I’ve just spent a marvelous week there and I can’t possibly tell you everything I love about Paris, but for starters…

1. Beauty. Not only in the seemingly infinite number of museums (17 km of galleries in the Louvre alone), but also fountains, buildings, the Seine, window displays.
2. Butter that is always unsalted. Even in restaurants. Even on Air France.
3. Subways that have almost no graffiti and for which one seldom has to wait longer than two minutes.
4. Great tartes de framboises, aka raspberry tarts. I never had a bad one, and I sampled, um, several.
5. I feel safe walking home alone (to the Marais) at 2:30 am.
6. Amazing yogurt flavors like lychee and rhubarb rose.
7. Fabulous parks offering yellow, pink and lavender tulips amidst spacious paths and greenery; chestnut trees blooming everywhere.
8. Never having to worry about GMO foods or rBST in the milk because they don’t allow it!
9. A palpable history.
10. They let me massacre their language and for the most part, smile en route.