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City guide · France

Paris

A photograph of Paris
Photograph · Yann Caradec from Paris, France · CC BY-SA 2.0

Paris is 105.4 km² holding 2,047,602 people, wrapped in twenty arrondissements that spiral outward from the Louvre. Almost everything a visitor comes for is inside that spiral, and most of it is walkable. The Seine cuts the city in two and everything is described in relation to it. The Right Bank to the north holds the commerce and the great institutions; the Left Bank to the south holds the universities and the bookshops. Between them the Île de la Cité and the Île Saint-Louis are where the city started.

Reviewed by Elena Voss · Roavina Travel Editor

Practical information
Language spoken
French
French is the language of the Republic under Article 2 of the Constitution
Dialling code
+33 1
Paris and the Île-de-France; drop the leading 0 of 01 when calling from abroad
Currency
Euro (€, EUR)
France has used the euro as its official currency since 2002
Emergency number
112
One number across the country; 15 reaches an ambulance directly
Plug type
Type E · 220 V
Round-pin sockets use a projecting earth pin
Tap water
Safe to drink
The health ministry says tap water may be consumed safely unless local authorities issue specific advice

Turn this list into a plan

Set your days, your pace and the hours you actually want to be out. The planner works around closing days and travel time, and leaves room to eat.

Plan Paris

Planning a visit

Suggested stay
4–5 days
Getting around
Métro and on foot
  1. January: viable with meaningful trade-offs
  2. February: viable with meaningful trade-offs
  3. March: good time to visit
  4. April: good time to visit
  5. May: best time to visit
  6. June: best time to visit
  7. July: best time to visit
  8. August: best time to visit
  9. September: best time to visit — current month
  10. October: good time to visit
  11. November: viable with meaningful trade-offs
  12. December: viable with meaningful trade-offs
  • Best time
  • Good time
  • Viable with trade-offs
  • Difficult conditions

Sources

Top things to see

Ranked by importance — sitelinks, pageviews and heritage status, not editor preference.

Filter the list

54 places match
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Category

Historic monuments 9 Museums 29 Places of worship 0 Nature sites 3 Viewpoints 0 Food and drink 0 Markets and shopping 0 Entertainment 4 Nightlife 6 Family attractions 1 Art and culture 2 Activities 0

Typical visit duration

Up to 1 hour 123 1 to 2 hours 54 Half a day or more 8

Interests

History 38 Art 2 Museums 31 Nature 3 Sea and beach 3 Viewpoints 0
  1. Eiffel Tower Eiffel Tower
    01 2 hours

    Eiffel Tower

    Tour Eiffel

    The Eiffel Tower was built to stand for twenty years and be taken down.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Paris 7e Arrondissement
  2. Père Lachaise Cemetery Père Lachaise Cemetery
    02 1 hr 30 min

    Père Lachaise Cemetery

    Cimetière du Père-Lachaise

    Père Lachaise is a working cemetery that became a destination because its managers marketed it.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Paris 20e Arrondissement
  3. Palais Garnier Palais Garnier
    03 1 hr 30 min

    Palais Garnier

    Opéra Garnier

    The Palais Garnier is what Napoleon III's Paris looked like when it stopped pretending to be restrained. He commissioned it in 1861, Charles Garnier won the competition, and it was built from 1861 to 1875, opening on 5 January 1875.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Paris 9e Arrondissement
  4. Grand Palais Grand Palais
    04 2 hours

    Grand Palais

    Treat the what it is details as provisional when arranging this stop in Paris. Keep enough flexibility to move the visit within the same area if current conditions differ from the plan.

    • Must see
    • Museum
    • Paris 8e Arrondissement
  5. Conciergerie Conciergerie
    05 1 hr 15 min

    Conciergerie

    The Conciergerie was a royal palace before it was a prison, and the prison is what everyone remembers.

    • Must see
    • Museum
    • Paris 1er Arrondissement
  6. Petit Palais Petit Palais
    06 1 hr 30 min

    Petit Palais

    Petit Palais, Musée des beaux-arts de la Ville de Paris

    The Petit Palais was built for the 1900 World's Fair as an exhibition hall and has held the City of Paris's fine arts museum ever since.

    • Must see
    • Museum
    • Paris 8e Arrondissement
  7. Hôtel de la Marine Hôtel de la Marine
    07 2 hours

    Hôtel de la Marine

    Hôtel de la Marine is a paid-ticket monument on Place de la Concorde, one of a matching pair of colonnaded palaces — its twin across the square today houses the Hôtel de Crillon — built between 1758 and 1774 to…

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Paris 8e Arrondissement
  8. Centre Georges Pompidou Centre Georges Pompidou
    08 2 hours

    Centre Georges Pompidou

    The Centre Pompidou is a building turned inside out, and it is closed until 2030.

    • Must see
    • Museum
    • Paris 4e Arrondissement
  9. National Assembly National Assembly
    09 1 hr 30 min

    National Assembly

    Assemblée nationale

    The Palais Bourbon is where the National Assembly, the lower house of the French parliament, has sat since the Revolution turned a princess's private mansion into the seat of the republic's elected chamber.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Paris 7e Arrondissement
  10. Élysée Palace Élysée Palace
    10 1 hr 30 min

    Élysée Palace

    Palais de l'Élysée

    The Élysée Palace is where the President of France lives and works, and it is closed to visitors for all but one weekend a year.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Paris 8e Arrondissement
  11. Musée des Arts et Métiers Musée des Arts et Métiers
    11 2 hours

    Musée des Arts et Métiers

    The Musée des Arts et Métiers is Europe's oldest technology museum, founded in 1794 to collect and preserve the machines and instruments of French industry, and it has occupied a former medieval priory ever since.

    • Must see
    • Museum
    • Paris 3e Arrondissement
  12. Château de Vincennes Château de Vincennes
    12 1 hr 30 min

    Château de Vincennes

    Château de Vincennes is a medieval fortress on the eastern edge of Paris, beside the Bois de Vincennes.

    • Must see
    • Historic monument
    • Paris 12e Arrondissement
  13. bois de Boulogne bois de Boulogne
    13 2 hours

    bois de Boulogne

    Bois de Boulogne

    The Bois de Boulogne is a former royal hunting forest turned into an English-style public park, and at 846 hectares it covers more than double the area of New York's Central Park.

    • Must see
    • Nature site
    • Paris 16e Arrondissement
  14. Moulin Rouge Moulin Rouge
    14 2 hours

    Moulin Rouge

    Moulin Rouge is the famous cabaret on Boulevard de Clichy in Pigalle, at the southern foot of Montmartre. Its illuminated red windmill marks a venue closely associated with the French cancan and Parisian nightlife.

    • Must see
    • Art and culture venue
    • Paris 18e Arrondissement
  15. Bois de Vincennes Bois de Vincennes
    15 2 hours

    Bois de Vincennes

    At roughly 995 hectares, the Bois de Vincennes is the largest public park inside Paris, wrapping the eastern edge of the 12th arrondissement.

    • Must see
    • Nature site
    • Paris 12e Arrondissement
  16. Opéra Bastille Opéra Bastille
    16 1 hr 30 min

    Opéra Bastille

    Opéra Bastille opened on 13 July 1989, timed to the bicentenary of the storming of the Bastille prison, on the footprint of the old Bastille railway station at Place de la Bastille.

    • Must see
    • Art and culture venue
    • Paris 12e Arrondissement
  17. Musée d'art moderne de Paris Musée d'art moderne de Paris
    17 1 hr 30 min

    Musée d'art moderne de Paris

    Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris

    Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris is the city of Paris's own museum of modern art, occupying the east wing of the Palais de Tokyo on Avenue du Président Wilson.

    • Must see
    • Museum
    • Paris 16e Arrondissement
  18. Musée Rodin Musée Rodin
    18 2 hours

    Musée Rodin

    The Musee Rodin occupies the Hotel Biron, an eighteenth-century mansion on Rue de Varenne in the 7th arrondissement that had already passed through use as a convent school before the state let it out cheaply as artists' studios in the…

    • Must see
    • Museum
    • Paris 7e Arrondissement
  19. Musée du quai Branly Musée du quai Branly
    19 2 hours

    Musée du quai Branly

    The Musee du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac gathers non-Western art and material culture from Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas under one roof, a collection that had previously been split between the ethnographic Musee de l'Homme and the Musee…

    • Must see
    • Museum
    • Paris 7e Arrondissement
  20. Musée de l'Orangerie Musée de l'Orangerie
    20 1 hr 15 min

    Musée de l'Orangerie

    The Musee de l'Orangerie sits at the western end of the Tuileries Garden, in a building put up in 1852 under Napoleon III to overwinter the garden's orange trees, a purely functional greenhouse rather than a building meant to be…

    • Must see
    • Museum
    • Paris 1er Arrondissement
  21. Musée Marmottan Monet Musée Marmottan Monet
    21 1 hr 30 min

    Musée Marmottan Monet

    The Musee Marmottan Monet occupies a former hunting lodge built for the Duke of Valmy on the edge of the Bois de Boulogne, bought in the late nineteenth century by the businessman Jules Marmottan and later expanded by his son…

    • Must see
    • Museum
    • Paris 16e Arrondissement
  22. Musée Picasso Musée Picasso
    22 1 hr 30 min

    Musée Picasso

    Musée national Picasso-Paris

    The Musee Picasso occupies the Hotel Sale, a seventeenth-century mansion in the Marais built in the 1650s for Pierre Aubert de Fontenay, a salt-tax collector whose unpopular trade gave the building its nickname, sale meaning salted.

    • High
    • Museum
    • Paris 3e Arrondissement
  23. Bourse de commerce Bourse de commerce
    23 1 hr 30 min

    Bourse de commerce

    Bourse de Commerce

    The Bourse de Commerce is a Paris contemporary art museum housed in a historic circular building near Les Halles and the Louvre district.

    • High
    • Museum
    • Paris 1er Arrondissement
  24. Louis Vuitton Foundation Louis Vuitton Foundation
    24 2 hours

    Louis Vuitton Foundation

    Fondation Louis Vuitton

    The Fondation Louis Vuitton is a contemporary art museum in the Bois de Boulogne, commissioned by Bernard Arnault, chairman of the luxury group LVMH, and designed by the American architect Frank Gehry.

    • High
    • Museum
    • Paris 16e Arrondissement
  25. Musée Grévin Musée Grévin
    25 1 hr 30 min

    Musée Grévin

    Musée Grévin is a wax museum on Boulevard Montmartre, opened in 1882.

    • High
    • Museum
    • Paris 9e Arrondissement
  26. Jardin des plantes Jardin des plantes
    26 1 hr 15 min

    Jardin des plantes

    Jardin des Plantes

    The Jardin des plantes is Paris's main botanical garden and the founding site of the Museum national d'Histoire naturelle, on the Left Bank in the 5th arrondissement, between the Seine and the Austerlitz rail yards.

    • High
    • Historic monument
    • Paris 5e Arrondissement
  27. Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume
    27 1 hr 15 min

    Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume

    Jeu de Paume

    The Jeu de Paume is a photography and moving-image gallery in the Tuileries Garden's north-west corner, in a building constructed in 1861 as a court for jeu de paume, the indoor precursor of tennis played by Napoleon III's court.

    • High
    • Museum
    • Paris 1er Arrondissement
  28. Palais Bourbon Palais Bourbon
    28 1 hr 30 min

    Palais Bourbon

    The Palais Bourbon, on the Left Bank facing Place de la Concorde across the Seine, is the seat of the French National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament — a working legislature, not a former palace turned museum.

    • High
    • Historic monument
    • Paris 7e Arrondissement
  29. Guimet Museum Guimet Museum
    29 2 hours

    Guimet Museum

    Musée Guimet

    The Musee national des Arts asiatiques - Guimet holds the largest collection of Asian art outside Asia itself, spanning Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Tibet, China, Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia in one national museum.

    • High
    • Museum
    • Paris 16e Arrondissement
  30. Palais de Tokyo Palais de Tokyo
    30 1 hr 30 min

    Palais de Tokyo

    The Palais de Tokyo is Paris's largest centre for contemporary art, occupying the eastern wing of a building raised for the 1937 International Exposition by architects Jean-Claude Dondel, Andre Aubert, Paul Viard and Marcel Dastugue.

    • High
    • Museum
    • Paris 16e Arrondissement
  31. Musée Jacquemart-André Musée Jacquemart-André
    31 1 hr 30 min

    Musée Jacquemart-André

    Musée Jacquemart-André is a Paris museum housed in the former private mansion of Édouard André and Nélie Jacquemart.

    • High
    • Museum
    • Paris 8e Arrondissement
  32. Aquarium de Paris Aquarium de Paris
    32 2 hours

    Aquarium de Paris

    Aquarium de Paris - Cinéaqua

    Aquarium de Paris occupies the old quarry tunnels beneath the Trocadero hill, first opened as the Aquarium du Trocadero for the 1878 Exposition Universelle, one of the earliest public aquariums built in France.

    • Notable
    • Family attraction
    • Paris 16e Arrondissement
  33. Musée Carnavalet Musée Carnavalet
    33 2 hours

    Musée Carnavalet

    Musee Carnavalet is the museum of the history of Paris, occupying two adjoining Marais mansions: the Hotel Carnavalet, built in the 16th century and remodelled by Francois Mansart in 1655, and the neighbouring Hotel Le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau.

    • Notable
    • Museum
    • Paris 3e Arrondissement
  34. Musée de Cluny Musée de Cluny
    34 1 hr 30 min

    Musée de Cluny

    Musée de Cluny, formally the Musée national du Moyen Âge, brings together Roman archaeology, a late-medieval residence and medieval art in one compact Latin Quarter site.

    • Notable
    • Museum
    • Paris 5e Arrondissement
  35. Muséum national d'histoire naturelle Muséum national d'histoire naturelle
    35 2 hours

    Muséum national d'histoire naturelle

    The Museum national d'histoire naturelle is France's national natural history museum, founded in 1793 out of the royal Jardin du Roi, and it occupies several linked sites across the Jardin des Plantes in the 5th arrondissement.

    • Notable
    • Museum
    • Paris 5e Arrondissement
  36. Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme
    36 1 hr 30 min

    Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme

    The Musee d'art et d'histoire du Judaisme, known as the MAHJ, is France's museum of Jewish art and history, opened in 1998 in the Hotel de Saint-Aignan, a 17th-century mansion in the Marais, 3rd arrondissement.

    • Notable
    • Museum
    • Paris 3e Arrondissement
  37. parc de la Villette parc de la Villette
    37 1 hr 30 min

    parc de la Villette

    Parc de la Villette

    Parc de la Villette occupies the site of the huge Paris abattoirs and wholesale meat market that Napoleon III had built here in 1867 and that were finally cleared away in 1974, leaving 55.5 hectares of northeastern Paris to redevelop.

    • Notable
    • Nature site
    • Paris 19e Arrondissement
  38. Musée Zadkine Musée Zadkine
    38 1 hr 30 min

    Musée Zadkine

    • Must see
    • Museum
    • Paris 6e Arrondissement
  42. Musée de la Légion d'honneur Musée de la Légion d'honneur
    42 1 hr 30 min

    Musée de la Légion d'honneur

    Musée de la Légion d'Honneur et des Ordres de Chevalerie

    • High
    • Museum
    • Paris 7e Arrondissement
  43. Musée Boleslas Biegas Musée Boleslas Biegas
    43 1 hr 30 min

    Musée Boleslas Biegas

    Musée Bolesław Biegas is an exhibition devoted to the Polish sculptor, painter, playwright and essayist Bolesław Biegas, who lived from 1877 to 1954.

    • High
    • Museum
    • Paris 4e Arrondissement
  44. Mundolingua Mundolingua
    44 1 hr 30 min

    Mundolingua

    • High
    • Museum
    • Paris 6e Arrondissement
  45. UGC Gobelins
    45 2 hours

    UGC Gobelins

    UGC

    • Notable
    • Entertainment venue
    • Paris 13e Arrondissement
  47. Cinéma Mac-Mahon Cinéma Mac-Mahon
    47 2 hours

    Cinéma Mac-Mahon

    Cinema Mac Mahon

    • Notable
    • Entertainment venue
    • Paris 17e Arrondissement
  48. Entrepot
    48 2 hours

    Entrepot

    L'Entrepôt (Cinéma)

    • Notable
    • Entertainment venue
    • Paris 14e Arrondissement
  49. Balajo Balajo
    49 2 hours

    Balajo

    Le Balajo

    • Notable
    • Nightlife venue
    • Paris 11e Arrondissement
  50. Bolmi Café
    50 2 hours

    Bolmi Café

    • Notable
    • Nightlife venue
    • Paris 12e Arrondissement
  52. Ekinox
    52 2 hours

    Ekinox

    • Notable
    • Nightlife venue
    • Paris 6e Arrondissement
  54. Le Chien Andalou
    54 2 hours

    Le Chien Andalou

    • Notable
    • Nightlife venue
    • Paris 6e Arrondissement

Source: OpenStreetMap contributors, Wikidata ·

More city guides

Where to base yourself

District boundaries come from OSM administrative relations, so a district page holds exactly the places inside it — plus, for the islands and the coast, the nearest district by proximity.

How the city is laid out

The arrondissements spiral clockwise from the centre: the 1st sits at the Louvre and the Île de la Cité, and the numbers wind outward to the 20th. Learning that shape is the single most useful thing a first-time visitor can do, because every address in the city carries its arrondissement and the number tells you roughly where you are.

The Right Bank — north of the Seine — is the 1st through 4th at the centre, then the grand avenues of the 8th and 16th to the west and Montmartre in the 18th to the north. The Louvre, the Champs-Élysées, the Opéra and Sacré-Cœur are all Right Bank.

The Left Bank — south — is the 5th, 6th and 7th: the Latin Quarter, Saint-Germain, the Panthéon, the Musée d'Orsay and the Eiffel Tower. It is the older-feeling half and the one with the bookshops.

The Périphérique, completed in 1973, rings the whole of it. Inside is Paris; outside is the metropolitan area of 13,320,752 people across 18,940.7 km², which is a different thing.

Checked 2026-08-23

Getting around

The Métro, and then walking. Paris is small enough that the two together cover everything.

The Métro opened on 19 July 1900 during the World's Fair and now runs 16 lines — numbered 1 to 14 plus 3bis and 7bis — across 321 stations, 61 of which are interchanges. Stations sit 548 m apart on average, which is why a Métro journey of two stops is usually a walk. It carries 1.523 billion passengers a year, 4.17 million a day.

The RER extends further out into the suburbs and is what takes you to the airports and to Versailles. Châtelet–Les Halles, where five Métro lines meet three RER lines, is the largest interchange and the one to avoid at rush hour.

Single tickets and multi-use passes are both sold, and the Navigo Easy card is the contactless option.

Checked 2026-08-23

Common questions

How many days does Paris need?

Four to five. Three days covers the central monuments — the Louvre, Notre-Dame, the Eiffel Tower, the Champs-Élysées — at a pace that is not punishing. A fourth adds a proper museum day, and a fifth adds Montmartre or a day out at Versailles.

How do the arrondissements work?

They spiral clockwise from the centre. The 1st is at the Louvre and the Île de la Cité and the numbers wind outward to the 20th. Every Paris address carries its arrondissement, so the number tells you roughly where something is.

What is the difference between the Right Bank and the Left Bank?

The Seine. The Right Bank to the north holds the commerce and the great institutions — the Louvre, the Champs-Élysées, the Opéra, Montmartre. The Left Bank to the south holds the universities, the Latin Quarter, the Panthéon, the Musée d'Orsay and the Eiffel Tower.

Is the Métro the best way around?

For anything over a kilometre, yes. It opened on 19 July 1900 and runs 16 lines across 321 stations, with stations 548 m apart on average — which means a two-stop journey is usually faster on foot.

When is the best time to come?

April to June and September to October. August is when Parisians leave and tourists arrive, which is the worst of both — shuttered restaurants and full museums.

How big is Paris really?

The city proper is 105.4 km² with 2,047,602 people, ringed by the Périphérique completed in 1973. The metropolitan area outside it holds 13,320,752 people across 18,940.7 km².