Three Days in,
Paris.
Paris, France
museums, riverside walks, cafes, late-summer light
Itinerary
3 chaptersLouvre morning, Orsay afternoon
1st arrondissement, Paris
Overview
The Louvre is too big to finish, so today doesn't try. Coffee first in the Palais-Royal arcades, then in through the Carrousel at opening and roughly two hours in the Denon wing before the rooms thicken. Lunch is on the Café Marly terrace with the pyramid right in front of you. The Tuileries then flattens the pace completely: gravel, green chairs, toy boats circling the basins. Across the river, Orsay picks the story back up where the Louvre leaves off, with the Impressionists on the top floor and that clock window over the Seine. Dinner in Saint-Germain, and no rush after it.
Tips
Book both museums online with a timed slot. The Louvre closes Tuesdays and Orsay closes Mondays, so a Thursday like today gets you both, and Orsay runs late on Thursday evenings if the afternoon slips. Use the Carrousel du Louvre entrance off Rue de Rivoli rather than the pyramid line. Under 18s get in free at both, and so do under 26s who live in the EU, so carry ID. Wear shoes you can stand in for four hours, because the Louvre's stone floors are unforgiving. Café Marly charges for the address, so make it the one splurge of the day. Large backpacks won't clear museum security, so bring a small bag.
Getting around
None of this needs the metro. Café Kitsuné to the Carrousel entrance is five minutes through the Palais-Royal gardens. Café Marly sits inside the Louvre's own arcade, so lunch is a walk across a courtyard. The Tuileries begins at the museum's western edge and runs straight toward Place de la Concorde. For Orsay, cut down to the Solférino footbridge, which is pedestrian only, and you're at the door in about ten minutes. Saint-Germain is another twelve minutes south on foot.
Local tips
Say bonjour before anything else, at the counter, at the ticket desk, at the bakery. It changes the whole exchange. The green chairs in the Tuileries are free and made to be dragged wherever you want them, so take one to the water's edge instead of hovering. At a Paris café table nobody brings the check until you ask, which is politeness rather than neglect, so a two-hour dinner at Les Deux Magots is exactly the intended length.
- 0108:00 · 45m
Cafe Kitsune Palais Royal
Order at the counter and take it outside, because there is almost no seating. Carry the matcha or the espresso into the Palais-Royal gardens and find a bench under the arcades. Twenty minutes is enough, which leaves time to loop the black-and-white Buren columns in the courtyard next door before the Louvre opens.About this place↗ Open in MapsA small Japanese-French coffee bar from the label Maison Kitsuné, set into the arcades of the Palais-Royal. It's built for takeaway more than for sitting down.
HistoryMaison Kitsuné started in Paris in 2002, founded by Gildas Loaëc and Masaya Kuroki, working across clothing and music before it opened cafés. The Palais-Royal location put one of them inside a garden arcade that has been a Paris meeting place for centuries.Why it's famousIt's one of the places that made matcha an ordinary Paris coffee order, and the Palais-Royal address makes it a natural stop between the Louvre and the Right Bank.Did you knowThe garden it opens onto was a private commercial arcade in the late 1700s, full of cafés, shops and gambling rooms. Because it was royal property, the police could not enter, which is part of why the Revolution took shape there. - 0209:00 · 150m
Louvre Museum
Use the Carrousel du Louvre entrance off Rue de Rivoli rather than the pyramid, with your timed ticket already open on your phone. Then head for the Denon wing: the Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory on the staircase, the Mona Lisa. Two and a half hours covers one wing properly. Pick a wing and let the rest go.About this place↗ Open in MapsThe largest art museum in the world, housed in a former royal palace on the Right Bank. The collection runs from ancient Mesopotamia to the mid-1800s.
HistoryIt began as a fortress under Philippe Auguste around 1190, grew into a royal residence, and was left half-empty when Louis XIV moved the court to Versailles. It opened as a public museum in 1793, during the Revolution. I. M. Pei's glass pyramid was added in 1989 as a new main entrance.Why it's famousThe Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory of Samothrace are all here, and the pyramid over the courtyard is as recognizable as anything inside it.Did you knowThe Mona Lisa was stolen in 1911 by a Louvre employee, Vincenzo Peruggia, and stayed missing for two years. Crowds lined up to look at the empty wall, more of them than had come to see the painting. - 0312:00 · 75m
Cafe Marly
Ask for a table along the rail on the arcade terrace, directly over the pyramid, and expect to pay for the address. Order simply, a salad or a club sandwich, and let lunch be about the view. You don't need a museum ticket to eat here, and the terrace is covered, so rain doesn't cancel it.About this place↗ Open in MapsA restaurant and terrace café built into the Richelieu wing arcade of the Louvre, looking straight out at the glass pyramid.
HistoryIt opened in the mid-1990s in space freed up by the Grand Louvre works, and belongs to the Costes family, whose restaurants shaped the look of Paris dining rooms in that decade.Why it's famousAlmost nowhere else in the city puts a restaurant inside a national museum's own colonnade, and the pyramid view from the terrace is why people book it.Did you knowThe Richelieu wing held France's finance ministry until 1989. The offices moved out to Bercy so the museum could take the space, and the arcade Café Marly occupies came out of that handover. - 0413:30 · 60m
Tuileries Garden
Take one of the green metal chairs and move it wherever you want, which is what they're for. The two round basins are the best spots, one at each end of the garden. If you want shade, the side paths under the chestnuts stay cooler than the central allée. Toy sailboats are rented near the large basin in summer.About this place↗ Open in MapsA formal public garden running west from the Louvre to Place de la Concorde, laid out with gravel paths, clipped trees and two round ponds.
HistoryCatherine de Medici had it made in 1564 for the Tuileries Palace, on ground that had been tile kilns, which is where the name comes from. André Le Nôtre redesigned it in 1664 in the geometry he later used at Versailles.Why it's famousIt's the green link between the Louvre and the Champs-Élysées, and one of the first gardens in Paris opened to the general public.Did you knowThe palace the garden was built for no longer exists. The Tuileries Palace burned during the Commune in 1871 and the ruins were cleared in 1883, which is why the garden now ends in an open view instead of a facade. - 0514:45 · 120m
Musee d'Orsay
Ride the escalator straight to the top floor before the Impressionist rooms fill. The clock face with the Seine behind it is on that level, and there's a second one inside the café. Work back down through the sculpture nave afterward. Two hours is honest for the highlights, and the bookshop by the exit is genuinely good.About this place↗ Open in MapsA museum of art from roughly 1848 to 1914, in a former railway station on the Left Bank. Its Impressionist and Post-Impressionist holdings are the largest anywhere.
HistoryThe Gare d'Orsay opened in 1900 for the Universal Exposition, serving trains to southwest France. Its platforms were too short for longer postwar trains, so mainline service ended in 1939 and the building sat mostly unused. A conversion led by the architect Gae Aulenti turned it into a museum, which opened in 1986.Why it's famousVan Gogh's self-portrait, Manet's Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe, Renoir's Bal du moulin de la Galette and Whistler's portrait of his mother all hang in the building.Did you knowThe station came close to demolition in the 1970s. It survived partly because the public anger over tearing down the iron pavilions of Les Halles had changed how Paris treated that kind of architecture. - 0619:30 · 120m
Les Deux Magots
Take the terrace facing the church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés rather than a table inside. The kitchen handles classics well, the omelette and the oysters especially, and the hot chocolate comes in a small pitcher you pour yourself. Famous address, famous-address prices, so make it one long sitting rather than a quick stop.About this place↗ Open in MapsA café and brasserie on Place Saint-Germain-des-Prés, open since the 1880s, named for two wooden figures of Chinese merchants that still sit above the room.
HistoryA novelty shop selling silk stood here first, trading on the popularity of a play called Les Deux Magots de Chine. The shop became a café in 1885, and by the early 1900s it was drawing the writers and painters living in the neighborhood.Why it's famousSartre and Simone de Beauvoir worked here regularly, and Hemingway, Picasso and the postwar existentialist crowd made the terrace part of the Left Bank's literary history. The café has awarded its own literary prize since 1933.Did you knowThe two magots are the statues, not a nickname for the owners. A magot in French is a squat carved figurine, and the pair were kept in place when the silk shop turned into a café.
Rue Cler market to the Eiffel Tower
7th arrondissement, Paris
Overview
Yesterday was indoors and enormous. Today is mostly outside. Rue Cler wakes up around its stalls, so breakfast doubles as picnic shopping. The tower comes next, at the time slot you booked weeks ago, and then you carry the baguette out onto Champ de Mars and lie under the thing you just climbed. The Rodin Museum is the afternoon's cool-down, and the garden is the real reason to go. Evening is the point of an August day here: light on the quays around eight, the Solférino footbridge at the end of the walk, a plain good bistro dinner after. Tomorrow starts uphill in Montmartre, so tonight is the one to sit a while.
Tips
Book the summit lift the moment you know your dates, since August slots go weeks ahead. High wind closes the summit, so check the tower's own site the night before. Stairs to the second floor are cheaper, less crowded, and honestly the better photo level. Do the Rue Cler shopping right after breakfast: bread, a hard cheese that survives a warm morning, tomatoes, fruit. The Rodin Museum sells a garden-only ticket if you'd rather skip the house. Café Constant takes no bookings, so show up around 7:45pm or plan to eat late. Bring a light layer, because the river turns breezy the moment the sun drops.
Getting around
The whole day works on foot. Rue Cler to the tower is about fifteen minutes, and Champ de Mars starts at the tower's feet, so the picnic is a ten-minute stroll. Rodin is the longest leg, roughly twenty-five minutes east through the 7th, or two stops on line 8 from École Militaire to Invalides. From the museum down to the quays is fifteen minutes, and Café Constant is on Rue Saint-Dominique, a few minutes back from the river. Call it four miles by bedtime.
Local tips
At the Rue Cler stalls you don't handle the produce. Point, and the vendor picks for you. Bag checks at the tower run slow in summer, so aim to be at the security perimeter fifteen minutes before your slot rather than at it. Picnicking on Champ de Mars is completely normal, though bins overflow on hot days, so carry your trash out with you. The evening quay walk is a local habit as much as a visitor one, which is most of what makes it good.
- 0108:00 · 45m
Cafe du Marche
Grab an outside table, order a café crème and a croissant, and watch Rue Cler set up for the day. It's a straightforward neighborhood café rather than a destination, which is the appeal. Then do the picnic shopping on the same street while the stalls are freshly stocked, before the mid-morning rush.About this place↗ Open in MapsA corner café on pedestrian Rue Cler in the 7th arrondissement, the kind of place the neighborhood uses for a morning coffee and a plate at lunch.
HistoryRue Cler has been a market street since the 1800s, and the cafés along it grew up to serve the stallholders and their customers. This one is among the long-running ones on the strip, and its name just describes where it stands.Why it's famousRick Steves has pointed American travelers toward Rue Cler for decades, so the street, and this café in particular, draws a mix of neighborhood regulars and first-time visitors.Did you knowThe market stretch of Rue Cler is closed to cars, which is rare in Paris. The 7th is otherwise mostly ministries and embassies, so this one street does the everyday shopping for a very formal neighborhood. - 0209:30 · 120m
Eiffel Tower
Save the timed lift ticket offline and get to the security perimeter about fifteen minutes early. Go to the summit first, then work down to the second floor, where the views are actually better framed. Wind closes the summit sometimes, so check the night before. Stairs to level two are a solid plan B and the line keeps moving.About this place↗ Open in MapsA wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars, just over 1,000 feet tall, with viewing platforms on two floors and at the summit.
HistoryIt was built for the 1889 Exposition Universelle, marking a hundred years since the Revolution, by Gustave Eiffel's engineering firm. Much of the design came from his engineers Maurice Koechlin and Émile Nouguier, with the architect Stephen Sauvestre shaping the arches. The permit gave it twenty years.Why it's famousIt's the shorthand image for Paris and one of the most visited paid monuments in the world.Did you knowIt outlived its twenty-year permit because it turned out to be useful as a radio antenna. The transmitters on top gave the city a practical reason to keep it standing, and broadcast equipment is still up there. - 0312:00 · 75m
Champ de Mars picnic
Pick a spot with the tower behind you rather than in front, so the light works for photos later on. Buy screw-top or cans, since glass on the lawns is a bad idea and sometimes not allowed. Bring a small trash bag. Shade is thin down the middle in August, so the tree line along the sides is the better call.About this place↗ Open in MapsA long public park between the Eiffel Tower and the École Militaire, laid out as open lawns and gravel walks.
HistoryIt was the parade ground of the École Militaire from the 1760s, which is why it's named for Mars, the Roman god of war. It later held revolutionary festivals and several Universal Expositions, including the 1889 fair that put the Eiffel Tower at its northwest end.Why it's famousThis is the full-length view of the tower, and the lawn in every photograph of a Paris summer.Did you knowIn 1783 the field was the launch site of one of the first hydrogen balloon flights, sent up by Jacques Charles. When the balloon came down in a village north of the city, frightened locals destroyed it with pitchforks. - 0414:00 · 90m
Rodin Museum
Buy the garden ticket if time is short, because The Thinker, The Gates of Hell and the Burghers of Calais are all outdoors. Inside, the marble of The Kiss earns the extra rooms. The roses peak in early summer but still hold in August. There's a quiet café among the hedges if the picnic has worn off.About this place↗ Open in MapsThe museum of Auguste Rodin's work, in the Hôtel Biron, an 18th-century mansion in the 7th arrondissement with a large sculpture garden behind it.
HistoryRodin rented studio rooms in the run-down mansion from 1908. In 1916 he gave his entire collection to the French state on the condition that the house become a museum of his work, and it opened in 1919, two years after he died.Why it's famousThe Thinker, The Kiss and The Gates of Hell are here, and the garden lets you see the big bronzes outdoors, at the scale Rodin worked in.Did you knowHenri Matisse, Jean Cocteau and the poet Rainer Maria Rilke all had rooms in the same building. Rilke worked for a time as Rodin's secretary, and he was the one who told Rodin about the place. - 0518:00 · 90m
Seine evening walk
Start on the Right Bank near Pont de l'Alma and cross at Pont Alexandre III, the gilded one, for the best of the light. Drop to the lower quay wherever it's open and walk at water level. Aim to reach the Solférino footbridge as the sun goes down. Ninety minutes is unhurried, and there are benches the whole way.About this place↗ Open in MapsThe run of riverside path and bridges between the Eiffel Tower and the Musée d'Orsay, walkable at street level or down on the lower quays.
HistoryThe stone quays were built up over centuries as working riverfront for barges and cargo. In the 1960s a stretch of the right bank became an expressway, and from 2013 the city started closing sections of it to cars and handing the water's edge back to pedestrians.Why it's famousThe banks of the Seine through central Paris became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1991, largely for this run of bridges and quays between the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower.Did you knowThe Passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor, the footbridge by the Musée d'Orsay, is a single steel arch with two walking levels, so you can cross at quay height or at street height and come out in a different place. - 0620:00 · 120m
Cafe Constant
No reservations, so arrive by 7:45pm or plan on a wait at the bar. The room is small, loud in a good way, and the menu is short. Roast chicken and the profiteroles are the reason to be here. Several restaurants on Rue Saint-Dominique carry the Constant name, so check you're at the right door.About this place↗ Open in MapsA small two-floor bistro on Rue Saint-Dominique in the 7th, serving French home cooking with nothing fussy about it.
HistoryChef Christian Constant left the kitchen of the Hôtel de Crillon, where he had held two Michelin stars, and opened a string of restaurants along this one street, from the formal Violon d'Ingres to this deliberately plain bistro.Why it's famousIt's the affordable end of a well-known chef's street, and the no-booking policy plus a short menu of classics made it a standby for anyone staying near the Eiffel Tower.Did you knowConstant's Crillon kitchen turned out an unusual number of chefs who went on to stars of their own, including Yves Camdeborde and Éric Fréchon.
Montmartre in the morning, Marais at night
Montmartre, Paris
Overview
Montmartre is a hill, and the earlier you're on it the better it behaves. Coffee at La Maison Rose gets you the pink corner before the photo line forms, then the stairs up to Sacré-Coeur and the view that pays for the climb. Late morning is for wandering: Place du Tertre and its portrait painters, the small vineyard on Rue des Saules, the back stairs most people never turn down. Lunch at La Bonne Franquette is the slow part of the day, and the garden is where to sit. Then the city flips. The Marais is flat, brick and arcaded, and Place des Vosges is the best square in Paris for doing nothing. Dinner sits a few streets from it, with a dessert worth planning around.
Tips
Be on the hill before ten if you can, because by noon Place du Tertre is shoulder to shoulder. Sacré-Coeur is free to enter, but the dome is a separate ticket and about 300 steps, and it's the better of the two views. The funicular takes a normal metro ticket if the stairs from Anvers look like too much. Portrait artists will approach you on Place du Tertre. Agree a price before anyone starts drawing, or say non merci and keep walking. Book Chez Janou, it fills. Watch your bag on the basilica steps and around Anvers, which is the one stretch of this trip where pickpocketing is common.
Getting around
The morning is all on foot, but it's a steep foot. La Maison Rose to Sacré-Coeur is five minutes of stairs, and the lanes and Place du Tertre sit within a few blocks of the basilica. Crossing to the Marais is the day's one metro ride: line 12 from Abbesses down to Concorde, then line 1 east to Saint-Paul, about half an hour door to door. Place des Vosges is five minutes from the Saint-Paul exit, and Chez Janou is a couple of streets north of the square. Abbesses is one of the deepest stations in the city, so take the elevator.
Local tips
Sacré-Coeur is a working church with services running through the day, so cover your shoulders and keep your voice down inside. Around the foot of the steps, men will try to tie a friendship bracelet on your wrist and then ask for money, so keep your hands down and don't stop walking. People live above Place du Tertre, and those stairs are their street, so keep the morning quiet. One thing worth saving for a spare morning: the Marais is the part of Paris where shops open on Sunday, which is the reverse of everywhere else.
- 0108:30 · 45m
La Maison Rose
Come before nine and the corner is yours. The food is fine rather than the point, so order a coffee and take the outside table facing down Rue de l'Abreuvoir. If it's closed or full, the corner itself is still worth the walk. From here it's about five minutes of stairs up to Sacré-Coeur.About this place↗ Open in MapsA small pink restaurant on the corner of Rue de l'Abreuvoir in upper Montmartre, and one of the most photographed buildings in the neighborhood.
HistoryThe house was bought in the early 1900s by Laure Gargallo, known as Germaine, and her husband, the painter Ramon Pichot, who had it painted pink. Rent on the hill was cheap then, and the place became a hangout for the artists living around it.Why it's famousMaurice Utrillo painted it, which fixed the pink corner into the picture people carry of Montmartre, and it has been a photo stop ever since.Did you knowGermaine was at the center of the events that led Picasso's close friend Carlos Casagemas to shoot himself in 1901, a death that pushed Picasso into his Blue Period. - 0209:30 · 90m
Sacre-Coeur
Free to walk in. The dome climb is a separate ticket and roughly 300 steps, and on a clear morning it's the best view in the city. Sit on the steps outside for ten minutes before you go in. Cover your shoulders, and keep a hand on your bag on the stairs and the terrace, where pickpockets work the crowd.About this place↗ Open in MapsA white basilica on the summit of the Montmartre hill, visible from most of Paris, with a terrace looking south over the whole city.
HistoryIt was proposed after France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and the Commune that followed, as a national act of penance. Building started in 1875 to Paul Abadie's design and finished in 1914, though the consecration waited until 1919, after the First World War.Why it's famousIt's the second most visited church in Paris after Notre-Dame, and its dome is how you find Montmartre from anywhere in the city.Did you knowThe stone stays white on its own. The travertine it's built from releases a chalky mineral whenever it rains, which bleaches the surface, so the building effectively cleans itself. - 0311:15 · 75m
Montmartre lanes
Walk out of Place du Tertre on Rue des Saules and the crowd falls away within a block. The vineyard is on the left going downhill, opposite the Lapin Agile cabaret. Rue de l'Abreuvoir and the stairs of Rue Foyatier are the streets worth photographing. Skip the tourist train, the whole loop is a twenty-minute walk.About this place↗ Open in MapsThe network of stepped streets, small squares and back lanes above the basilica, including Place du Tertre and the vineyard on Rue des Saules.
HistoryMontmartre was a separate village of windmills, quarries and vines until Paris absorbed it in 1860. Cheap rent and looser licensing outside the old city walls drew painters and cabarets, and by the 1900s it was the working address for Picasso, Modigliani and the people around them.Why it's famousThe portrait painters on Place du Tertre and the village street plan are what people picture when they picture old Paris, and much of that layout predates the neighborhood joining the city.Did you knowThe Clos Montmartre vineyard still makes wine, a few hundred bottles a year, and the October harvest is marked with a neighborhood festival. - 0412:45 · 75m
La Bonne Franquette
Ask for the garden terrace in warm weather, which is the whole reason to eat here instead of on Place du Tertre. Order the classics, coq au vin or a steak, and let lunch take the full hour and a quarter. Book ahead on a weekend. It sits one street off the square, which keeps the noise down.About this place↗ Open in MapsAn old Montmartre inn a block from Place du Tertre, serving traditional French cooking, with a garden courtyard behind the dining room.
HistoryThere has been an inn on the site since the 1600s. In the 1800s it was a gathering place for the painters living on the hill, under the name Aux Billards en Bois, and took its current name later.Why it's famousVan Gogh, Pissarro, Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrec are all tied to the place, and Van Gogh's 1886 painting La Guinguette is identified with this garden.Did you knowThe phrase à la bonne franquette has no clean English equivalent. It means an unfussy meal among friends, whatever happens to be in the kitchen, which is exactly the promise the name is making. - 0516:00 · 75m
Place des Vosges
Walk the arcade all the way around, about fifteen minutes, and browse the galleries and shops under it. The lawn in the middle is open to sit on. Victor Hugo's apartment is at number 6, and the permanent rooms are free. Late afternoon light on the brick is the best of the day, so this hour is well placed.About this place↗ Open in MapsA square of matched brick-and-stone houses over a continuous arcade, in the Marais, with a small park in the middle. It's the oldest planned square in Paris.
HistoryHenri IV ordered it built on the site of a former royal palace, and it went up between 1605 and 1612, opening with a tournament for the wedding of Louis XIII. It was called Place Royale until the Revolution, then renamed for the Vosges department in 1800.Why it's famousIt set the pattern for the European residential square, and Victor Hugo lived on it for sixteen years, in the corner house that is now a museum.Did you knowThe Vosges got the naming rights because it was the first French department to pay the new revolutionary war tax in full. - 0619:30 · 120m
Chez Janou
Book ahead, because the room is small and packed most nights. The chocolate mousse arrives as an enormous bowl you serve yourself from, so order lightly before it. The cooking is Provençal, so think tapenade, lamb, ratatouille. The terrace is tight but good on a warm evening.About this place↗ Open in MapsA small Provençal bistro on a corner just north of Place des Vosges, known for southern French cooking and for one very large bowl of chocolate mousse.
HistoryIt took over a neighborhood corner café in the Marais, kept the zinc bar and the tiled floor, and built its menu around the food of Provence rather than Paris.Why it's famousThe self-serve chocolate mousse, carried to the table in a communal bowl with a spoon in it, is what people tell each other about, and it keeps the room full.Did you knowThe bar stocks dozens of different pastis, the anise spirit of the French south, which is unusual even in Provence and close to unheard of in Paris.
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