Top things to do

Few art galleries are as prized as the Musée du Louvre, Paris’ pièce de résistance and the world's most visited museum. The palace rambles over four floors, up and down innumerable staircases, and through three wing…

Paris' most visited unticketed site, with upwards of 14 million visitors per year, is a masterpiece of French Gothic architecture. The focus of Catholic Paris for seven centuries, its vast interior accommodates 6000…

This inner-city oasis of formal terraces, chestnut groves and lush lawns has a special place in Parisians' hearts. Napoléon dedicated the 23 gracefully laid-out hectares of the Luxembourg Gardens to the children of …

Renowned for its radical architectural statement, the 1977-opened Centre Pompidou brings together galleries and cutting-edge exhibitions, hands-on workshops, dance performances, cinemas and other entertainment venue…

Paris’ most macabre sight is its underground tunnels lined with skulls and bones. In 1785 it was decided to rectify the hygiene problems of Paris’ overflowing cemeteries by exhuming the bones and storing them in dis…

The home of France’s national collection from the impressionist, postimpressionist and art-nouveau movements spanning from 1848 to 1914 is the glorious former Gare d’Orsay railway station – itself an art-nouveau sho…

Sculptor, painter, sketcher, engraver and collector Auguste Rodin donated his entire collection to the French state in 1908 on the proviso that they dedicate his former workshop and showroom, the beautiful 1730 Hôte…

The world’s most-visited cemetery, Père Lachaise opened in 1804. Its 70,000 ornate and ostentatious tombs of the rich and famous form a verdant, 44-hectare sculpture garden. The most visited are those of 1960s rock …

Overlooking the city from its Left Bank perch, the Panthéon's stately neoclassical dome is an icon of the Parisian skyline. The vast interior is an architectural masterpiece: originally a church and now a mausoleum,…

Flanked by the 500m-long Esplanade des Invalides lawns, the Hôtel des Invalides was built in the 1670s by Louis XIV to house 4000 invalides (disabled war veterans). On 14 July 1789, a mob broke into the building and…