🗼 Paris Essentials

Monumental Paris — royal gardens and the world's biggest museum

• Louvre Museum

  World's largest art museum. Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and 35,000 other works.

• Jardin des Tuileries

  Royal garden between the Louvre and Place de la Concorde.

• Palais-Royal

  Hidden colonnaded courtyard with the iconic Buren columns.

• Place Vendôme

  Octagonal square known for haute joaillerie and the Ritz.

Aristocratic squares giving way to boutiques and falafel

• Place des Vosges

  Paris's oldest planned square; pink-brick arcades and royal symmetry.

• Musée Picasso

  Hôtel Salé houses the world's largest public Picasso collection.

• Rue Vieille du Templelocal

  Spine of the Marais — bakeries, falafel, vintage, and queer nightlife.

Medieval heart of the city — stained glass and student lanes

• Notre-Dame Cathedral

  Gothic masterpiece on the Seine, recently reopened after restoration.

• Sainte-Chapelle

  13th-century chapel with the most extraordinary stained glass in Paris.

• Shakespeare and Company

  Legendary English-language bookshop opposite Notre-Dame.

• Panthéon

  Neoclassical mausoleum for French luminaries (Voltaire, Curie, Hugo).

• Jardin du Luxembourg

  Senate gardens with model boats, chess players, and chestnut allées.

Literary cafés and Impressionist masterpieces

• Musée d'Orsay

  Belle Époque train station turned Impressionist temple.

• Saint-Germain-des-Prés

  Paris's oldest abbey, anchor of literary café culture.

• Café de Flore

  Sartre and Beauvoir's old haunt. Touristy now, but the terrace is iconic.

The postcard — best worked at golden hour

• Trocadéro

  Best frontal view of the Eiffel Tower across the Seine.

• Eiffel Tower

  Sunset from Trocadéro, climb at dusk for the hourly sparkle.

• Champ de Mars

  Tower-side lawn — picnic and golden-hour photos.

• Musée du Quai Branly

  Jean Nouvel building housing African, Asian, and Oceanic art.

Triumphal Paris along the grand axis

• Arc de Triomphe

  Climb the roof for the cleanest Haussmann axis view in the city.

• Avenue des Champs-Élysées

  The avenue. Walk it once; eat somewhere else.

• Grand Palais

  Glass-and-iron Belle Époque palace, reopened after restoration.