French Finesse

Add a bit of flair to meetings with clients in Paris.

- Katie Mcelveen

AWASH IN HAUTE-COUTURE FLAIR, world-famous restaurants, revelatory museums and iconic sites, Paris is widely regarded as one of the most magnificent cities in the world. But there’s more to Paris than beauty and culture: This hard-working French capital generates more than 30 percent of France’s gross domestic product through businesses representing a wide range of industry sectors that include pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, aeronautics and digital systems. Paris also hosts 27 Top 500 corporate headquarters — more than any other city in Europe — and boasts the fifth-largest urban economy in the world.

For business travelers, this means everything you need to do your job — a strong transportation network, a choice of locations for business entertaining and meetings, loads of lodging options and a workforce comfortable with international business representatives — is at your fingertips.

Start with transport. Two large international airports make Paris accessible from anywhere in the world; RER trains, an easy-to-navigate subway system — the Metro — and legions of taxis have you in town less than an hour after clearing immigration.