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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
Country guide
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 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.
Reviewed by Elena Voss · Roavina Travel Editor
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
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
Planning a visit
- Seasonal closure recorded
- No data recorded for this month
- The current month
- January: seasonal closure recorded
- February: seasonal closure recorded
- March: seasonal closure recorded
- April: seasonal closure recorded
- May: seasonal closure recorded
- June: seasonal closure recorded
- July: seasonal closure recorded
- August: seasonal closure recorded
- September: no seasonality data recorded — this month
- October: seasonal closure recorded
- November: seasonal closure recorded
- December: seasonal closure recorded
Top things to see
Ranked by importance — sitelinks, pageviews and heritage status, not editor preference.
Filter the list
54 places match
54 places match
Category
Typical visit duration
Interests
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02 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 monument
- Paris
-
03 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 monument
- Paris
-
04 2 hoursGrand 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
-
05 1 hr 15 minConciergerie
The Conciergerie was a royal palace before it was a prison, and the prison is what everyone remembers.
- Must see
- Museum
- Paris
-
06 1 hr 30 minPetit 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
-
07 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 monument
- Paris
-
08 2 hoursCentre Georges Pompidou
The Centre Pompidou is a building turned inside out, and it is closed until 2030.
- Must see
- Museum
- Paris
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09 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 monument
- Paris
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10 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 monument
- Paris
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11 2 hoursMusée 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
-
12 1 hr 30 minChâteau 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
-
13 2 hoursbois 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
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14 2 hoursMoulin 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
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15 2 hoursBois 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
-
16 1 hr 30 minOpéra 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
-
17 1 hr 30 minMusée 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
-
18 2 hoursMusée 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
-
19 2 hoursMusée 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
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20 1 hr 15 minMusée 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
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21 1 hr 30 minMusée 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
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22 1 hr 30 minMusée 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
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23 1 hr 30 minBourse 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
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24 2 hoursLouis 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
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25 1 hr 30 minMusée Grévin
Musée Grévin is a wax museum on Boulevard Montmartre, opened in 1882.
- High
- Museum
- Paris
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26 1 hr 15 minJardin 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
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27 1 hr 15 minGalerie 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
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28 1 hr 30 minPalais 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
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29 2 hoursGuimet 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
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30 1 hr 30 minPalais 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
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31 1 hr 30 minMusée Jacquemart-André
Musée Jacquemart-André is a Paris museum housed in the former private mansion of Édouard André and Nélie Jacquemart.
- High
- Museum
- Paris
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32 2 hoursAquarium 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
-
33 2 hoursMusée 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
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34 1 hr 30 minMusée 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
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35 2 hoursMuséum 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
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36 1 hr 30 minMusée 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
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37 1 hr 30 minparc 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
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38 1 hr 30 minMusée Zadkine
- Must see
- Museum
- Paris
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39 1 hr 30 minFondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain
- Must see
- Museum
- Paris
-
40 1 hr 30 minMusée des Plans-Reliefs
- Must see
- Museum
- Paris
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41 1 hr 30 minHenri Cartier-Bresson Foundation
Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson
- High
- Museum
- Paris
-
42 1 hr 30 minMusée de la Légion d'honneur
Musée de la Légion d'Honneur et des Ordres de Chevalerie
- High
- Museum
- Paris
-
43 1 hr 30 minMusée 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
-
44 1 hr 30 minMundolingua
- High
- Museum
- Paris
-
UGC Gobelins 45 2 hoursUGC Gobelins
UGC
- Notable
- Entertainment venue
- Paris
-
46 2 hoursChristine Cinéma Club
- Notable
- Entertainment venue
- Paris
-
47 2 hoursCinéma Mac-Mahon
Cinema Mac Mahon
- Notable
- Entertainment venue
- Paris
-
Entrepot 48 2 hoursEntrepot
L'Entrepôt (Cinéma)
- Notable
- Entertainment venue
- Paris
-
49 2 hoursBalajo
Le Balajo
- Notable
- Nightlife venue
- Paris
-
Bolmi Café 50 2 hoursBolmi Café
- Notable
- Nightlife venue
- Paris
-
Capitole Café - Brasserie 51 2 hoursCapitole Café - Brasserie
- Notable
- Nightlife venue
- Paris
-
Ekinox 52 2 hoursEkinox
- Notable
- Nightlife venue
- Paris
-
La Chope Des Compagnons 53 2 hoursLa Chope Des Compagnons
- Notable
- Nightlife venue
- Paris
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Le Chien Andalou 54 2 hoursLe Chien Andalou
- Notable
- Nightlife venue
- Paris
Source: OpenStreetMap contributors, Wikidata ·
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.