Paris, France
Still the most visited city on earth. Spring and September are the sweet spot; December's markets and lights are the runner-up.
Best time to visit
Weather by month
Cost
Serves travellers at Backpacker→Ultra-luxury level. Typically around $220 a day on the ground.
Ranges are typical costs, not quotes. Check the real price before you book.
What's on
Fête de la Musique June
Free concerts everywhere on 21 June
Nuit Blanche October
All-night art across the city
Worth knowing
Cards and contactless for everything, including bakeries. Service is included in restaurant bills; rounding up is the most anyone does.
money · editorial
The major museums each close one fixed day a week, and they are not all the same day. Check before you build a day around one. Transport strikes happen and are announced in advance.
know before · editorial
August, when much of the city shuts, the owners leave and the places still open are the ones that cater to people who do not know better.
when not to go · editorial
The Marais for the old streets and the best walking. Saint-Germain and the Latin Quarter for bookshops and tourists in equal measure. Canal Saint-Martin and the 11th for where Parisians actually eat. Montmartre for the view, at the cost of hills and coaches.
where to stay · editorial
The Metro, and your feet. Paris is smaller than it looks on a map and most of what you came for sits inside a walkable core. A car is a pure liability here.
getting around · editorial
Charles de Gaulle, with the RER B into the centre in around thirty-five minutes. Orly is closer but awkward. Beauvais is not really Paris. From London and Brussels the train drops you straight into Gare du Nord.
getting there · editorial
Quests
Icon
Eiffel Tower
From below, on the Champ de Mars. The distant photograph is from the Trocadéro, but the shiver is underneath.
Notre-Dame de Paris
The west front. Look for the kings beheaded in the Revolution and put back afterwards.
Arc de Triomphe
Twelve avenues run out from here. Use the tunnel; nobody crosses the roundabout on foot.
Sacré-Cœur and Montmartre
Take the steps, not the funicular. The city appears all at once.
The Louvre Pyramid
The courtyard counts. Going into the museum is another whole day.
Musée d'Orsay
A railway station turned museum. The clock on the fifth floor is the best window in Paris.
See
Spend one hour in the Musée d'Orsay and leave by the clock
Eat
Eat a baguette from a prize-winning bakery, still warm
A croissant from a neighbourhood bakery
Before nine, still warm. It is not the same croissant after that.
Steak-frites at an ordinary lunch
Dish of the day, a glass of red, one hour. That is how the city eats lunch.
Oysters in winter
October to March, with lemon and nothing else.
Moment
Walk the Seine from the Pont Neuf to the Île Saint-Louis at 8am on a Sunday
Picnic on the bank of the Canal Saint-Martin
Bread, cheese, something cold, and the iron bridges.
Sunset on the Pont des Arts
Facing the Île de la Cité. No padlocks; they were all taken off.
Trail
Walk up to the second floor of the Eiffel Tower
674 steps. The lift queue is longer than the tiredness.