Paris: Introduction: Why Go Now

Just being in Paris is such a pleasure, and it’s never hard to find a reason to visit. Of course, it helps that the city’s museums, galleries, hotels, restaurants, boutiques, and parks are quite simply superb. But as wonderfully eternal as Paris may seem, the city changes constantly. For example, the past few years have seen the emergence of a talented new generation of cooks, including Pascal Barbot of Astrance, who recently won his third Michelin star, and Inaki Aizpitarte, a young Basque chef whose Le Chateaubriand is the trendiest bistro in town. The city’s list of choice hotels has lately added the Christian Lacroix–designed Hôtel du Petit Moulin in the Marais, a gem for anyone who loves boutique hotels, and the plush Park Hyatt Paris-Vendôme hotel, just steps from the Place Vendôme; and the boutique shopping scene is always evolving with new can’t-be-missed boutiques like Montaigne Market, a fashion emporium on the Avenue Montaigne.

Besides the Musée du Quai Branly, the newly reopened Musée des Arts Décoratifs, the L’Orangerie (a museum in the Tuileries that houses a series of Monet’s “Water Lilies” paintings) and the Petit Palais, this year saw the opening of the Cité de L’Architecture et du Patrimoine, Paris’s first museum devoted entirely to architecture, the reopening of the greenhouses at the Jardin des Plantes. The unveiling of the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles following a spectacular renovation is slated for this summer.