Things to Do in Paris: What's Actually There, and How to Choose

Paris has enough great museums to fill a week without repeating a room. A first trip is better with two done properly than four done at a trot.

Louvre. The largest museum on earth, and impossible to "do" in one visit - pick two wings and let the rest go. The Richelieu wing (French sculpture, Napoleon III's apartments) is consistently the emptiest part of the building. Timed-entry booking is mandatory in 2026, walk-ins are routinely turned away, and it is closed on Tuesdays. Plan about 2.5 hours.

Musée d'Orsay. A former railway station holding the greatest concentration of Impressionist painting anywhere - Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, Degas. Many first-time visitors end up preferring it to the Louvre, at a fraction of the walking. Timed ticket required, closed Mondays, open until 21:45 on Thursdays. About 2 hours.

Musée de l'Orangerie. Two oval rooms built to Monet's own specification, with the Water Lilies wrapped around you in natural light. Small, quick and more moving than museums twenty times its size. Timed entry, closed Tuesdays, about an hour - the easiest great museum to fit into a busy day.

Musée Rodin. A mansion and a three-hectare sculpture garden with The Thinker out among the roses. There's a cheaper garden-only ticket, which on a sunny day is arguably the better buy. Closed Mondays, about 75 minutes.

Musée Carnavalet and Musée de Cluny. Two museums most visitors walk straight past. Carnavalet tells the history of Paris itself in two Marais mansions, and its permanent collection is free. Cluny holds medieval Paris inside a Roman bathhouse, with The Lady and the Unicorn tapestries. Both closed Mondays, about 70 minutes each.

If you only choose one: the Louvre if you want to have seen it, Orsay if you want to enjoy it. That is an opinion, not a rule - but it's the one most people arrive at on their own by day two.

Several of Paris's most famous sights are best from the outside, and cost nothing. Knowing which is which saves both money and queueing time.

Eiffel Tower. The second floor is the level worth having: the view actually frames the city, while the summit often shows you mostly haze. The stairs to level two are cheaper and far less queued than the lifts. Book ahead, about 1 hour 45 minutes. For the classic photo, you want the Trocadéro esplanade across the river instead - free, always open, and the tower whole, with nothing in the way.

Sainte-Chapelle. Fifteen metres of 13th-century stained glass on every side, and arguably the single most astonishing interior in Paris. It's small, so slots fill; book, and aim for a bright day, because the whole point is light. About 50 minutes.

Notre-Dame. Reopened in December 2024 after the fire, and free to enter. The Île de la Cité, the square and the riverbanks around it cost nothing and need no booking - Sainte-Chapelle is a five-minute walk away, which makes this pairing one of the easiest half-days in the city. About 55 minutes.

Arc de Triomphe. The rooftop is a paid ticket and one of the best views in Paris, looking straight down the Champs-Élysées. Reach it through the underpass; crossing that roundabout on foot is not a plan, it's a statement. About 45 minutes. The Champs-Élysées itself is worth walking once, for the scale, and then leaving.

Panthéon and Palais Garnier. The Panthéon holds Voltaire, Marie Curie and Josephine Baker, with Foucault's pendulum swinging under the dome - about an hour. The Palais Garnier, the opera house behind the Phantom story, has a grand staircase built for being seen on and a ceiling by Chagall; self-guided visits run on days without matinees. About an hour.

Some of the best hours in Paris have no ticket, no queue and no single thing to "see". These are the areas where wandering is the activity.

Le Marais. Medieval streets, independent shops, small perfumers, and the Marché des Enfants Rouges - the oldest covered market in Paris, running since 1628, now a dense little food hall (closed Mondays). One of the few parts of Paris where shops open on Sunday, which makes it the obvious Sunday plan.

Montmartre. The hill village Paris grew around, with the Sacré-Cœur on top and a free view over the whole city from its steps. The basilica is free, open 06:30 to 22:30; the lanes behind it are where the neighbourhood actually is. About 80 minutes, most of them uphill.

Canal Saint-Martin. Iron footbridges, locks and plane trees, with half of young Paris sitting on the quays on any warm evening. No monument, no ticket, and one of the most pleasant hours in the city.

Butte-aux-Cailles and Rue Montorgueil. The Butte-aux-Cailles is a village hiding in the 13th arrondissement - cobbles, low houses, murals - best for an evening wander and dinner. Rue Montorgueil, ten minutes from the Louvre, is a pedestrian market street and the obvious lunch alternative to the museum café.

Paris parks aren't a filler; they're how a museum day stays pleasant. Every one below is free.

Jardin des Tuileries runs from the Louvre to Concorde - the most convenient break in the middle of a museum day. Jardin du Luxembourg, the Senate's garden, has movable chairs you can put anywhere and a fountain basin where children sail rented wooden boats. The Coulée verte is a planted walkway on an old railway viaduct, five metres above the street and almost entirely used by locals. Parc des Buttes-Chaumont has cliffs, a suspension bridge and a temple on a rock above a lake.

Père-Lachaise isn't a park, but it works like one: 44 hectares of cobbled avenues and tombs - Chopin, Wilde, Piaf, Morrison. Take a photo of the map at the gate. People genuinely get lost here, which is less romantic than it sounds.

Two department stores give away views that others charge for. The Printemps rooftop terrace, open during store hours with no ticket and no minimum spend, sweeps across the Opéra, Sacré-Cœur and the Eiffel Tower. Galeries Lafayette next door has a free rooftop too, plus a stained-glass cupola worth stepping inside for even if you buy nothing.

Add the steps of Sacré-Cœur and the Trocadéro, and you can see Paris from above four times in a trip without paying for a single lift.

The strongest options are all outdoors or hands-on. Jardin du Luxembourg (the boats, a carousel), Jardin des Plantes (glasshouses, a small zoo and the gallery of evolution next door), and Parc de la Villette - the largest park inside Paris, built around a science museum and a dozen themed playgrounds - are the three that reliably work. For younger children, the Jardin d'Acclimatation on the edge of the Bois de Boulogne is a small amusement park with a farm and a mini railway; plan a good 2.5 hours and check the dated calendar, since opening times vary.

Paris museums don't share one day off, which is exactly why they catch people out. Monday: Musée d'Orsay, Musée Rodin, Carnavalet and Cluny are closed. Tuesday: the Louvre and the Orangerie are closed. Sunday: most shops close, except in the Marais. The Saint-Ouen flea market - the largest antiques market in the world - only trades Saturday to Monday.

The practical consequence: a Monday is a good Louvre day, a Tuesday is a good Orsay day, and a Sunday is a good day for the Marais and the parks.

This page tells you what's there; it doesn't put it in order. MEVAYA's Paris in One Day and Paris in Two Days guides show what the planner does with these stops - real arrival times, real visit durations, and a route that doesn't cross the Seine more often than it has to. If you already know which of the four Parises you want, the planner can build a day around exactly that.