Best Things to Do in Paris

Go up the Eiffel Tower. See our full guide for ticket tiers and the best time to visit.

Visit the Louvre. The world's most-visited museum — our Louvre guide covers how to actually see it without getting lost.

Wander Montmartre. Cobblestone streets, Sacré-Cœur, and a village feel within the city — see our full guide.

Walk along the Seine. Especially in the evening, when the bridges and riverside buildings light up.

See Notre-Dame. Reopened after the 2019 fire and subsequent restoration, worth checking current visiting arrangements before you go.

Explore the Musée d'Orsay. Housed in a former train station, home to one of the world's best Impressionist collections.

Sainte-Chapelle

A Gothic chapel on the Île de la Cité with some of the most spectacular stained glass windows in the world, often overlooked in favor of the more famous Notre-Dame nearby.

Canal Saint-Martin

A quieter, more local neighborhood built around a canal with locks and iron footbridges, popular with Parisians rather than tour groups.

A Seine river cruise

A relaxed way to see many major landmarks from the water in under an hour, particularly pleasant in the evening as the bridges and buildings light up.

The Panthéon

A domed mausoleum honoring notable French figures including Voltaire, Rousseau, and Marie Curie, with a pendulum demonstrating the Earth's rotation still swinging in its main hall.

Luxembourg Gardens

Formal gardens attached to the Luxembourg Palace, popular with both tourists and locals for a relaxed afternoon among fountains and manicured lawns.

Shakespeare and Company

A historic English-language bookshop across from Notre-Dame, associated with generations of expatriate writers and still an active, browsable shop today.

Père Lachaise Cemetery

A sprawling, tree-lined cemetery home to the graves of Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, and Édith Piaf among many others, as much a peaceful park as a burial ground.

The Catacombs

Underground tunnels lined with the bones of millions of Parisians, relocated here in the 18th century when the city's cemeteries overflowed — genuinely unlike anything else in the city.

Musée Rodin

A smaller, more manageable museum than the Louvre, set in a mansion and garden filled with Rodin's sculptures including The Thinker, a good option for art lovers wanting a quieter, less crowded visit.

None of these need a fixed sequence — pairing a major museum with a quieter park or cemetery on the same day balances the pace nicely.

Whichever combination you choose, Paris rarely runs out of things worth a detour, even on a repeat visit years later.

Save room in your schedule for at least one of these beyond the obvious headline sights.