Having visted Paris on 10+ occasions it's fair to say it's one of my favorite cities. However I can see how this can happen. The more knowledge you have about the city the better your visit.

It's easy to book a bad hotel, it's easy to get lost amid the irregular street patterns and hard to find someone to give directions, it's easy to head into bad neighborhoods & get drawn into scams. It's also very easy to not know any French & think you'll get by.

These are all things that can be avoided by an hour of research or alternatively traveling with someone that has been before or on a tour that has a guide.

There are so many small tips & tricks that go into experiencing Paris properly. Having arranged visits for many friends & family it CAN be as magical as you'd expect it to be.