Paris.
City of light, museums and cafés: Paris mixes icons like the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre with neighbourhood charm.
City of light, museums and cafés: Paris mixes icons like the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre with neighbourhood charm.
A walk along the Seine or through Le Marais often brings the best unplanned moments.
Background
History.
Celtic Parisii settled on the Seine island; Roman Lutetia from the 1st century CE with forum and baths. Charlemagne held an assembly in 798 in the palace chapel.
Capetian kings made Paris the residence; in 1789 the people stormed the Bastille. Baron Haussmann built boulevards and sewers under Napoleon III in the mid-19th century.
The sieges of 1870/71 and the Paris Commune shaped the Third Republic; city and suburbs grew administratively (Grand Paris since 2016).
Must-sees
Top 10.
1. Louvre (book a time slot) and the Tuileries Garden.
2. Musée d’Orsay in the former station hall (Impressionism).
3. Notre-Dame (exterior and west façade accessible again after the 2019 fire; interior depends on the phase).
4. Sainte-Chapelle: Gothic stained glass on the Île de la Cité.
5. Versailles by RER C (palace and gardens, at least half a day).
6. Montmartre: Sacré-Cœur and Place du Tertre.
7. Marais: Place des Vosges and the Jewish quarter around Rue des Rosiers.
8. Promenade Plantée / Coulée Verte as a linear park on a viaduct.
9. Catacombs (tight, tickets in advance).
10. Walk the UNESCO Seine banks between Pont de Sully and Pont d’Iéna.
Gallery
Impressions.
Stay
Hotels in Paris.
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