I mean I love Paris but I don't get on that Paris is the end all and be all city you must see. It's as great as many others.
The one thing I will say about Paris is that it's eclectic. If you've seen one major city you've seen them all. I think I've been to at least 50 around the world. They are all more or less the same in terms of offerings.
Paris is prob one of the more interesting ones because you get many different neighborhoods and they are very very interesting, each one. As much as I love Shanghai, Rome, Vienna and SF, SD - I can't really say the same. Ditto Amsterdam or Geneva, Milan, etc. Chicago and NYC on a much smaller scale perhaps is what I'm talking about. Maybe LA. The diversity in neighborhoods is real. I can't explain it. You have to be really into loving metro cities to appreciate Paris. Tokyo and HK are in the same vein as Paris though.
That said, I don't ever plan on taking my kids there in a family vacation. We are more the Hawaiian Islands, Beijing, Sicily, Tokyo, Croatia, hopping Greek Isles type. They would enjoy S France incl Aix/Nice, Normandy/N France better than Paris.
I would add that as someone who has been to Paris prob 10x, every time I go, I dislike it a little more, sadly.
