Things to do in Paris
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Grande Arche de la Défense
La Défense’s landmark edifice is the white marble Grande Arche, a striking cubelike structure that was built in the 1980s and is now home to government and business offices. The arch marks the western end of the Axe Historique (Historic Axis), though Danish architect Johan-Otto von Sprekelsen deliberately placed the Grande Arche fractionally out of alignment.
Access to the roof has been suspended indefinitely for security reasons.
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Gare Montparnasse
Brittany and places en route from Paris (eg Chartres, Angers, Nantes); TGV Atlantique Ouest and TGV Atlantique Sud-Ouest trains to Tours, Nantes, Bordeaux and other destinations in southwestern France.
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Disneyland Resort Paris
Visitors (mostly families) pour into this park to scare themselves silly in the bloodcurdling Tower of Terror, dance in a High School Musical, dive with Nemo, hit 70km/h in a Space Mountain rocket, shake Winnie the Pooh’s paw and share a fiesta of other magical moments with Mickey and his Disney mates. And the kids can’t seem to get enough. As its marketing bumph boasts, at Disneyland ‘the party never stops’.
One-day admission fees at Disneyland Resort Paris include unlimited access to all rides and activities in either Disneyland Park or Walt Disney Studios Park. Those who opt for the latter can enter Disneyland Park three hours before it closes. Multiple-day…
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Place de l’Opéra
The site of Paris’ world-famous (and original) opera house. It abuts the Grands Boulevards, the eight contiguous ‘Great Boulevards’ – Madeleine, Capucines, Italiens, Montmartre, Poissonnière, Bonne Nouvelle, St-Denis and St-Martin – that stretch from elegant place de la Madeleine in the 8e eastwards to the more plebeian place de la République in the 3e, a distance of just under 3km.
The Grands Boulevards were laid out in the 17th century on the site of obsolete city walls and served as a centre of café and theatre life in the 18th and 19th centuries, reaching the height of fashion during the belle époque. North of the western end of the Grands Boulevards is bd…
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Institut du Monde Arabe
The Institute of the Arab World, set up by France and 20 Arab countries to promote cultural contacts between the Arab world and the West, is housed in a highly praised building designed by Jean Nouvel; it opened in 1987. Its new-look museum, showcasing Arab art, artisanship and science, was unveiled in 2012.
Inspired by traditional latticed-wood windows, the stunning building blends modern and traditional Arab and Western elements, with thousands of mushrabiyah (or mouche-arabies) – photoelectrically sensitive apertures built into the glass walls that allow you to see out without being seen. The apertures are opened and closed by electric motors in order to regulate the…
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O’Neil
This micro brasserie brews its own: Taste all four with a palatte en dégustation (€5.90) or pick the colour to suit your – blonde (blond), blanche (white), brune (brown) or ambŕee (amber) – poured straight from the barrel. Weekday ‘Happy Hour’ (6pm to 8pm) spells good-value drinking, as does O’Neil’s mighty 1.8L pitchers of beer (€16/20 before/after 6pm). Beer cocktails (€4 to €9.60) and les chasse-bières (beer chasers; €7.50) are its unusual specialities.
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Tour Montparnasse
The 210m-high Montparnasse Tower, built in 1973 with steel and smoked glass and housing offices for 5000 workers, affords spectacular views over the city. (Bonus: its observation floor and terrace are about the only spots in Paris you can’t see this startlingly ugly, oversized lipstick tube, which in low-rise Paris sticks out like a sore thumb.)
Europe’s fastest lift/elevator whisks visitors up in 38 seconds to the indoor observatory on the 56th floor, with an exhibition centre, video clips, multimedia terminals and Paris’ highest restaurant, Le Ciel de Paris. Finish with a hike up the stairs to the open-air terrace on the 59th floor.
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Blue Elephant
This is Paris’ most famous upmarket Thai restaurant and part of an international chain, with a dozen branches in cities round the world from Brussels to Beirut. Although it has become a little too successful for its own good (it also sells its own branded knick-knacks and gift items), the indoor tropical rainforest and well-prepared spicy dishes (look for the one, two or three elephant symbols on the menu) are still worth the inflated prices. Sunday buffet (noon to 3pm) is good value at €39.
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Crèmerie Restaurant Polidor
A meal at this quintessentially Parisian crèmerie-restaurant is like a trip to Victor Hugo’s Paris: the restaurant and its décor date from 1845 and everyone knows about it (read: touristy). Still, menus of tasty, family-style French cuisine ensure a never-ending stream of punters eager to sample bœuf bourguignon, blanquette de veau à l’ancienne (veal in white sauce) and the most famous tarte Tatin in Paris! Expect to wait. No credit cards.
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APC
The hip streetwear of the renovated and expanded Atelier de Production et Création (Production and Creation Workshop) is very popular with those young Parisian guys with pop-rock haircuts, white sneakers and jeans. The focus is on simple lines and straight cuts, though some pieces are more adventurous. It also has women’s clothes. There’s also a branch on rue de Marsaille ([tel] 01 42 39 84 46; 5 rue de Marseille, 10e; [hrs] 11.30am-8pm; [metro] Jacques Bonsergent).
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Pink Flamingo
Not another pizza place? Mais non, chérie! Once the weather warms up, the Flamingo unveils its secret weapon – pink helium balloons that the delivery guy uses to locate you and your perfect canal-side picnic spot (GPS not needed).
Order a Poulidor (duck, apple and chèvre) or a Basquiat (gorgonzola, figs and cured ham), pop into Le Verre Volé across the canal for the perfect bottle of vino and you’re set.
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Cimetière du Montparnasse
Opened in 1824, Montparnasse Cemetery, Paris’ second largest after Père Lachaise, sprawls over 19 hectares shaded by 1200 trees, including maples, ash, lime trees and conifers. Among its illustrious ‘residents’ are poet Charles Baudelaire, writer Guy de Maupassant, playwright Samuel Beckett, sculptor Constantin Brancusi, painter Chaim Soutine, photographer Man Ray, industrialist André Citroën, Captain Alfred Dreyfus of the infamous affair, actress Jean Seberg, and philosopher-writer couple Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, as well as singer Serge Gainsbourg. Free maps are available from the conservation office.
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Le Cambodge
Hidden in a quiet street between the gargantuan Hôpital St-Louis and Canal St-Martin, this favourite spot among students serves enormous spring rolls and the ever-popular pique-nique Angkorien (rice vermicelli and sautéed beef, which you wrap up in lettuce leaves). The food tastes home-made (if not especially authentic) and the vegetarian options are especially good.
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Fontainebleau and Vaux le Vicomte Small-Group Day Trip from Paris
9 hours (Departs Paris, France)
by Viator
Leave Paris for the day and take a small group day tour by minivan to visit the two magnificent chateaux: Fontainebleau and Vaux le Vicomte. You'll be picked up…Not LP reviewed
from USD$248.04 -
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Breakfast in America
No reservations meaning pretty much you’ll have to queue, especially on weekends, to get into this busy American-style diner with red banquettes, Formica surfaces, chicken wings and bottomless mugs of coffee. BIA is also in the Latin Quarter.
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Hôtel du Nord
The setting for the eponymous 1938 film starring Louis Jouvet and Arletty, the dining room and bar at this vintage venue by the Canal St-Martin feel as if they were stuck in a time warp with their Art Deco posters, zinc counter and old piano. The food is correct if not mind-blowing; stick with basics like the jumbo hamburger (€16) and its trimmings and you’ll be fine. The plat du jour is usually €10.
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Shakespeare & Company
A kind of spell descends as you enter this enchanting bookshop, where nooks and crannies overflow with new and secondhand English-language books. Fabled for nurturing writers, at night its couches turn into beds where writers stay in exchange for stacking shelves. Readings by emerging to illustrious authors take place at 7pm most Mondays; it also hosts workshops and literary festivals.
The bookshop is the stuff of legends. The original shop (12 rue l’Odéon, 6e; closed by the Nazis in 1941) was run by Sylvia Beach and became the meeting point for Hemingway’s ‘Lost Generation’. American-born George Whitman opened the present incarnation in 1951, attracting a beat-poet…
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Tashi Delek
Cheap, tasty Tibetan fare spans from tsampa (vegetable and barley soup) to delicious daril seu (meatballs with garlic, ginger and rice) or tselmok (cheese and vegetable ravioli). Wash it down with traditional or salted-butter tea. Don’t forget to say tashi delek upon entering – it means bonjour in Tibetan.
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Le Pure Café
A classic Parisian haunt, this rustic, cherry-red corner cafe was featured in the art-house film Before Sunset but it’s still a refreshingly unpretentious spot for a drink or well-crafted fare like veal with chestnut purée.
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Musée Picasso
One of Paris’ most beloved art collections opened its doors again after massive renovation works in summer 2013. Housed in the stunning, mid-17th-century Hôtel Salé, the Musée Picasso woos art lovers with more than 3500 drawings, engravings, paintings, ceramic works and sculptures by the grand maître (great master) Pablo Picasso (1881–1973). The extraordinary collection was donated to the French government by the artist’s heirs in lieu of paying inheritance tax.
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Le Violon Dingue
A loud, lively bar adopted by revolving generations of students, the ‘Crazy Violin’ attracts lots of young English-speakers with big-screen sports shown upstairs and the flirty ‘Dingue Lounge’ downstairs. The name ‘Crazy Violin’ is a pun on the expression le violon d’Ingres, meaning ‘hobby’ in French because the celebrated painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres played fiddle in his spare time.
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Lizard Lounge
A quality outpost of Anglo-Saxon attitude in the heart of the Marais, this relaxed pub has beer on tap, cocktails, and grub along the lines of club sandwiches and burgers. Its Sunday brunch is a real hit, as is its cellar space with stone walls where DJs spin tunes on weekends. Happy hour from 8pm to 10pm sees 1.5L pitchers of beer cost a bargain €12.
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Le Grand Appétit
No eggs, no sugar, no dairy products, no meat and no preprepared products is the culinary mantra of this végétalienne lunch address, with an excellent organic and macrobiotic shop next door selling vegan food products. Pick from a petite or grande veggie plate, a miso soup, or an inventive bol garni (bowl) of rice, organic cereals, seaweed and vegetables.
The sushi-style norimaki (seaweed-wrapped rice rolls with veg and tofu) are delicious.
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Place du Tertre
It would be hard to miss the place du Tertre, one of the most touristy spots in all of Paris. Although today it’s filled with visitors, buskers and portrait artists, it was originally the main square of the village of Montmartre before it was incorporated into the city proper.
One of the more popular claims of Montmartre mythology is staked to La Mère Catherine at No 6: in 1814, so it’s said, Cossack soldiers first introduced the term bistro (Russian for ‘quickly’) into the French lexicon. Another big moment came on Christmas Eve, 1898, when Louis Renault’s first car was driven up the Butte to the place du Tertre, igniting the start of the French auto industry.
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Dalí Espace Montmartre
More than 300 works by Salvador Dalí (1904–89), the flamboyant Catalan surrealist printmaker, painter, sculptor and self-promoter, are on display at this surrealist-style basement museum located just west of place du Tertre. The collection includes Dalí’s strange sculptures (most in reproduction), lithographs, many of his illustrations and furniture, including the famous Mae West lips sofa.
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