13. Paris, France.

Paris is the cosmopolitan capital of France. It has the reputation of being the most beautiful and romantic of all cities. Paris also brimming with historic associations and remaining vastly influential in the realms of culture, art, fashion, food and design. Besides that, dubbed the City of Light (la Ville Lumière) and Capital of Fashion which it is home to the world's finest and most luxorious fashion designers and cosmetics, such as Chanel, Christian Dior, Yves Saint-Laurent, Guerlain, Lancôme, L'Oréal, Clarins, and others.

A large part of the city including the River Seine, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city has the second highest number of Michelin-restaurants in the world (after Tokyo) and contains numerous iconic landmarks, such as the world's most visited tourist sight the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, the Notre-Dame Cathedral, the Louvre Museum, Moulin Rouge, Lido etc, making it the most popular tourist destination in the world with 45 million tourists annually.

It's hard to find words to do justice to Paris, although visitors and travel writers have certainly tried. The capital of France for 1,000 years, Paris is simply the city against which all others are measured. Sophisticated, stylish, romantic, gastronomic, cosmopolitan the list goes on.

The city's people are stylish and flirtatious, its architecture seductive, its restaurants and nightlife devoted to the pursuit of pleasure and its streets are scattered with dreams.

The iconic views from the Eiffel Tower or Sacré Coeur reveal hundreds of attractions for the snap happy visitor, while mime artists and character painters dwell in the tourist crowds.