Exploring Paris: 31 Awesome Things to Do for an Unforgettable Trip in the French Capital

Founded in 1889 by Charles Zidler and Joseph Oller, the Moulin Rouge was the place to party during the Belle Époque. As well as cabaret, it’s the home of the can-can – attend its Féerie show for a memorable experience. Nowadays, the Moulin Rouge is pretty pricey and not a little touristy, but definitely worth it, if only for a selfie in front of the famous red windmill.

The Centre Georges Pompidou, with its distinctive inside-out design by Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano, opened its doors on 31 January 1977 and has been a reference point for modern and contemporary art ever since. Other than hosting the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou is home to the Bibliothèque Publique d’Information and the IRCAM, a centre dedicated to musical and acoustic research. Centrally located between Less Halles and Le Marais, it’s worth a trip even if you’re not a big fan of art just to ride the escalators up to the fifth floor for an umbeatable view across Paris.

From the eastern end of the Tuileries, walk through another of Napoleon Bonaparte’s arches, the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, and into the grounds of the biggest art museum in the world: the Louvre. Remnants of the building’s former life as a royal palace, dating back to the 12th century, are still visible, and every year more than 8m people come to see its 38,000 objects, making it the most visited museum in the world.

Paris is famous for its love affair with cinema and its plethora of arthouse theatres. Le Champo in the Latin Quarter is one of its most famous. The cinema is beloved for its monthly late-night movie screenings, which start at midnight and end with breakfast, allowing you to see a handful of brilliant independent films in one sitting for just €15.

For 15 years, the local government of Paris fought to make the highway that cut through the centre of the city a car-free zone. In 2017, they finally succeeded and opened the newly landscaped Parc Rives de Seine. Now, the urban garden that lines the left and right banks of the Seine is home to restaurants, sports facilities, children’s play areas and popular bars, and is a perfect place to exercise or relax in the sun.

The Palais Garnier is as discussed for the merits and demerits of its architectural style as for the works of art it has inspired in its 140-year history. Guided tours of the public areas of the opera building, which run every day and include a presentation of its history, architecture and current activities, last one hour and 30 minutes.

As if there weren’t enough things to see in Paris itself, the Palace of Versailles is definitely worth the 30-minute trip outside the city. A €21 ‘Passport’ ticket grants visitors access to the palace, its estate, exhibitions and galleries, while a €32 ticket will also include the Musical Fountain Shows that take place on Tuesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays during the summer months. An excellent alternative day trip from Paris is to Fontainebleau, to the south-east of the city, which 34 sovereigns called home.

Often described as the national sport, people-watching is an essential indulgence for anyone staying in Paris. The beauty of the pastime, of course, is that there are no limits to where it can be practised. However, some grounds are more hallowed than others, and none more so than the Boulevard Saint-Germain. Pick any bar, café or restaurant along its length (you won’t struggle for choice), and watch the world go by.

The Jardin du Luxembourg is one of the French capital’s oldest and most popular parks and is still one of the best places to visit in Paris. It has numerous attractions, from toy boating to beekeeping, but for the past 30 years, it has been the home of Paris’s chess enthusiasts. In its north-west corner, you’ll find 12 tables and dozens of players, many of whom will be willing to give you a game for free, though you may (unwisely) choose to make a wager.

There’s a lot going on in Paris to please book lovers, from free short stories in its train stations to some of the world’s oldest and most beautiful libraries, but one of the best things is the abundance of second-hand bookstores. While these pop up in almost every arrondissement, there is a very welcome concentration of them in the Latin Quarter, particularly in the streets adjacent to the Sorbonne.

As far as street art and Paris are concerned, the general rule goes that the farther east and north you go the better the variety and quality of work. The rue Oberkampf in the 11th arrondissement is where things start to get really good. Though almost every surface is fair game for local artists, one wall, simply named Le Mur, has been designated as a dedicated space, with a new work commissioned for it every few weeks.

Aside from being an ancient part of Paris, and thus a place where getting lost in a maze of narrow, winding streets is more of an inevitability than a probability, Le Marais is also one of the city’s most culturally diverse neighbourhoods. Today, its three main communities are Jewish, Chinese and LGBTQ, and these are reflected in the choice of restaurants, bars and even museums.

Strangely, Paris for a long time had a terrible reputation when it came to coffee. The story went that all the flavour and ingenuity was contained in the first three courses of a meal in the city and there was nothing left over for the coffee at the end. However, that didn’t stop a specific local culture of coffee drinking from developing, and visitors should certainly attempt to blend in.

Originally built as a train station to welcome guests to the World Fair of 1900, the stunning Beaux-Arts Gare d’Orsay now houses the largest collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist masterpieces in the world. Featuring more than 2,000 paintings and 600 sculptures by artists such as Monet, Renoir and Seurat, the Musée d’Orsay’s artworks date between 1848 and 1914. The museum is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the city.

That Paris has a significant network of canals, some of which run underground, is a surprisingly little-known fact. However, the Canal Saint-Martin, which joins the Seine to the wider waterways in the 19th arrondissement, is one of the city’s most vibrant areas. Boat rentals are reasonably priced, and there is also a range of cruises to choose from.

There are many places to get an incredible view of Paris – the Eiffel Tower, the Tour Montparnasse and the rooftops of the Galeries Lafayette and Printemps departments stores, to name just a few – but one of the best is the dome of the Sacré-Cœur. There are, however, 300 steep and narrow steps to climb before arriving at the top of the tallest building on the city’s tallest hill. Arrive early to beat the crowds.

Taking advantage of late openings is a great way to avoid the tourist crowds in Paris and get the most out of the city’s amazing museums. The Louvre stays open until 9.45pm on Wednesdays and Fridays, and the Musée d’Orsay closes at the same time on Thursdays. The Centre Pompidou is normally open until 10pm, but this is extended by one hour on Thursdays for the level six shows.

Gustave Eiffel’s wrought-iron tower is the most famous landmark in Paris and the symbol of the city. Completed in 1889 as the centrepiece of the Exposition Universelle, it stands at 324m (1,063ft) and is the tallest structure in the French capital. More than 7m people visit the Eiffel Tower each year, alrthough it was not always so popular. Legend has it that French writer Guy de Maupassant would dine in the restaurant in the tower every day, as it was the only place in Paris where he did not have to look at it.

Originally conceived by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1806 to commemorate his army’s victory at the Battle of Austerlitz, the Arc de Triomphe is the largest triumphal arch in the world and took 30 years to complete. The eternal flame, underneath the sculpted arch and above the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, has been relit every day at 6.30pm since 11 November 1923. This is the site of the official New Year’s Eve street party in the city, culminating in a spectacular light show at midnight.

Jardin des Tuileries (Tuileries Garden) is the oldest and largest public garden in the city. With unparalleled views of the Place de la Concorde and the Arc de Triomphe at one end and the Louvre at the other, it makes for a gorgeous stroll over gravelled paths and perfectly manicured lawns, with coffee stops on the way. The park was designed by André Le Nôtre, the man behind the gardens at Versailles, and was declared a Unesco World Heritage site in 1991.

The Place des Vosges, with its carefully clipped trees and red-brick buildings, is the oldest planned square in Paris. Constructed between 1605 and 1612 by Henri IV, it became particularly fashionable with the French nobility between the 17th and 18th centuries, and the historic mansions that border its manicured lawns now house popular museums. Today, it’s a great place to sunbathe and people-watch.

All that remains of the Bastille prison, the storming of which marked the start of the French Revolution in 1789, are a few stones inlaid in the street and road surface. Surprisingly, the column in the middle of the Place de la Bastille, the Génie de la Liberté (Spirit of Freedom), has nothing to do with the square’s most famous event, but instead commemorates the July Revolution of 1830.

The Canal Saint-Martin was dug between 1802 and 1825 and was paid for by funds generated from a tax on wine. Funny, then, that today it should be one of the most popular places in Paris for a liquid picnic. Shops, cafés and bars line the banks of the canal, and on summer days, locals gather on the water’s edge with baguettes, cheese and wine for a relaxed al fresco meal.

Not only is the sleepy 20th arrondissement the last Paris borough in numerical terms, it’s also the one people are least likely to visit, except, that is, if they have an interest in life’s ultimate deep sleep. Just next to Gambetta metro station, you’ll find Père Lachaise cemetery, the final resting place of, among many others, Edith Piaf, Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison.

Just a short distance from Notre-Dame Cathedral lies another of Paris’s Gothic wonders, the Sainte-Chapelle. Situated on the Île de la Cité, the towering stone structure was constructed between 1238 and 1248. It was commissioned by Louis IX as a royal chapel to house his collections of Passion relics, but today it is best known for its spectacular 13th-century stained glass windows.

Take a walk along Rue du Cardinal Lemoine to get to the Panthéon in the Latin Quarter. The most imposing monument in the Latin Quarter, the Panthéon was originally intended to be a church dedicated to St Geneviève when it was completed in 1790, just as the French Revolution was taking hold. Upon the death of Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau, on 2 April 1791, a well-respected statesman in the new world order, the decision was taken to transform it into a mausoleum for the great men and women of French history.

The lone skyscraper in Paris’s skyline may seem a bit out of place, but it means the 360-degree view from the top of the Tour Montparnasse is unmatched. Just across the road from the Montparnasse SNCF and metro station in the 14th arrondissement, it has a rooftop terrace that can be reached in less than a minute. Up here you can enjoy a breath of fresh air as you gaze over the City of Lights – and take some spectacular photos.

One of the spookier inclusions on a typical Paris tour has to be the Catacombs. This vast network of ancient quarries under the city’s streets, the catacombs contain the remains of some 6m people that have been used to decorate the walls and ceilings. The ossuary was created in 1738 and has been a tourist attraction since the early 19th century.

The Église du Dôme, with its piercing gold spire, is the crowning glory of Les Invalides, a former military hospital and retirement home that was commissioned by Louis XIV in 1670 and finished in 1708. The complex of 15 interconnected courtyards now hosts a military museum, the Musée de l’Armée, as well as the tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Only a few moments away from Trocadéro, in the 16th arrondissement, the Palais de Tokyo is Europe’s largest contemporary art centre. Opening its grand Art Deco doors in 2002, the art centre was established to be a progressive home for contemporary art. The space exhibits an ever-changing rota of temporary art exhibitions that showcase the most exciting and dynamic artistic practices, from performance art to fashion. Describing itself as an “anti-museum”, the space has no permanent collection, the programme instead exploring work from young creative talent.

One of the most iconic sights in Paris has been taken off the board since that terrible in April 2019 that saw the Notre-Dame engulfed in flamed. Fortunately the building was saved and has since gone through a careful restoration project, with access to the cathedral denied to visitors. Elements of the landmark have gradually become accessible once more, but the grand re-opening is due for December 2024, meaning that all visitors from 2025 onwards should be able to visit the Notre-Dame once again. Recommended by Gethin Morgan.