Who hasn’t had the city of love on their travel bucket list at one time in their life? Paris has a major airport that gets direct flight from many big U.S. cities, so it’s an easy place to start or end your European vacation. For us, it started out as just that, a pass through city we spent two days in before moving on to the rest of our trip. We soon regretted spending only two days in Paris, falling in love with its charm. You’ll need three days to fit in everything on this list, but I recommend spending a little longer if you want to slow down and enjoy the city. Keep reading to find out our top 10 things to do in Paris!
Louvre Museum
The Louvre is probably on every Paris travel itinerary and top 10 list but for good reason. It’s the most visited and largest museum in the world, with over 600,000 square feet to explore. See the Mona Lisa along with 35,000 other pieces of art. You could spend all day here and not see everything so I recommend listening to Rick Steves Louvre Museum tour to see the highlights.
Rick Steves: https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/audio/audio-tours/paris
Avenue des Champs-Elysées and Arc De Triomphe
The Champs-Elysées is a little over a mile-long avenue in Paris that ends (or begins) at the Arc de Triomphe. The tree-lined street is good for window shopping and picture taking. Once you reach the Arc de Triomphe, you can climb to the top for aerial views of the city (it’s free!).
Eiffel Tower
While you should check out the Eiffel Tower during the day, you can’t miss it at night. There’s a light show every hour on the hour that runs for 5 minutes. Bring some snacks and a bottle of wine and have a picnic at the Place du Trocadero viewpoint.
Montmartre and Sacre-Coeur Basilica
The Montmartre village in Paris with its cobblestone streets and artistic history was one of my favorite places to visit. It sits on top of a hill with great views of the rest of Paris. Montmartre is known for the artists that used to live and work in the area, including Picasso and van Gogh. Apparently, the coffee shop La Maison Rose was frequented by Picasso when he lived there. I recommend exploring the neighborhood and ending your visit at the Sacre-Coeur Basilica. It’s free to enter the basilica, but there is a fee if you want to climb the 300 steps to the top for panoramic views of Paris.
Notre Dame
At the time of writing this post, the cathedral is still undergoing restoration after the 2019 fire. Once the construction is complete and it’s back open to the public, this is a must-see.
Luxembourg Gardens and Palace
The palace and surrounding gardens date back to the 1600s. We didn’t take a tour through the palace but it’s worth a stop to walk through the gardens and view the palace from the outside.
Sainte Chapelle
This chapel in Paris was completed in 1248! Sainte Chapelle is one of the more unique churches we’ve visited and it’s a must-see.
Musee d’Orsay
This Parisian museum houses famous pieces worth seeing, including Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait and Blue Waterlillies by Monet.
Seine River Cruise
This is on the top of our list if we ever get to visit Paris again. Many different companies offer cruises along the Seine River. You can opt for just the boat tour, or a lunch or dinner cruise.
Day Trip to Versailles
Rounding out the list is a day trip to Versailles, France. Take the train or a taxi to visit the Palace of Versailles from Paris, the trip will take about 45 minutes one way. I highly recommend splurging on skip-the-line passes if you get there and the line is long. We stood for hours in the hot sun waiting in line and had we known it would take that long we would have gladly spent the money to get inside sooner.
Paris itinerary post is coming soon!
