A Long Weekend in Paris: The Offbeat Plan
Three days is enough to add the hill Paris tries to sell you a crepe on. This plan keeps the 2-day route’s Day 1 and Day 2 intact, then spends Day 3 in Montmartre, the neighbourhood most visitors reduce to one photo on the Sacre-Coeur steps. Need more time after this? The 4-day version adds Pere Lachaise and a timed Eiffel Tower slot.
Book these before you go
- Sainte-Chapelle 30-minute slot : EUR16 EEA / EUR22 non-EEA, mandatory, morning slots go first.
- Louvre timed entry : EUR22 EEA / EUR32 non-EEA, closed Tuesdays, no walk-up at all.
The 3-day plan at a glance
| Day | Focus | Must-book |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Ile de la Cite, Sainte-Chapelle, the Seine | Sainte-Chapelle |
| Day 2 | The Louvre, Palais-Royal, Le Marais | Louvre |
| Day 3 | Montmartre, Sacre-Coeur, the windmills | None, but arrive early |
Day 1: The island where Paris started
Base yourself on the Ile de la Cite and the Left Bank today; it keeps the walking distances short. Start at Notre-Dame’s nave, free, no ticket, though a same-week reservation online skips the second queue. Notice the new spire’s rooster while you are outside: it was refitted in 2024 with relics sealed inside its base, including a sliver of the crown of thorns and the names of everyone who worked on the rebuild. Walk five minutes to Sainte-Chapelle . Use the timed slot you already booked; a 10am booking has to be used by 10:30am, and morning slots go first in high season. After lunch, cross to the Seine’s Left Bank quais and browse the bouquinistes , the green book stalls that have worked this stretch of riverbank since the 16th century. In the evening, walk toward Ile Saint-Louis for Berthillon ice cream, then loop back for a Seine cruise at dusk if the light is right, about EUR19, no booking urgency. If you still have energy, the Passages Couverts in the 2nd arrondissement stay open under glass roofs well past dark, a good rain-proof option if the evening turns wet.
Day 2: The museum with 35,000 objects and the palace next door
The Louvre needs a booked, timed slot for every visitor now, no exceptions in July and August 2026, and it is closed on Tuesdays; check that before you build this into the calendar. EUR22 for EEA residents, EUR32 for everyone else, under-18s free. Go straight for the Denon wing’s Greek sculpture and the Egyptian Antiquities rather than fighting the crowd around the Mona Lisa in Room 711, unless you actually want that specific photo. Afterward, walk through the Tuileries Garden and the Palais-Royal’s arcaded courtyard, striped Buren columns, quiet even when the Louvre queue outside is not. In the evening, cross into Le Marais for dinner around Rue des Rosiers or Place des Vosges, one of the few Paris neighbourhoods where shops stay open on Sundays too. Reserve a table if you want a sit-down dinner there on a Friday or Saturday; the neighbourhood’s better bistros fill up fast once the Louvre crowd disperses for the evening.
Day 3: The hill built as an apology
Arrive at Sacre-Coeur before 9:30am. The basilica itself is free, and arriving early matters less for the building than for the steps outside, where the bracelet scam works the crowds all day. Someone will try to loop a string around your wrist before you can decline; pull back, say non, and keep walking. The basilica was funded partly as penance after the Paris Commune, on a hill that was one of the Commune’s last strongholds, a piece of political history most people photograph without knowing. Skip Place du Tertre’s marked-up crepes and walk instead to Rue Lepic for Montmartre’s two surviving windmills, Moulin de la Galette, now a restaurant, and Moulin Radet, then to Rue des Abbesses, where the neighbourhood actually eats. The Musee de Montmartre, in the building where Renoir once kept a studio, covers the hill’s artistic history and has a garden view of the basilica without the queue.
How do you get between these days without a car?
You do not need one. Central Paris runs on a flat EUR2.55 Metro-train-RER fare and a EUR2.05 bus-tram fare regardless of zone, loaded onto a Navigo Easy card for EUR2. Paper carnets stopped selling, and stopped working, after 31 December 2025. Montmartre is a straightforward Metro Line 12 or Line 2 hop from the Day 1 and Day 2 route.
Book a Marais or Saint-Germain stay before either neighbourhood’s well-reviewed rooms sell out. If Day 3 is the only day without a booked slot, that is deliberate; Montmartre rewards arriving early more than arriving with a reservation.