Things to See and Do in Paris City Center

By Go City Expert
Published: July 17, 2024
Paris at sunset

Paris city center is bursting with amazing sights and sounds - your trip to one of the world’s most beautiful cities will be truly memorable. The French capital is made up of 20 arrondissements (districts), but we’re going to focus on the first seven as they make up the true city center and offer a wide variety of things to see and do.

The arrondissements were created by Emperor Napoleon III in 1860, with the 1st arrondissement situated in the historic center of the city. The rest of the arrondissements curl around and outwards like a spiral – each one with its own distinct ‘flavor’ and attractions.

Read on for our guide to the best things to see and do in the city of love and light.

Trocadero

Arrondissement 1 is elegant and regal

At the center of what was originally the seat of royal power, you’ll find elegance and grandeur. It’s home to the Palais Royal and the world-famous Louvre, the largest art museum in the world. Be sure to visit the beautiful Tuileries Gardens and check out the rather upmarket Vendôme Square. The Pont Neuf bridge is also located in this arrondissement. Although the name means ‘new bridge’, it’s actually the oldest bridge in Paris.

Arrondissement 2 for commerce and business

Travel to arrondissement 2 and you’ll be in the business district, otherwise known as Bourse. The Palais de la Bourse was once the stock exchange and is the area’s most notable landmark. Other buildings to see are the National Library and the Opera Comique. Check out the Grands Boulevard neighborhood for its old-world regal style and covered shopping arcades.

Le Marais

Arrondissement 3 for arts, crafts and Picasso

You’ll find the Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers (National Museum of Arts and Crafts) along with the Picasso Museum in Arrondissement 3. The district is also known as Temple as there was once a medieval fortress built by the Templar Knights amongst the bustling commercial and quiet residential streets. Be sure to check out the Marais neighborhood that spills over into the 4th arrondissement.

Arrondissement 4 for Renaissance and shopping

Arrondissement 4 is popular with tourists, as it not only includes part of the Marais district but also the Île de la Cité, which includes Notre-Dame Cathedral, one of the city’s most popular attractions. You’ll also find Centre Pompidou in this district, which is amongst the oldest in the city center of Paris. Le Marais is one of the most visually interesting quarters of Paris.

This area was once a swamp and that is what Le Marais means. It has evolved from a working-class neighborhood to an affluent and upmarket area, popular for eating, drinking, and strolling. Despite an overhaul of the city’s layout by Napoleon and Baron Georges Eugene Haussmann in the mid-19th century, it has retained the narrow streets of the Renaissance and Medieval eras. You can still see dramatic residences, boutiques, and galleries that escaped modernization.

Examples of Haussmann’s great works include the Champs-Élysées and Montparnasse, as well as the city’s modern water and sewage system. After a visit to Notre Dame, head across the Seine to browse the art stalls and the booksellers' treasures. Marais is also where a Jewish community has lived on and off since the 13th century and features a moving monument to the 200,000 French people killed in concentration camps during WW2.

Champs-Élysées

Arrondissement 5 for the Latin Quarter

Enjoy the outstanding neoclassic architecture of the Panthéon as well as the botanical gardens, known locally as the Jardin des Plantes. You’ll also find the Sorbonne University here, attended by the intellectual crème de la crème. The Panthéon is now a mausoleum housing the remains of the most distinguished French citizens, such as Voltaire, Victor Hugo, and Louis Braille.

Arrondissement 6 for old-world style

The 6th arrondissement was the stomping ground of writers such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. The area has now been transformed into a hotspot for antique furniture and designer boutiques. You’ll also come across leafy residential streets, outstanding architecture, and fabulous restaurants.

Arrondissement 7 for prestige

This district of the city of Paris is home to the sensational steel structure of the Eiffel Tower and the Orsay Museum. Boats leave from here for lunch and dinner cruises on the Seine – an opportunity to see the fantastic buildings from the water without traffic being in the way. The Hotel des Invalides is not a hotel at all, but the resting place of Napoleon I and the army museum, as well as a former military complex. If you’re a fan of shopping and gourmet food, be sure to stop by the Bon Marche Department Store and Gourmet Market.

Orsay on the Seine

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View of a typical Parisian brasserie.
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Unique and Affordable Dining Experiences in Paris

Gourmands rejoice! For not only does Paris boast some of the finest dining on the planet, it’s also possible to eat relatively cheaply, with many restaurants, bistros and brasseries promising world-class three-course meals for just €20-30 per person. Our advice for those on a budget? Bodyswerve the Michelin-starred joints and hotel restaurants, because you’ll find equally sumptuous eats (and often even better!) in the legendary food markets, quirky side-street bistros and lesser-visited arrondissements across the City of Light. Tuck in to our pick of the finest unique and affordable dining experiences in Paris, featuring the garlicky little morsels of deliciousness that are escargots, crispy Alsacian flammekueche, bottomless chocolate mousse and wine served in baby bottles. Mais bien sûr! Polidor One of the oldest and most beloved bistros in town, this warm, wood-paneled Paris perennial has welcomed the likes of Hemingway, Verlaine, Rimbaud, Joyce and Gide through its doors down the decades. Not much has changed in Polidor’s near-200-year history, its worn tiled floors, arty murals, unfussy wooden tables and welcoming waiters exuding a distinctly old-world charm. Amazingly you can still eat here for around €30 each – the three-course prix fixe menu is an absolute bargain, clocking in at a mere €25 per head. Find it: 41 rue Monsieur Le Prince, 75006 Paris La Résidence Ground Control is an ace, industrial-style food hall just a couple of blocks east of the Seine in the 12th arrondissement. Step inside for a smorgasbord of global street food, chief among which is La Résidence, run in collaboration with the UNHCR-backed Refugee Food Festival. This admirable project sees an ever-changing roster of refugee chefs given an opportunity to showcase the cuisine of their home country. So you can expect the likes of Middle Eastern mezze and falafel, spicy Nigerian chicken sandwiches and Côte d'Ivoire couscous salads. Walk it all off afterwards with a stroll down to the epic Bois de Vincennes, Paris’s largest public park with a chateau, boating lake, forest, zoo and arboretum. Find it: 81 rue du Charolais, 75012 Paris L’Alsacien Craving pizza in Paris? Sure, there are plenty of Neapolitan and American-style joints to choose from, but why plump for plain old pepperoni when you can hit up L’Alsacien for slice after delicious slice of crunchy flammekueche instead? In its purest form this Alsacian taste sensation comprises a wafer thin crispy base topped with onions, bacon lardons and crème fraîche or fromage blanc. Order up the classic or swap out the lardons for emmental, tomatoes or mushrooms instead. With prices that start at around €10 per flammekueche it’s likely you’ll be back for more of these almost comically cheap Paris eats. Handily, there are two L’Alsacien outlets in Paris. Find them: 6 rue Saint-Bon, 75004 Paris / 9 rue René Boulanger, 75010 Paris Chez Janou Another Paris institution – this one in the enchanting maze-like lanes of the Marais district – Chez Janou is perhaps best known for its decadently rich mousse au chocolat – and not without good reason either! Gorge on classic French bistro dishes like tuna carpaccio and sautéed calves liver before diving straight into the uber-gratuitous chocolate dessert. Guests who opt for this over the cherry clafoutis or apricot tart are served a great big dollop of the sweet stuff from an oversized bowl, which is then left on your table for you to continue to dig into until you can eat no more. It's the stuff chocolate dreams are made of! Chez Janou pushes a little at the boundaries of what can be considered affordable Paris dining – you won’t get much change from €50 for three courses here – but hey, what price bottomless chocolate mousse? Find it: 2 rue Roger Verlomme, 75003 Paris Chez Alain Miam Miam Still in the Marais, Chez Alain Miam Miam is one of the runaway street-food success stories of the legendary Marché des Enfants Rouges food market. Simplicity is key here: chef Alain’s belly-busting galettes, wraps and sandwiches come loaded with grilled meats, nutty oozy Comté cheese and freshly shredded salads and veggies. That one-hour queue? Worth every stomach-rumbling minute. While away the wait by mingling with friendly fellow Alain devotees in the queue and boning up on the long history of this, Paris's oldest covered food market. First opened in the 16th century, it has long outlived the nearby orphanage that gave it its name (literally ‘the market of red children’ after the distinctive red clothes worn by the orphans). Find it: Marché des Enfants Rouges, 75003 Paris Café des Deux Moulins Fans of quirky rom-com Amélie can follow in the titular heroine’s dainty footsteps at a number of touristy Paris hotspots. Perhaps the best-known of these is the real-life Café des Deux Moulins, the cute Montmartre bistro where Amélie worked as a waitress. The café still looks much as it did in the film, but with bonus Amélie posters, trinkets and ephemera dotted around for fans to admire. Ok, it’s neither the cheapest place to eat, nor the nicest food in Paris, but fans of the movie will nevertheless be in seventh heaven. Afterwards, head over Canal Saint-Martin where you can make like Audrey Tautou in the movie and skip stones across the water. Find it: 15 rue Lepic, 75018 Paris Chez Ramona Another venerable Paris institution, Chez Ramona serves up Spanish food with heart on the labyrinthine lanes of the aptly named Belleville district. The interiors are a delightful jumble of paintings, plates, family photos and all manner of other weird and wonderful bric-a-brac (replica bull’s head, anyone?). Bon viveur Ramona has been a fixture here for decades and can still frequently be found chatting with the locals in the bar. You won’t leave hungry either: the absolutely enormous house paella is meant for two but could easily satisfy a family of four, while great plates of Galician cod, Iberico ham and other Spanish classics round out the menu. It’s cheap, too. You’d be hard-pushed to spend more than €40 a head on a fairly substantial dinner and drinks. Find it: 17 rue Ramponeau, Paris 75020 Le Refuge des Fondus We promised you wine in baby bottles, so wine in baby bottles you shall have. Located at the foot of Montmartre, Le Refuge des Fondus is perhaps one of Paris’s most eccentric fondu joints. There are only two decisions to be made here: whether you want meat in your gooey cheese fondu, and which color of wine you’d prefer. Your wine selection is then served in (and drunk from) a baby bottle. Why? Who knows. Sure makes for some fun photo opportunities though. Find it: 17 Rue des Trois Frères, 75018 Paris Privé de Dessert Wine in baby bottles not wacky enough for ya? How about savory dishes designed to look like desserts? Once again ours is not to reason why, but simply to indulge in burgers that contrive to look like a Saint-Honoré, the class cream-and-puff-pastry French fancy. Or a beef-cheek ‘brownie’. Or a mac and cheese ‘waffle’ with ‘churros’ (French fries). It’s a feast for the eyes as well as the belly for sure. Find it at any one of three Privé de Dessert locations around town: in Pigalle, Batignolles and Aligre. Save on activities and attractions in Paris Save on admission to Paris attractions with the Paris Pass. Check out @TheParisPass on Instagram for the latest top tips and attraction info.
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Movies Set in Paris
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Movies Set in Paris to Inspire Your Visit

If you're heading to the City of Love this year and just so happen to be a big fan of cinema, check out our list of movies set in Paris and let them inspire your visit! From animated greats to musicals, we've got you covered. Including: Mission: Impossible – Fallout Amélie La Haine Midnight in Paris and more! Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom Did you know that a slew of live-action movies based on the Asterix & Obelix comics have come out? No? Well, they have. Though they've mainly found success in France, some have made their way across the Atlantic. Offering diminishing returns throughout the years, the series lay dormant until this year's Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom was released. And, featuring recognizable French actors such as Vincent Cassel and Marion Cotillard, it's finally set to explode internationally. This historical action comedy introduces a whole new audience to the beloved comic duo. And, while it may not feature any recognizable Parisian landmarks, it's the perfect excuse to go check out Parc Asterix. Featuring hair-raising rollercoasters, wonderfully decorated attractions, indoor and outdoor activities, and live shows, it's France's second-most-popular theme park. Why not see the movie and then go check out the park to meet your new favorite characters and join them on their wacky adventures? Mission: Impossible – Fallout The Mission: Impossible franchise has been around for a minute. Starting off as a TV show in the '60s, it has since become a Tom Cruise-fronted cinematic juggernaut, with each installment ranking in hundreds of millions at the box office. While its most recent entry, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One, has just been released, we're traveling back to 2018, when a man could cock his arms like a gun and get away with it. Why? Because Mission: Impossible - Fallout features a frantic car chase through the streets of Paris, as well as some scenes shot by the Eiffel Tower. So, while you could take a guided tour of the famous building, you're not likely to see any exhilarating car chases when you reach the top. Sadly, real life is never as fun. But the Eiffel Tower is definitely worth a visit! Amélie Arguably one of the most famous films to be made in Paris,' Amélie is a fantastical romantic comedy about a girl who decides to help people in and around her life after the death of Princess Diana in 1997. It's funny, silly, and sure to bring a tear to your eye. And, with its mix of practical effects and animation, it has aged rather well for a mid-budget 2001 movie. Predominantly taking place in the Montmartre neighborhood, why not go on a walking tour and see some of the sights featured in the movie? Montmartre is one of the prettiest districts in France, so you'll want to take as many pictures as possible! La Haine La Haine, or "Hatred", is one of the more brutal and grounded films on this list of movies set in Paris. Telling the story of three immigrant friends and their journey through the streets of Paris in the wake of their friend's hospitalization, it was made in the wake of the Paris riots in 1986. The director, Mathieu Kassovitz, used his experiences of living in Paris at the time, as well as escalating racial tension in the city, as a canvas to paint this unique crime thriller that catapulted him and stars Vincent Cassel and Said Taghmaoui into the limelight. While some have criticized it for reinforcing the issues between Paris' poorest and the police, regardless, it is a brutal, honest tale that everyone should watch at least once. Moulin Rouge Part movie musical, part artistic fever dream, Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge was a smash hit when it landed over 20 years ago. Introducing a whole new generation of people to the green fairy of absinthe, it tells the story of a young writer who, while mourning the loss of his love, reminisces about his visit to Montmartre and how he got sucked into the world of courtesans, bohemian artistry, and love he found at the Moulin Rouge. If you're a musical fan, Moulin Rouge is a visual and aural treat, with tons of catchy songs, choreography, and outlandish sets that give the film an otherworldly feel. And, like Amelie, it takes place in Montmartre, where the very real Moulin Rouge cabaret club still stands today. Midnight in Paris Arguably the most fantastical film on our list, Midnight in Paris is a comedy film that stars Owen Wilson as a struggling writer visiting the City of Love with his banal fiancée. Every night when the clock strikes 12, Wilson's writer is transported back to the 1920s, where he rubs shoulders with luminaries of the art scene. Then, he wakes up back in 2010, and his trips make him realize he and his fiancee just aren't compatible. This sweet and funny film went on to win an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, and is truly a love letter to Paris. The Hunchback of Notre Dame A Disney animated classic that's nearly 30 years old at this point, The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a fantastical, child-friendly version of Victor Hugo's classic novel. You probably know the story already, but for the uninitiated, it tells the tale of Quasimodo, a friendly bell-wringer at the titular Notre Dame Cathedral who happens to have severe deformities. He falls in love, yadda yadda yadda, happily ever after. It's Disney; you get it. Sadly, the cathedral itself is still recovering from the horrific fire that broke out in 2019, but you can still tour the premises and learn about the most recent renovations. But those are just some of the many movies set in Paris. And, if you want create or recreate some of your own movie moments, check out the Paris Pass. For one low price, you can see all of Paris' best bits, including the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, Versailles, and much more!
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