Essentials: Paris

1. Paris is a bustling metropolis and tourist mecca with world-famous crowded streets and busy intersections such as Place Charles de Gaulle with the Arc de Triomphe at its center. So it’s incredibly hard to believe that Paris doesn’t have a single STOP sign on its streets. Not one, none, nada. Parisians follow the ""right of way"" rule – and it works!

2. From baguette to Bocuse: Its famous cuisine is one of the many great things that Paris is loved for around the world. No wonder it is home to the second-largest wholesale food market on the planet. The Rungis International Market has been trading since the 10th century. Roughly two million tons of meat, vegetables, fish, and cheese are sold there each year.

3. The first Bloody Mary is said to have been prepared at the Ritz Hotel in Paris. Rumor has it that this popular cocktail was created for the famous writer Ernest Hemingway. He asked for a drink that didn’t smell like alcohol. As a result, he was served tomato juice with vodka. 

4. Since the French patisserie Ladurée opened its stores around the globe, the macaron has become an icon of French cuisine. But get this – the macaron isn’t French! It is of Arabic origin and found its way to Italy before being introduced to the French royal family by Catherine de' Medici in the 16th century.

5. The Eiffel Tower dominates the Parisian skyline like no other building in the city. To keep the 300-meter-high structure in good shape, it has to be repainted every seven years – by hand! This involves the use of 60 tons of paint.