Paris, France

Things to Do in Paris: 24 Ideas by Area

Paris at a glance

Things to do in this guide: 24
Areas and themes covered: 11
TRIPLR journeys including Paris: 5
TRIPLR suggested stay: 4 days

Things to do in Paris

Photo by Dag Heinrichowski on Unsplash
Sainte-Chapelle
Sainte-Chapelle is a compact royal chapel whose upper level is wrapped in soaring stained glass, creating one of the most concentrated interior experiences in Paris. The visit begins more modestly below, then rises into a space where colour, biblical narrative, slender structure and light dominate almost every surface.
- Île de la Cité
- About 1 hour
- Mid-range
Photo by Austin Kehmeier on Unsplash
Arc de Triomphe
The Arc de Triomphe is both a ceremonial monument and one of Paris’s strongest viewing platforms.
- Champs-Élysées / Arc Area
- About 1.5 hours
- Mid-range
Trocadéro Viewpoint
Trocadéro Viewpoint delivers the classic Paris arrival scene: broad terraces facing the Eiffel Tower across the Seine, with fountains, steps and open sky creating one of the city's cleanest compositions.
- Trocadéro / Eiffel Area
- About 1 hour
- Free
Photo by Payam Moin Afshari on Unsplash
Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower remains the great orientation point of Paris: a wrought-iron structure, a public spectacle and a viewing platform that changes character from street level to the upper decks.
- Trocadéro / Eiffel Area
- About 2.5 hours
- Splurge
Photo by Tim Wildsmith on Unsplash
Musée d'Orsay
Musée d’Orsay occupies a former railway station on the Left Bank, where monumental clocks, ironwork and a soaring central hall frame one of the world’s great nineteenth-century art collections.
- Seine Riverside
- About 2.5 hours
- Mid-range
Seine River Cruise
A Seine River Cruise places the city’s monuments, bridges and embankments into one continuous moving panorama.
- Seine Riverside
- About 1.5 hours
- Mid-range
Photo by Clark Van Der Beken on Unsplash
Louvre Museum
The Louvre Museum is both a former royal palace and an immense art museum, where visitors move through grand staircases, palace rooms, antiquities galleries, French painting, Italian masterpieces and objects from across centuries of collecting.
- Louvre / Palais Royal
- About 3.5 hours
- Splurge
Photo by bruno neurath-wilson on Unsplash
Sacré-Cœur Basilica
Sacré-Cœur crowns the Butte Montmartre with white domes, a broad forecourt and one of Paris’s defining elevated viewpoints. The visit combines a climb or approach through the hillside, a look inside the basilica’s solemn interior and time on the terraces watching the city spread below.
- Montmartre
- About 1.5 hours
- Free
Photo by Filipe Nobre on Unsplash
Notre-Dame Cathedral
Notre-Dame Cathedral is the emotional and architectural centre of the Île de la Cité, bringing together Gothic structure, religious life, civic memory and the story of restoration after fire.
- Île de la Cité
- About 1.5 hours
- Free
Photo by Is@ Chessyca on Unsplash
Seine Riverside Walk
A Seine Riverside Walk is the essential open-air thread through central Paris, following quays, bridges and river edges where museums, monuments, islands and neighbourhoods repeatedly come into view.
- Seine Riverside
- About 1.5 hours
- Free
Photo by Tanya Barrow on Unsplash
Du Pain et des Idées
Du Pain et des Idées is a serious artisan bakery near Canal Saint-Martin, where the Belle Époque storefront, tiled details and display of breads and pastries turn a short food stop into a recognisably Parisian ritual.
- Canal Saint-Martin / Belleville
- About 0.5 hours
- Budget-friendly
Photo by Lens by Benji on Unsplash
Montmartre Backstreets Walk
A Montmartre backstreets walk reveals the district beyond the basilica steps: narrow lanes, steep stairways, residential corners, old studios, small squares and glimpses of the village-like hill that Paris absorbed but never fully standardised.
- Montmartre
- About 2 hours
- Free
Photo by Marcos Pena Jr on Unsplash
Rue des Martyrs Walk
Rue des Martyrs is one of the most rewarding food streets in Paris, rising from the lower 9th arrondissement towards Montmartre with bakeries, cheese shops, produce displays, cafés, pâtisseries and everyday neighbourhood errands along the way.
- Montmartre
- About 1.5 hours
- Budget-friendly
Café de Flore
Café de Flore is a polished Saint-Germain ritual as much as a place to drink coffee: red seating, dark wood, waiters in traditional service, and a terrace that looks directly onto Boulevard Saint-Germain.
- Saint-Germain
- About 1 hour
- Mid-range
Photo by Nico Ruge on Unsplash
Les Deux Magots
Les Deux Magots sits at one of Saint-Germain’s most recognisable corners, facing the church and the flow of Boulevard Saint-Germain. Its terrace, traditional service and literary associations turn a simple drink into a ceremony of Left Bank observation.
- Saint-Germain
- About 1 hour
- Mid-range
Photo by Dmitrii E. on Unsplash
Seine Bookstalls (Bouquinistes)
The Seine bookstalls, or bouquinistes, line stretches of the river with green boxes filled with second-hand books, prints, postcards, posters and paper ephemera. Browsing them adds a tactile, literary pause to the riverbanks, where the act of looking through old pages becomes part of the public life of central Paris.
- Seine Riverside
- About 1 hour
- Budget-friendly
Photo by Viktor Hesse on Unsplash
Passage des Panoramas
Passage des Panoramas is a compact, atmospheric arcade off the Grands Boulevards, with narrow covered lanes, old signage, restaurants, specialist shops and a strong sense of accumulated use.
- Opéra / Grands Boulevards
- About 1 hour
- Free
Photo by Sung Jin Cho on Unsplash
Climbing Montparnasse Tower Viewpoint
The Montparnasse Tower viewpoint gives a rare full-city panorama from the Left Bank, with the Eiffel Tower visible as part of the skyline rather than as the place you are standing on.
- Saint-Germain
- About 1 hour
- Mid-range
Photo by Viktor Hesse on Unsplash
Atelier des Lumières
Inside a former metal foundry in the 11th arrondissement, Atelier des Lumières turns art into a room-scale projection environment. Images move across high walls, floors, chimneys and industrial steelwork while music shapes the pace of the visit.
- Bastille / Aligre
- About 1.5 hours
- Mid-range
Photo by Tanya Barrow on Unsplash
Stohrer Bakery
Stohrer Bakery is a historic pâtisserie on Rue Montorgueil where ornate interiors, polished counters and classic French pastries turn a short food stop into a piece of culinary heritage.
- Louvre / Palais Royal
- About 0.5 hours
- Budget-friendly
Photo by Alejandro Cartagena 🇲🇽🏳‍🌈 on Unsplash
Conciergerie
The Conciergerie carries visitors into the surviving medieval halls of the former royal palace before tracing its later role as a Revolutionary prison. The visit moves between grand vaulted spaces, institutional corridors and displays linked to justice, power and imprisonment.
- Île de la Cité
- About 1.5 hours
- Mid-range
Rue Mouffetard
Rue Mouffetard is a sloping market street where the Latin Quarter becomes more residential and food-focused. Produce shops, fromageries, bakeries, traiteurs, cafés and small restaurants line a street that still feels tied to everyday neighbourhood buying rather than only sightseeing.
- Latin Quarter
- About 1.5 hours
- Budget-friendly
Photo by Wyatt Simpson on Unsplash
Rue Montorgueil Walk
Rue Montorgueil is a pedestrian food street where bakeries, produce stalls, cafés, cheese shops, fishmongers and historic shopfronts create one of central Paris’s most satisfying everyday routes.
- Louvre / Palais Royal
- About 1.5 hours
- Budget-friendly
Photo by Vince Duque on Unsplash
Right Bank Riverside Walk
A Right Bank riverside walk follows the Seine past formal façades, bridge approaches, quayside paths and views back towards the Left Bank.
- Seine Riverside
- About 1.5 hours
- Free