Paris: The City That Requires Preparation to See Properly

Paris receives around 30 million visitors annually and is, city for city, the most visited place on earth. The concentration of significant art, architecture, and food in a walkable core is unmatched. The problem is that the tourist infrastructure is calibrated for those 30 million and most of what’s laid on for visitors is mediocre or actively bad. Distinguishing between the two requires knowing where to look.

The Monuments

The Eiffel Tower is better approached on foot than by lift; the views from the ground are more varied than from the platform. If you want the platform: queue at opening time (09:00), or book timed entry online at least a week ahead (€28.30/adult to the top). The Champ de Mars park below it is fine for a picnic; the grass is real and people use it.

The Louvre: 35,000 objects, nine miles of galleries, and approximately 8 million visitors per year. The Mona Lisa is in room 711, behind three layers of glass and typically 30 people deep. If you’re there specifically for it, go at opening (09:00) and move directly there. If you’re there for the collection properly, the Egyptian Antiquities and the Denon Wing Greek sculptures are better uses of time and less crowded. Budget half a day minimum; a full day is not too much. Pre-book timed entry through the Louvre website; it costs nothing extra and bypasses the queues.

Musée d’Orsay, across the Seine, holds the Impressionist collections that were previously in the Louvre: Monet, Renoir, Degas, Van Gogh, Cézanne. The building is a converted railway station (1900) and is itself worth seeing. Timed entry available online; €16/adult, under 18 free. Book ahead.

Eating

French bistro food is subject to substantial variation in Paris. The distinction between a bistronomie (chef-owned, seasonal menu, serious cooking) and a tourist trap serving frozen quiche is not always visible from outside.

Le Relais de l’Entrecôte (three locations) serves exactly one thing: steak and fries with a walnut herb sauce. No menu, no reservations; you queue. Lunch or dinner costs around €30/person with wine. The sauce is genuinely good and the approach is efficient. This is the right version of a Parisian steak experience.

Septime in the 11th arrondissement is the most-discussed bistronomie of the last decade: a short seasonal menu, natural wines, no obvious deference to conventions. Reservations must be made exactly 14 days in advance; the phone line opens at 07:00. Dinner around €70 per person without wine.

For breakfast: any neighbourhood boulangerie serves butter croissants and coffee for €4-6. The croissant at Du Pain et des Idées in the 10th is worth the trip; they also do their own laminated bread called pavé that’s worth taking back to your accommodation.

Neighbourhoods Worth Walking

Le Marais (3rd and 4th arrondissements) has the best density of decent places to eat, galleries, and the Jewish quarter on Rue des Rosiers. It’s also where most of the young professional Parisian social life concentrates.

Canal Saint-Martin (10th) has the less-polished version of the same: independent shops, cafes used by people who live there, fewer tourists. The iron footbridges and the tree-lined canal are photographed constantly and are still worth seeing.

Staying

Central Paris accommodation is expensive. The 1st, 4th, 6th and 7th arrondissements are most convenient for monuments; the 10th and 11th are cheaper and more interesting. Hôtel du Vieux Saule (11th, doubles from €130) is consistent. Budget: Generator Paris (10th, near République, dormitories from €30, private rooms from €90) is the best-run large hostel in the city.

The Paris Métro is cheap and covers the city thoroughly (€1.73/trip with a carnet of 10); the Zone 1-2 Navigo weekly pass costs €22.80 and covers unlimited travel from Monday to Sunday.