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Place de la Concorde
Place de la Concorde was laid out between 1755 and 1775. The 3300-year-old pink granite obelisk with the gilded top in the square's centre was given to France in 1831 by Muhammad Ali, viceroy and pasha of Egypt. Weighing 230 tonnes and towering 23m over the cobblestones, it once stood in the Temple of Ramses at Thebes (modern-day Luxor).
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Place de la Madeleine
Ringed by a plethora of fine-food and gourmet shops, the place de la Madeleine is named after the 19th-century neoclassical church in its centre, the Église de la Madeleine. Built in the style of a Greek temple, La Madeleine was consecrated in 1845 after almost a century of design changes and construction delays.
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Place des Vosges
The heart of Marais, Paris' most enchanting neighbourhood, is place des Vosges. Inaugurated in 1612 as place Royale, it is an ensemble of 36 symmetrical houses with ground-floor arcades, steep slate roofs and large dormer windows arranged around a large square. Duels were once fought in the elegant park in the centre.
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Place du Tertre
Half a block west of Église St-Pierre de Montmartre, is place du Tertre, once the main square of the village of Montmartre. These days it's filled with cafes, restaurants, portrait artists and tourists and is always animated. Look for the Moulin de la Galette and Moulin Radet, two old-style windmills to the west on rue Lepic.
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Place Igor Stravinsky
The Place Igor Stravinsky is perhaps Paris' most vibrant open space. Dominated by the vivid inside-out architecture of the Centre Georges Pompidou, it is filled with modern sculpture and street performers. The fanciful mechanical fountains of skeletons, dragons and a big pair of ruby-red lips, created by Jean Tinguely and Niki de St-Phalle, are delightful.
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Place Vendôme
This octagonal place , and the arcaded and colonnaded buildings around it, were built between 1687 and 1721. In 1796, Napoleon married Josephine in the building at No 3. Today, the buildings around the square house the posh Hôtel Ritz Paris and some of the city's most fashionable boutiques. The Ministry of Justice has been at Nos 11 to 13 since 1815.
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Pletzl
When renovation of the Marais began in the late 1960s, the area around rues des Rosiers and des Écouffes - traditionally known as the Pletzl and home to a poor but vibrant Jewish community - was pretty run-down. Now fancy boutiques coexist with Jewish bookstores and kosher butchers' shops, restaurants and felafel joints.
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Pont Neuf
The white stone spans of Paris' oldest bridge, ironically called 'New Bridge', have linked the Île de la Cité with both banks of the Seine since 1607 when Henri IV inaugurated it by riding across on a white stallion. Its seven arches, graced by humorous, grotesque figures of dentists, pickpockets, loiterers and the like, are best viewed from the river.
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Porte St-Denis & Porte St-Martin
St Denis Gate, a 24m-high triumphal arch, was built in 1673 to commemorate Louis XIV's campaign along the Rhine. On the northern side, carvings represent the fall of Maastricht in the same year.
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Promenade Plantée
This pioneering park, with its walking path, flowers and park benches extending above the rooflines, has led to the construction of similar projects in the US and UK. It was a romantic backdrop for one of the central scenes in the film Before Sunset , and a highlight of any visit to Paris. And it's free.
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Quartier Latin
Known as the Quartier Latin because students and professors communicated in Latin here until the Revolution, the 5e arrondissement has been the centre of Parisian higher education since the Middle Ages. It still has a large population of students and academics, which gives it a lively, sparky vibe.
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Sainte-Chapelle
The most exquisite of Paris' Gothic gems, Sainte Chapelle is tucked away within the walls of the Palais de Justice. The chapel is illuminated by a veritable curtain of luminous 13th-century stained glass (the oldest and finest in Paris).
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Sorbonne
One of the world's most famous universities, 'La Sorbonne' was founded in 1253 by Robert de Sorbon as a theological college for just 16 pupils, going on to have its own government and laws. The main campus' imposing buildings, domed chapel and lime tree-shaded squares dominate the Latin Quarter, while its students dominate the local bars and cafés.
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Stade de France
The 80,000-seat Stadium of France just south of central St-Denis and in full view from rue Gabriel Péri was built for the 1998 football World Cup, which France won by miraculously defeating Brazil 3-0. The futuristic and quite beautiful structure, with a roof the size of place de la Concorde, is used for football and rugby matches, major gymnastic events and big-ticket music concerts. It can be visited on guided tours only.
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Tour Jean Sans Peur
The Gothic, 29m-high Tower of John the Fearless was built by the duke of Bourgogne as part of a splendid mansion in the early 15th century so he could hide at the very top, safe from his enemies. It is one of the very few examples of feudal military architecture extant in Paris. Visitors can ascend the 140 steps of the spiral staircase to the turret on top.
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Tour Montparnasse
The 210m-high Montparnasse Tower, a skyscraper built in 1974 with steel and smoked glass, affords spectacular views over the city and is just about the best place to be in Paris since it is one of the few spots where you can't see this startlingly ugly oversized lipstick tube!
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Viaduc des Arts
The arches beneath this disused railway viaduct running along av Daumesnil southeast of place de la Bastille, which was taken out of service in 1969, are now a showcase for trendy designers and artisans; if you need your Gobelins tapestry restored, porcelain repainted or the bottom of your antique saucepan re-coppered, this is the place to come.
