasingly common and a fun way to get around town for anyone who's already accustomed to navigating urban traffic; rent from Freescoot

More and more Parisians are also biking around the city streets; rent your wheels from Maison Roue Libre (1 Passage Mondétour, 08/10-44-15-34, www.rouelibre.fr) or Paris Vélo www.paris-velo-rent-a-bike.fr). Since parking is very restrictive and expensive, and traffic is often terrible, renting a car while visiting Paris is a bad idea.

THINGS TO SEE AND DO

EIFFEL TOWER

This is without doubt one of the most recognizable structures in the world. Weighing 7,000 tons but exerting about the same pressure on the ground as an average-size person sitting in a chair, the wrought-iron tower wasn't meant to be permanent. Gustave-Alexandre Eiffel, the French engineer whose fame rested mainly on his iron bridges, built it for the 1889 Universal Exhibition. (Eiffel also designed the framework for the Statue of Liberty.) Praised by some and denounced by others (some called it a "giraffe," the "world's greatest lamppost," or the "iron monster"), the tower created as much controversy in the 1880s as I. M. Pei's glass pyramid at the Louvre did in the 1980s. What saved it from demolition was the advent of radio -- as the tallest structure in Europe, it made a perfect spot to place a radio antenna (now a TV antenna).

To see the Eiffel Tower best, don't sprint -- approach it gradually. We suggest taking the Métro to the Trocadéro stop and walking from the Palais de Chaillot to the Seine to get the full effect of the tower and its surroundings; then cross the pont d'Iéna and head for the base, where you'll find elevators in two of the pillars -- expect long lines. (When the tower is open, you can see the 1889 lift machinery in the eastern and western pillars.) You visit the tower in three stages: The first landing provides a view over the rooftops as well as a cinema museum showing films, restaurants, and a bar. The second landing offers a panoramic look at the city. The third landing gives the most spectacular view; Eiffel's office has been re-created on this level, with wax figures depicting the engineer receiving Thomas Edison.

SAINTE CHAPELLE

Countless writers have called this tiny chapel a jewel box. Yet that hardly suffices. Nor will it do to call it "a light show." Go when the sun is shining, and you'll need no one else's words to describe the remarkable effects of natural light on Sainte-Chapelle. You approach the church through the Cour de la Sainte-Chapelle of the Palais de Justice. If it weren't for the chapel's 74m (243-ft.) spire, the law courts here would almost swallow it up.

Begun in 1246, the bi-level chapel was built to house relics of the True Cross, including the Crown of Thorns acquired by St. Louis (the Crusader king, Louis IX) from the emperor of Constantinople. (In those days, cathedrals throughout Europe were busy acquiring relics for their treasuries, regardless of their authenticity. It was a seller's, perhaps a sucker's, market.) Louis IX is said to have paid heavily for his relics, raising the money through unscrupulous means. He died of the plague on a crusade and was canonized in 1297.

You enter through the chapelle basse (lower chapel), used by the palace servants; it's supported by flying buttresses and ornamented with fleur-de-lis designs. The king and his courtiers used the chapelle haute (upper chapel), one of the greatest achievements of Gothic art; you reach it by ascending a narrow spiral staircase. On a bright day, the 15 stained-glass windows seem to glow with Chartres blue and with reds that have inspired the saying "wine the color of Sainte-Chapelle's windows." The walls consist almost entirely of the glass, 612 sq. m (6,588 sq. ft.) of it, which had to be removed for safekeeping during the Revolution and again during both world wars. In their Old and New Testament designs are embodied the hopes and dreams (and the pretensions) of the kings who ordered their construction. The 1,134 scenes depict the Christian story from the Garden of Eden through the Apocalypse; you read them from bottom to top and from left to right. The great rose window depicts the Apocalypse.

ARC DE TRIOMPHE

At the western end of the Champs-Elysées, the Arc de Triomphe suggests an ancient Roman arch, only it's larger. Actually, it's the biggest triumphal arch in the world, about 49m (161 ft.) high and 44m (144 ft.) wide. To reach it, don't try to cross the square, Paris's busiest traffic hub. With a dozen streets radiating from the "Star," the roundabout has been called by one writer "vehicular roulette with more balls than numbers" (death is certain!). Take the underground passage, and live a little longer.

Commissioned by Napoleon in 1806 to commemorate the victories of his Grand Armée, the arch wasn't ready for the entrance of his empress, Marie-Louise, in 1810 (he'd divorced Joséphine because she couldn't provide him an heir). It wasn't completed until 1836, under the reign of Louis-Philippe. Four years later, Napoleon's remains, brought from St. Helena, passed under the arch on their journey to his tomb at the Hôtel des Invalides. Since that time it has become the focal point for state funerals. It's also the site of the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, in whose honor an eternal flame burns.

NAPOLEONS' TOMB

In 1670, the Sun King decided to build this "hotel" to house disabled soldiers. It wasn't an entirely benevolent gesture, considering that the men had been injured, crippled, or blinded while fighting his battles. When the building was finally completed (Louis XIV had long been dead), a gilded dome by Jules Hardouin-Mansart crowned it, and its corridors stretched for miles. The best way to approach the Invalides is by crossing over the Right Bank via the early-1900s pont Alexander-III and entering the cobblestone forecourt, where a display of massive cannons makes a formidable welcome.

Before rushing on to Napoleon's Tomb, you may want to visit the world's greatest military museum, the Musée de l'Armée. In 1794, a French inspector started collecting weapons, uniforms, and equipment, and with the accumulation of war material over time, the museum has become a documentary of man's self-destruction. Viking swords, Burgundian battle axes, 14th-century blunderbusses, Balkan khandjars, American Browning machine guns, war pitchforks, salamander-engraved Renaissance serpentines, a 1528 Griffon, musketoons, grenadiers . . . if it can kill, it's enshrined here. As a sardonic touch, there's even the wooden leg of General Daumesnil, the governor of Vincennes who lost his leg in the battle of Wagram. Oblivious to the irony of committing a crime against a place that documents man's evil nature, the Nazis looted the museum in 1940.

RESTAURANT REVIEWS

LES AMBASSADEURS

Hotel de Crillon
10 Place de la Concorde
8th Arrondissement
Paris
Tel: 44 71 16 16
Metro: Concorde

With the arrival of Jean-Francois Piege, formerly chef at Alain Ducasse's Paris flagship kitchen, the most beautiful restaurant in Paris now has one of the city's hottest young chefs. This opulent marble-faced dining room overlooking the Place de la Concorde is redolent with French history. Huge Baccarat crystal chandeliers hang overhead, and friezes playfully depict busy cherubim building the hotel in the 18th century. Still, a recent renovation has given it a discreet edge of modern glamour. Armchairs have been reupholstered in taupe velvet, a poppy-colored moiré tablecloth now creates a backdrop for cream table linens, and window treatments have been changed to admit more light and offer better views. Piege has sensibly shortened the menu so that he can better concentrate on the sexy contemporary haute cuisine that is his trademark. Typical of his cooking, which is light, luxurious, and festive, are dishes such as grilled scallops in a crushed-truffle vinaigrette with a presse of leeks and truffles, langoustines in phyllo pastry with caviar, a blancmange of cèpes with a lightly poached quail's egg buried in its airy middle, and for dessert, crunchy chocolate ganache with banana-flavored cream and diced banana. Popular for occasions both solemn and frivolous, this restaurant attracts a power crowd at noon and then takes on a romantic air in the evening.

ALLARD

41 rue St-André-des-Arts
6th Arrondissement
Paris
Tel: 43 26 48 23
Metro: Odeon

Will we always have Paris? Well, yes, at least as long as this textbook definition of a traditional bistro survives. Located in the neighborhood that the whole world thinks of as Paris, Saint Germain des Pres, this restaurant has an alluring prewar feel, complete with ambered walls, a nickel-plated coatrack in the narrow hallway, and a big zinc bar in the first and more atmospheric of its two small dining rooms. The kitchen, which is on view as you step in off the street, turns out superb versions of hearty, traditional French dishes of yore. To start, try the foie gras or sliced Lyonnais sausage studded with pistachios and served with potato salad in a delicious vinaigrette. Then move on to one of their three classics: roast shoulder of lamb, roast Bresse chicken with sautéed cèpes, or roast duck with green olives. Finish up with the hot, open-faced apple tart, and go with one of their good, if expensive, Bordeaux—big wines that stand up to this type of cooking.

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