18th Arrondissement - Montmartre: Paris

Everyone has their opinions about what to see first in Paris, the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, blah blah. Forget it. Get off the plane and go to Montmartre --one of the neighborhoods of the 18th arrondissement, an 'outer' arrondissements of this little escargot known by the locals as 'Paname.' This arrondissement, the center of Bohemian romantic life, the setting for Buz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge and of the Les fabuleux déstin d'Amélie Poulain (Amelie) has everything. Great food at good prices, French Chanson, art, tacky sketch artists, charm, vulgarity, shops, monuments, class, and if you don't want it -- you can find no class.  The 18th is where you will find spectacular Sacre Coeur, the Musee Dali, winding hills, vulgar and cheap souvenirs to take home to people you don't like so much anyway, Moulin Rouge, Pigalle – everything that is great about Paris. Though it is no longer home to as many artists and bohemians as it once (they have moved to Montreuil a neighborhood to the East of Paris) and even though the bourgeoise and their money has flooded in, there is little that can be done to erase the charm of this neighborhood... gentrified or not.