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2 hours
Eiffel Tower
Tour Eiffel
The Eiffel Tower was built to stand for twenty years and be taken down.
- Must see
- Historic site
- Paris
Country guide
Historic sites in France
France is 18 regions and 632,702 km2, and five of those regions are overseas - French Guiana in South America, the French West Indies, islands in the Indian and...
Photograph · Pierre Blaché · CC0
7,605
Places
1Cities
Reviewed by Elena Voss · Roavina Travel Editor
France is 18 regions and 632,702 km2, and five of those regions are overseas - French Guiana in South America, the French West Indies, islands in the Indian and Pacific oceans. Metropolitan France alone runs from the Rhine to the Atlantic and from the Mediterranean to the North Sea, so a week here is a choice rather than a circuit. Of the 69.1 million people estimated in 2026, more than 13 million are in the Paris metropolitan area, which is why the capital tends to win the first visit. The corners - Alpine, Atlantic, Mediterranean - are further from one another than the map's familiarity suggests.
Checked 2026-08-25
Cities
Every city catalogued in this country so far, ranked by how much there is to see.
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Paris
Photograph · Yann Caradec from Paris, France · CC BY-SA 2.0
Paris 7,605 places
Practical information
- Language spoken
- French
- French is the language of the Republic under Article 2 of the Constitution
- Dialling code
- +33
- The country code for metropolitan France
- 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
Top things to see
Ranked by importance — sitelinks, pageviews and heritage status, not editor preference.
Filter the list
63 places match
Category
Typical visit duration
Interests
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02 1 hourNotre-Dame de Paris
Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris
Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris is the historic cathedral on Île de la Cité, where the west façade, soaring nave, rose windows and restored liturgical spaces make the building more than a quick photograph stop.
- Must see
- Historic site
- Paris
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03 1 hr 30 minPère Lachaise Cemetery
Cimetière du Père-Lachaise
Père Lachaise is a working cemetery that became a destination because its managers marketed it.
- Must see
- Historic site
- Paris
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04 1 hourArc de Triomphe
Open daily, generally 10:00-23:00 April-September and 10:00-22:30 October-March, with Tuesday openings from 11:00; last entry is 45 minutes before closing. An accessible route serves principal lower or public areas, but stairs, historic fabric or summit routes limit the complete circuit.
- Must see
- Historic site
- Paris
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05 45 minSacré-Cœur
Basilique du Sacré-Cœur
Sacré-Cœur was built as an apology. After France lost the war of 1870, Bishop Felix Fournier proposed a church as an act of national penitence, reading the defeat as divine punishment for the country's moral decline since the Revolution.
- Must see
- Historic site
- Paris
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06 1 hr 30 minPalais 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 site
- Paris
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07 45 minSainte Chapelle
Sainte-Chapelle
Sainte-Chapelle is a reliquary the size of a building, and the relic cost more than three times what the building did.
- Must see
- Historic site
- Paris
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08 45 minavenue des Champs-Élysées
Champs Élysées
The Champs-Élysées is 1.91 km long, 70 m wide, and it is a garden path that became a shopping street. André Le Nôtre laid it out in 1667 as an extension of the Tuileries.
- Must see
- Historic site
- Paris
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09 1 hourMontparnasse Tower
Tour Montparnasse
Montparnasse Tower is a 210 m office block finished in 1973, and the reaction to it is the reason Paris has not built another skyscraper in its centre since.
- Must see
- Historic site
- Paris
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10 45 minChamp de Mars
The Champ de Mars is a parade ground that became a lawn, and the Eiffel Tower stands at one end of it.
- Must see
- Historic site
- Paris
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11 1 hourPanthéon
The Panthéon was built as a church and finished just in time to stop being one.
- Must see
- Historic site
- Paris
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12 2 hr 30 minLes Invalides
Hôtel des Invalides
Les Invalides was built to house disabled soldiers and ended up housing Napoleon. Louis XIV ordered it on 24 November 1670; Libéral Bruant and Jules Hardouin-Mansart designed it, and it was completed in 1706.
- Must see
- Historic site
- Paris
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13 20 minplace de la Concorde
Place de la Concorde
The Place de la Concorde is a 7.6-hectare traffic island that was once the busiest execution ground in Europe. It is the largest public square in Paris.
- Must see
- Historic site
- Paris
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14 45 minGrand Mosque of Paris
Grande Mosquée de Paris
The Grand Mosque of Paris opened in 1926 as France's thanks to its Muslim soldiers, and it remains the city's central mosque a century later.
- Must see
- Historic site
- Paris
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15 45 minPalais-Royal
Palais Royal
The Palais-Royal was a cardinal's house that became Europe's first shopping centre and then the place the Revolution started. Jacques Lemercier built it for Cardinal Richelieu between 1633 and 1639 as the Palais-Cardinal.
- Must see
- Historic site
- Paris
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16 2 hoursHôtel 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 site
- Paris
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17 20 minBastille
Ruines de la Bastille
The Bastille is a square where a prison used to be, and the prison held seven people on the day it was stormed.
- Must see
- Historic site
- Paris
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18 1 hr 30 minNational 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 site
- Paris
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19 1 hr 30 minÉlysée 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 site
- Paris
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20 20 minLuxembourg Palace
Palais du Luxembourg
The Luxembourg Palace is the French Senate, and it was built because a widowed queen was homesick for Florence.
- Must see
- Historic site
- Paris
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21 20 minLouvre Pyramid
Pyramide du Louvre
The Louvre Pyramid is the glass entrance structure built in the museum's main courtyard in the 1980s, and it is a part of the Louvre — its main entrance and one of the more argued-over additions to central Paris …
- Must see
- Historic site
- Paris
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22 1 hourUniversity of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne
Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - Centre Sorbonne
Behind the gate at Place de la Sorbonne sits a university with a name older than most nations: Robert de Sorbon founded a theology college here in 1257 under the patronage of Louis IX, and the word "Sorbonne" has meant…
- Must see
- Historic site
- Paris
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23 30 minLa Madeleine
Église de la Madeleine
La Madeleine is a Greek temple in the middle of Paris, and it took seventy-nine years and several changes of mind to finish.
- Must see
- Historic site
- Paris
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24 20 minplace Vendôme
Place Vendôme
Place Vendôme is an octagon of uniform stone façades built as a single architectural composition, not a collection of separate buildings that happened to end up on the same square.
- Must see
- Historic site
- Paris
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25 20 minPont Neuf
The Pont Neuf is the New Bridge and it is the oldest standing bridge in Paris, which has been the joke about it for four hundred years.
- Must see
- Historic site
- Paris
Common questions
How long should a first trip to France be?
Ten to fourteen days supports four or five days in Paris plus one coherent regional direction, such as Lyon, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, or Marseille. Avoid routing every extension back through Paris, because even fast TGV journeys leave local connection time at each end.
What entry documents are needed for France?
France applies Schengen entry rules, but the required passport validity or visa still depends on nationality and route. France-Visas is the official place to verify the exact requirement before booking and again before entering from outside Schengen.
What is the best way to travel around France?
TGV trains join France's largest cities, while TER services handle regional links and many rural areas still favour a car. Long-distance reservations may be mandatory, and each city retains its own urban ticket system rather than accepting one national visitor card.
When is a practical time to visit France?
April to June and September to October suit the Paris-plus-region route described here. Alpine access, Mediterranean heat, Atlantic weather, and rural seasonal services differ enough that the selected second region should determine the final dates.
What money and payment basics apply in France?
France uses the euro (EUR). Bank cards are common, yet a small euro reserve remains useful for markets or local machines; confirm any terminal conversion choice before accepting it because this page does not record changing fees.
What practical safety details should I save for France?
For urgent help anywhere in France, call 112; medical emergencies also use 15 and police matters 17. The electrical standard is 230 V with Type C and E plugs. This dataset has no recorded national tap-water finding, so consult the municipality or lodging for the specific stop.