Paris
A city people arrive at with a list and leave having enjoyed something not on it — the Louvre, yes, but also one market street and a café table.
Paris
A dense, walkable capital arranged around a river, in which the distance between two famous things is usually shorter than travellers expect and the queue for them is usually longer.
Explore Paris on the map
City locations, drawn from our published destination data. Attractions, hotels and restaurants are not mapped yet.
Beyond the temples
Two very large museums, one tower, a cathedral that has just come back, and the neighbourhoods that are the actual reason to stay longer.
The unmissable ones
- The Louvre is too big to "do". Choose a wing and accept it — most first visits take the Denon side for the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo and the Italian painting, and leave the rest. It is busiest in the middle of the day.
- The Eiffel Tower, on the Champ de Mars, was built for the 1889 exposition and was meant to be temporary. You can go to the second level or the summit; the view from the Trocadéro across the river is the one most people actually picture, and it costs nothing.
- Notre-Dame de Paris on the Île de la Cité was severely damaged by fire in 2019 and reopened to visitors in December 2024 after restoration. It is once again one of the city's central sights.
- The Musée d'Orsay, in a converted Beaux-Arts railway station across the river, holds the Impressionist collection and is the museum most travellers say they preferred. Sainte-Chapelle, nearby, is a single room of thirteenth-century stained glass and takes half an hour.
The neighbourhoods
- Montmartre, on its hill in the north, keeps the village street plan around Sacré-Cœur and is worth walking early before the crowds and the caricaturists arrive.
- The Marais is the oldest surviving quarter — narrow streets, hôtels particuliers, the Place des Vosges, the Jewish quarter around the rue des Rosiers, and the best browsing in the city.
- The Latin Quarter and Saint-Germain-des-Prés on the Left Bank are the bookshops, the cafés with the literary history and the Luxembourg Gardens, which is the park Parisians actually use.
The river and the parks
- A Seine cruise is the one piece of standard sightseeing worth doing anyway: it passes most of the monumental city from the angle it was designed to be seen from, and it is a good first evening.
- The Champs-Élysées runs from the Place de la Concorde to the Arc de Triomphe, which has a rooftop view along the axis. The avenue itself is more shopping street than sight.
- Walking the Seine quais, the Canal Saint-Martin or the Promenade Plantée is how you see the city Parisians live in rather than the one on the postcards.
Four days in Paris
The river and the islands
Arrive, then start gently: the Île de la Cité and Notre-Dame, Sainte-Chapelle for the glass, and the Seine quais on foot. A cruise in the evening if the light is good — it orients the whole trip.
The Louvre and the Tuileries
The Louvre in the morning with a booked slot and one wing chosen in advance, out through the Tuileries, and the Place de la Concorde and the Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe in the afternoon.
The tower and the Left Bank
The Eiffel Tower on a booked slot, the Trocadéro for the view back, then across to the Musée d'Orsay and an unhurried afternoon in Saint-Germain and the Luxembourg Gardens.
Montmartre, the Marais — or Versailles
Montmartre early and the Marais after lunch, which is the day people remember. This is also the natural day to leave the city for Versailles if the trip has the nights for it.
Arriving & getting around
Two airports, a very dense metro and a walkable centre.
Arriving
- Charles de Gaulle (CDG), north-east of the city, takes most long-haul arrivals including the direct flights from India. Orly (ORY), to the south, handles more European and domestic traffic. Both are connected to the centre by rail and by road.
- Paris is a European rail hub: the Eurostar from London arrives at Gare du Nord and high-speed services run to Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and the south of France. This is why so many multi-country trips start here.
- Indian passport holders need a Schengen visa. Requirements and appointment availability change through the year, so it is arranged as part of the booking and started early.
Around the city
- The metro is dense, frequent and the fastest way across the city; the RER runs longer distances and is what reaches Versailles, the airports and Disneyland Paris. Ticketing arrangements are set by the regional transport authority and change, so your specialist confirms the current option rather than this page naming one.
- Walk more than you plan to. Many of the distances that look like a metro ride are fifteen minutes on foot through better streets, and the city is laid out to be seen that way.
- Taxis and ride-hailing both work. A car of your own does not: parking is scarce and expensive and the centre is heavily restricted.
Booking ahead
- The Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and Sainte-Chapelle release timed entry in advance and sell out, particularly in summer and at weekends. A trip that plans to buy on the day is a trip that will miss at least one of them.
- Museums have their own closing days and these vary between them, so an itinerary is built around which is open when rather than assuming a free choice each morning.
Paris in practice
The four things that decide whether a Paris trip feels generous or rushed.
The Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and Sainte-Chapelle work on timed entry released ahead of the date, and they sell out. Everything else can be decided on the morning; these cannot.
Long light, mild walking weather and gardens in leaf, without the density of July and August. August empties of Parisians, with some businesses closed for the month. Winter is grey and short-dayed but far calmer inside the museums.
Paris is a safe city to walk. The realistic risk is pickpocketing in crowds — on the metro, at Montmartre, around the tower and on the station concourses. A zipped bag worn in front is the whole precaution.
The most common regret is a schedule that treated the Louvre as a two-hour item. Two substantial things a day plus a neighbourhood walk is the pace that leaves people saying they liked Paris.
How to be a good guest
A city with strong conventions, most of which are simple once you know them.
Manners
- Say bonjour on entering a shop or café and au revoir on leaving. It is not a nicety here; skipping it is the single most common reason travellers find Parisians cold.
- A little French, however bad, changes the temperature of an exchange. Most people in tourist-facing work speak English and will switch happily once you have opened.
Eating
- Meal times are later and narrower than in India: lunch and dinner run to set windows and kitchens close between them. Turning up at six for dinner will usually find a bar rather than a restaurant.
- A café, a brasserie and a bistro are different things and serve at different hours. Sitting at a table costs more than standing at the bar, which is normal and not a scam.
- Vegetarian travellers do better in Paris than the reputation suggests, but it needs a little planning: classic bistro menus are meat-heavy, while the Marais, the Latin Quarter and the city's South Asian neighbourhoods around La Chapelle are reliable. Your specialist can build this into the bookings.
What to bring back
- Food halls and covered markets rather than souvenir shops: cheese, chocolate, tea and biscuits travel well and are what the city is genuinely good at.
Insider tips
Small things that change the trip.
Before you go
- Start the Schengen visa early. It is the single most common reason a European trip has to move its dates.
- Book the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre as soon as the dates are fixed, and build the rest of the days around those two slots.
- Pack for walking. Paris is cobbles and stairs, and the metro is not step-free everywhere.
On the ground
- Buy the picnic — a bakery, a cheese shop and the Luxembourg Gardens or the Champ de Mars is a better lunch than most restaurants near the monuments.
- Drinking water is safe from the tap, and the city has public drinking fountains. Restaurants will bring a carafe of tap water if you ask for it.
- Sunday is quieter and many shops close, though the Marais is a long-standing exception and the museums largely stay open.
Out of the city
Île-de-France wraps around Paris, and the best of it is a suburban train ride from a station you are already using.
Related to Paris
Journeys that include Paris — each one visits the city as part of its itinerary.
Common questions
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