Paris

The world's most visited museum is a former royal palace holding everything from Egyptian antiquities to the Mona Lisa, which you'll see over a crowd of phones. Don't try to see it all: pick two or three wings, such as the Italian paintings, the Greek sculpture of the Winged Victory and Venus de Milo, and Napoleon III's apartments, and enjoy them properly.

TipBook a timed ticket online and use the Porte des Lions or the Carrousel entrance rather than the main pyramid queue. Evening openings are the calmest time.

At the far end of the Tuileries Garden from the Louvre, two oval rooms were built to Claude Monet's own plans to display his Water Lilies, eight vast panels that wrap around you like a pond at different times of day. Downstairs is a fine collection of paintings by Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse and Picasso. It's small enough to enjoy in an hour.

Napoleon commissioned the arch in 1806 to celebrate his armies, and it was finished in 1836. Beneath it lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, whose flame is rekindled every evening. Climb to the roof for a view down the twelve avenues radiating from the square, along the Champs-Élysées towards the Louvre and out to the towers of La Défense.

TipReach the arch through the underground passage; never try to cross the traffic circling it.

Built for the 1889 World's Fair and meant to be temporary, the tower is now the city's symbol. Going up is worth it on a clear day, but some of the best views of the tower are from the Trocadéro gardens across the river, and from the Champ de Mars park beneath it as it sparkles on the hour after dark.

TipBook summit tickets well ahead, or take the stairs to the second floor, which is usually faster and cheaper.

The mansion where Auguste Rodin worked in his last years now holds his sculptures, with The Thinker, The Gates of Hell and The Burghers of Calais set among the roses of its garden. It's one of the most peaceful museums in Paris, and the garden alone is a lovely escape.

A former railway station on the Left Bank, with the world's finest collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art: Monet, Renoir, Degas, Van Gogh and Cézanne, beneath a vast station clock. It is smaller and easier to enjoy than the Louvre, and many visitors prefer it.

TipGo straight to the top floor for the Impressionists, then work down; the clock window there frames a view across the Seine to Montmartre.

Most of the city's great monuments line the river, which is why its banks are a World Heritage Site. A boat trip shows them all in an hour; walking the quays between the Louvre and Notre-Dame, past the green bookstalls of the bouquinistes, is just as good.

The Gothic cathedral reopened in December 2024 after five years of restoration following the 2019 fire, its interior brighter than it has been for centuries. Nearby on the same island, Sainte-Chapelle has some of the finest medieval stained glass in the world, best on a sunny afternoon.

TipEntry to Notre-Dame is free but timed reservations help at busy times; Sainte-Chapelle needs its own ticket.

The student quarter around the Sorbonne, with bookshops, the domed Panthéon, and the formal Luxembourg Gardens, where Parisians read on the green metal chairs. Shakespeare and Company, the English-language bookshop facing Notre-Dame, is on its edge.

One of the few districts to escape the nineteenth-century rebuilding, the Marais is a tangle of medieval lanes, aristocratic mansions and small museums, around the arcaded Place des Vosges, the city's oldest planned square. It is also the historic Jewish quarter and the centre of the city's gay scene, with independent shops and some of the best falafel in town.

The world's most visited cemetery is a hillside city of cobbled lanes, chapels and mossy tombs under old trees. Among the famous names buried here are Chopin, Oscar Wilde, Édith Piaf, Molière and Jim Morrison. Free maps at the entrances help you find them.

TipWander rather than hunt for graves; the quiet upper paths are the most atmospheric.

The opulent opera house completed in 1875 for Napoleon III's Paris is a riot of marble, gilding and velvet, with a grand staircase built for the city's high society to see and be seen. Inside the auditorium, the ceiling was painted by Marc Chagall in 1964. The building can be visited on most days when it isn't hosting rehearsals.

A hilltop village of steep stairs, vineyards and artists' studios, crowned by the white domes of the Sacré-Cœur basilica, with one of the best free views over Paris from its steps. Place du Tertre is touristy; the side streets to the west, around Rue des Abbesses, are livelier and more local.

TipWalk up from the Abbesses Métro station, with its original Art Nouveau entrance, rather than taking the main stairs from the south.

The palace Louis XIV built just outside Paris became the seat of the French court and a model for royal residences across Europe. Its highlights are the Hall of Mirrors, the state apartments and the vast formal gardens, with the Trianon palaces and Marie-Antoinette's rustic hamlet further out in the park. It needs a full day.

TipTake the RER C train to Versailles Château Rive Gauche, book a timed ticket, and avoid Tuesdays, when it's busiest after the Monday closure.