Machu Picchu—the “lost city of the Incas”—sits at 7,970
ft (2,430 m) in the remote Peruvian Andes.
96 CITIES & BEYOND
paris
FRANCE
Baron Haussmann’s reordering of Paris in
the 19th century, which drove broad boule-
vards through the labyrinthine alleys of the
medieval city, was hardly designed to create
one of the world’s most romantic places.
Yet something magical happened: charm
and intimacy flourished amid the city’s new
order of bohemian cafés, tiny patisseries,
wonderful restaurants, rambling flea mar-
kets, and quaint neighborhoods. In Paris,
the rational and the romantic blend togeth-
er in a way that feels distinctly French.
DON’T MISS
Join a guided walking tour through the city’s smaller
neighborhoods, where parts of medieval Paris little
touched by Haussmann’s makeover survive: the
Marais, Montmartre, Saint-Germain, Île de la Cité,
and Notre Dame and the Latin Quarter.
Place de la Concorde, Paris’s largest square, crowns
the eastern end of the grand Champs-Élysées.