Time seems to stand still in Paris. You feel the desire to sit and watch as life unfolds around you. My first trip abroad was when I turned 16 and was a week in Paris, France in February 2002. It was a family trip, my mother had found insanely low vacation package that included pretty much everything (air, hotel, river cruise, museum passes, metro passes, etc) for around $700 per person. This was a few months after September 11th, 2001 and the world, including the travel industry was still reeling from the effects and that is why the package was so cheap.