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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...
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
Planning a visit
Seasonal closures come from recorded opening hours.
- 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
- Seasonal closure recorded
- No data recorded for this month
- The current month
Top things to see
Ranked by importance — sitelinks, pageviews and heritage status, not editor preference.
Filter the list
185 places match
Category
Typical visit duration
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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 monument
- Paris
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03 3 hoursLouvre Museum
Musée du Louvre
The Louvre is the most-visited art museum on earth and it was a fortress before it was anything else.
- Must see
- Museum
- Paris
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04 3 hoursMusée d'Orsay
The Musée d'Orsay is a railway station that outlived its trains. The Gare d'Orsay was built between 1898 and 1900 on the Left Bank for the Exposition Universelle, by Lucien Magne, Émile Bénard and Victor Laloux, in full Beaux-Arts dress.
- Must see
- Museum
- Paris
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05 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
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06 1 hourSeine river cruise from the Eiffel Tower
An hour on the Seine is the one piece of organised sightseeing in Paris that earns its place in a self-planned trip.
- Must see
- Activity
- Paris
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07 1 hourArc de Triomphe
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
- Historic monument
- Paris
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08 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 monument
- Paris
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09 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
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10 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 monument
- Paris
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11 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 monument
- Paris
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12 1 hourCatacombs of Paris
Catacombes de Paris
The Catacombs of Paris hold roughly six million people in a former limestone quarry, moved there because the city's cemeteries had run out of room.
- Must see
- Museum
- Paris
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13 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 monument
- Paris
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14 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 monument
- Paris
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15 1 hourPanthéon
The Panthéon was built as a church and finished just in time to stop being one.
- Must see
- Historic monument
- Paris
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16 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 monument
- Paris
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17 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 monument
- Paris
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18 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
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19 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 monument
- Paris
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20 1 hourTuileries Garden
Jardin des Tuileries
The Tuileries is the first royal garden in Europe that let the public in, and it has outlived the palace it was built for. Catherine de' Medici created it in 1564.
- Must see
- Nature site
- Paris
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21 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
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22 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
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23 1 hourJardin du Luxembourg
The Jardin du Luxembourg is a 23-hectare formal garden on the Left Bank, laid out from 1612 for a queen who wanted a Florentine garden in Paris and built by the French Senate, which still owns the palace at its…
- Must see
- Nature site
- Paris
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24 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 monument
- Paris
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25 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
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.