Paris

The city began on an island. A Celtic people, the Parisii, lived along the Seine, and after the Roman conquest in the first century BC the town of Lutetia grew on the left bank, on the slope of what is now the Latin Quarter. You can still see Roman baths at the Cluny museum and the arena in the Rue Monge area. In the third and fourth centuries the town shrank back onto the Île de la Cité, which was easier to defend, and it took the name Paris.

Paris became a royal seat under the Capetian kings from the late tenth century. By the 12th century it was the largest city in northern Europe and a centre of learning: the schools on the left bank grew into the University of Paris, and Notre-Dame was begun around 1163. Philippe Auguste built a wall around both banks and the first Louvre, a fortress on the western edge, around 1190. Sainte-Chapelle followed in the 1240s under Louis IX to house relics.

The 16th and 17th centuries were shaped by kings who wanted to show power in stone. Henri IV built the Pont Neuf and the Place des Vosges, then called Place Royale, which set the model for a planned square with uniform brick and stone facades. Louis XIV moved the court to Versailles in 1682, which left Paris with palaces but without the king, and made it a city of salons, theatres and cafés.

The Revolution began here in 1789 with the fall of the Bastille, and the city stayed at the centre of French politics through 1830, 1848 and the Commune of 1871. Napoleon III then hired Baron Haussmann, who from 1853 cut wide boulevards through the medieval fabric, built sewers, parks and railway stations, and standardised building heights. The Eiffel Tower went up for the 1889 World's Fair and was meant to be temporary.

In the 20th century the city added the metro (first line 1900), survived occupation from June 1940 to August 1944 without being destroyed, and built the towers of La Défense and the Pompidou Centre in the 1970s. The 2019 fire at Notre-Dame led to a five-year restoration and reopening in December 2024. Today the city proper has about 2.1 million residents in 20 arrondissements, and about 12 million people live in the wider region.

Paris is small and round. The inner city is about 10 km across, and the ring road, the Périphérique, follows the line of the old fortifications from the 1840s. The Seine curves through it from east to west and divides it into the Right Bank to the north and the Left Bank to the south. Facing downstream, the right bank is on your right; that rule is the easiest way to keep the two sides straight.

The 20 arrondissements wind outwards like a snail shell, starting with the 1st around the Louvre and the Île de la Cité and spiralling clockwise. The number tells you roughly how far from the centre you are, and the last two digits of the postcode give the arrondissement, so 75004 is the 4th. Street numbers run away from the river on streets that start at it, and parallel to the river they follow the flow, from east to west.

The four clusters on this site sit in the middle of that spiral. The Louvre and Orsay cluster faces across the river on the 1st, 7th and 8th. The Île de la Cité and Latin Quarter cluster covers the island and the 5th on the left bank. The Marais lies in the 3rd and 4th, and the Eiffel Tower and Trocadéro cluster sits in the 7th and 16th on the western side, some distance from the others. Plan on the metro or a long walk between the Eiffel Tower and anything else.

The city is dense, but neighbourhoods keep their own character. Montmartre, Belleville and the canals in the north-east are up and down on hills; the Left Bank around Saint-Germain is flatter and quieter in the evening; the Marais has narrow streets that are shoulder to shoulder on weekend afternoons. Most museums close one day a week, the Louvre on Tuesdays and Orsay on Mondays, and that closing day is the single biggest planning fact.

Getting around is easiest on the metro, which has 16 lines and stations every few hundred metres in the centre, and on foot. The metro has many stairs and few lifts, so strollers and wheelchairs are better off on buses. The RER express lines connect the airports and Versailles. A Navigo pass or contactless card covers the metro, buses and trams; check current fares before you buy, as zones and prices change.

The Louvre began as a fortress and became a royal palace, then opened as a public museum in 1793 during the Revolution. It is the most visited museum in the world, with well over eight million visitors in a normal year. The collection runs to hundreds of thousands of objects and about 35,000 are on display, so trying to see everything is a mistake. Choose two or three wings and ignore the rest.

Book a timed ticket on the official site before you go. Queues move faster with a slot, and the museum limits daily numbers. Enter by the Pyramid, or by the Carrousel entrance and the Passage Richelieu when the Pyramid line is long, and go first thing in the morning or on a late-opening evening. The Mona Lisa is a crowd scene at most hours; the Egyptian, Greek and Mesopotamian rooms are quieter than the paintings.

The Musée d'Orsay is in a former railway station built for the 1900 fair, and its large clock and glass roof are part of the visit. It holds mostly art from 1848 to 1914, including a large Impressionist and post-Impressionist collection. It is easier to cover in half a day than the Louvre. The top-floor Impressionist rooms get the biggest crowds, so start there and work down.

Sainte-Chapelle is a small upper chapel whose walls are almost all stained glass, made in the 13th century. It is best on a bright morning, and it has an airport-style security check, so allow time. Notre-Dame reopened in December 2024 and uses free timed reservations for entry, so check the current cathedral site before you turn up. The two sit a few minutes apart on the same island.

A museum pass can save money and time if you plan several visits in a short window, but it rarely covers timed slots, so still check whether you must reserve. Rules on bags are strict: large bags and suitcases are turned away at security and there is little or no storage, so travel with a small daypack. Many national museums are free on the first Sunday of some months or for under-26s from the EU; confirm current rules on each museum site.

Meals in Paris follow a rhythm, and fighting it costs time. Breakfast is small: a coffee and a croissant or a tartine at a bakery or café counter. Lunch is served from about 12:00 to 14:00, and many restaurants offer a fixed formule or menu du jour at a lower price than dinner. Dinner rarely starts before 19:30. Between meals, kitchens often close, so a proper meal at 15:30 can be hard to find.

Bakeries are the everyday backbone. A baguette, a pain au chocolat and a jambon-beurre sandwich are simple, cheap and good. Many bakeries close one day a week, often Sunday afternoon or Monday, and a good one is easy to spot by the queue at 8:00. For sit-down lunches, look for a chalkboard menu with a few dishes rather than a laminated photo menu.

Cafés and bistros differ. A café serves coffee, drinks and light food all day; a bistro serves classic dishes such as steak frites, onion soup and roast chicken; a brasserie is larger and often serves through the afternoon. Drinking at the bar is cheaper than at a table, and a terrace seat costs more still. Tap water is safe and free if you ask for une carafe d'eau.

Service is included by law in the menu price, so you do not have to tip. Leaving a few coins for good service is normal, but it is not expected. Cards are accepted almost everywhere. In restaurants, the bill is not brought until you ask for it, with l'addition, s'il vous plaît, and that is polite rather than slow.

Specific places work well as anchors. The covered Marché des Enfants Rouges in the Marais is a good lunch stop with many stalls, and it is closed on Mondays. Berthillon on the Île Saint-Louis is a famous ice-cream house, but check opening days because it closes on some weekdays. Breizh Café serves Breton buckwheat galettes and cider, and it is worth booking. L'As du Fallafel on Rue des Rosiers is closed on Saturday for Shabbat and busy at lunch on Sunday.

The Eiffel Tower was built by the firm of Gustave Eiffel for the 1889 World's Fair, which marked the centenary of the Revolution. It took about two years to build, stands about 330 metres tall with its antennas, and was the tallest structure in the world until 1930. It was designed to be dismantled after 20 years, and it survived because it proved useful as a radio mast. Many Parisian writers and artists disliked it at first.

Tickets are timed and sell out well in advance in summer. Buy on the official site rather than from street sellers, and expect a security check at the base. You can climb the stairs to the second floor or take a lift to the second floor and the summit. The summit lift is a separate ticket, and the top is sometimes closed in high wind. If you only want the view, the tower is also visible from the Trocadéro terrace across the river.

The best photo of the tower is often not from the tower. The Trocadéro terrace gives the front view, the Champ de Mars gives the long lawn, and the Pont de Bir-Hakeim gives a bridge and metro view. The tower lights up at night and sparkles for five minutes at the top of each hour after dusk. This is free to watch from the Trocadéro or the Champ de Mars, though both fill up on summer evenings.

The neighbourhood around the tower is expensive and quiet after the sights close. The 7th and 16th arrondissements hold embassies, apartment blocks and a few museums, including the Musée du quai Branly and the Cité de l'Architecture at the Trocadéro. Restaurants near the tower vary widely in quality; walk a few streets away, towards Rue Cler or Rue Saint-Dominique, for better value.

Pickpockets work the queues, the metro to Bir-Hakeim and Trocadéro, and the tower's lawns. Keep bags closed and in front, and ignore people who ask you to sign a petition. Give yourself half a day for the tower and the western side. Leave the Louvre, Orsay and the Marais for other mornings.

Versailles is the standard day trip and the one to plan around. It is about 20 km south-west of the centre and reachable by RER C in roughly 40 minutes. The palace was Louis XIV's court from 1682 and holds the Hall of Mirrors, the royal apartments and huge gardens with fountains that run on set days. The palace is closed on Mondays. Book a timed ticket, and allow a full day if you want the gardens and the Trianon estate.

Giverny is the other well-known excursion, about 75 km north-west, where Claude Monet lived from 1883 and painted his water-lily pond. The house and gardens open from spring to autumn only, usually April to early November, so check dates before going. The usual route is a train to Vernon and then a shuttle or bike ride. It is a slow day for garden lovers, and less rewarding in winter when the site is closed.

Closer in, Montmartre is worth half a day if you like hills and views. The Sacré-Cœur basilica was finished in 1914 and sits at the top of the butte. The stairs and the funicular are the usual ways up. The streets around the Place du Tertre are crowded with sellers and portrait artists; the quieter streets to the north and west are pleasanter.

The Canal Saint-Martin and Belleville in the north-east are where many Parisians spend their evenings, with bars along the water and street food in Belleville. The Père Lachaise cemetery in the 20th holds many famous graves and is a large green walk, open daily with shorter winter hours. These areas are on the metro and away from the main tourist crowd.

For airports, Charles de Gaulle is served by RER B and Orly by the metro line 14 extension and by tram and bus links. Check current routes on the day, since works often affect RER B on weekends. Taxis from the airport to the centre have fixed rates on each bank; confirm the current figure at the taxi rank. Keep one bed in the centre and take day trips from it rather than changing hotels.