Paris, France

Paris: What Actually Matters

Paris gets a lot of things right that other cities don’t. Good bread at every corner. Bistros where a proper lunch costs 15 euros. A metro that mostly works. Neighborhoods that feel like neighborhoods rather than theme parks. It also gets some things wrong, particularly around the major tourist sites, which can be soul-crushing in summer. Here is an honest account of how to spend time here well.

The Eiffel Tower Situation

Go at night. The daytime queue to ascend is brutal from June to August, sometimes exceeding three hours even with pre-booked tickets. The evening summit climb costs the same and the city view with lights is genuinely better. Book weeks ahead at tour-eiffel.fr. If the summit is sold out, the second floor is enough.

If you just want to look at it (which is a legitimate choice), the Trocadero across the river is fine, but the Champs de Mars lawn to the south gives you the better angle and you can sit on the grass.

The Louvre: Manage Your Expectations

The Mona Lisa is disappointingly small, behind thick glass, and usually surrounded by 200 people taking photos on phones. That said, the Louvre is enormous enough that you can spend three hours there and never feel crowded if you skip the Italian Renaissance wing entirely and go look at Mesopotamian antiquities, French sculpture, or the Dutch Golden Age rooms instead. These are extraordinary and often nearly empty.

Buy timed-entry tickets online. The Richelieu wing entrance (rue de Rivoli side) tends to have shorter queues than the pyramid.

Notre Dame

Fully reopened in December 2024 after the 2019 fire and the restoration is extraordinary. The medieval choir scaffolding is gone, the stained glass restored, and the interior is arguably more luminous than before. Book free entry tickets in advance via the official site to avoid the exterior queue. Paid tower access (where you climb to see the gargoyles and city views) is also back.

Beyond the Obvious

Montmartre is worth going to despite the tourist density, but go before 10:00 when the streets are still quiet. Sit at Cafe des Deux Moulins on Rue Lepic (from the film Amelie) for coffee, then walk to the vineyard behind Sacre-Coeur which almost no one knows is there. The Place du Tertre portrait painters are a scam but they are also a Parisian institution.

The Latin Quarter around Rue Mouffetard is worth an hour on a Saturday morning when the street market runs. Real Parisians shop here. The fromagerie at number 73 has been there since 1902.

For a morning away from monuments, take the metro to Belleville (line 2) and walk down toward the Canal Saint-Martin. This is where younger Parisians actually live. The canal itself has good cafes and bookshops on the banks. Le Comptoir General on Quai de Jemmapes is one of the odder spaces in the city, part vintage shop, part bar, part garden.

Where to Eat

Le Bouillon Chartier is a legitimate Paris institution, open since 1896, where you can get a proper three-course French meal for around 20-25 euros. It is not sophisticated, but the pot-au-feu and the profiteroles are exactly right. Arrive before opening (11:30 for lunch, 18:30 for dinner) because queues form fast and they don’t take reservations.

For a real Paris bistro experience, Da Rosa on Rue Saint-Sulpice is exceptional: charcuterie, cheese, wine, and small hot plates. Expensive but worth it. On the cheaper end, any boulangerie with a line of locals outside at 07:30 is doing something right.

Getting Around

The metro is cheap and reliable. A carnet of 10 tickets is gone now (abolished 2023); buy a Navigo Easy card from any ticket machine and load it with t+ tickets (1.73 euros each) or a weekly Navigo pass if you are staying seven or more days. The city added a significant number of bike lanes post-Covid and cycling is now a legitimate way to cross the city, with Velib rental stations everywhere.

When to Go

Avoid July and August if possible. The city empties of Parisians and fills with tourists, prices rise, and many of the better restaurants close for August entirely. May, June, September, and October are all excellent months, with manageable crowds and better weather odds. January and February are cold and grey but cheap, and the museums are often barely attended.

A single focused week in Paris, avoiding peak summer, using the metro, eating where locals eat, and picking two or three museums rather than trying to tick off ten, will leave you understanding why so many people come back.