Paris Travel Guide: What to Do, Eat & See
Guest post by my Husband!
My family lived in Paris when I was eight — three years in total — and we’ve gone back consistently ever since. After all those return trips we’ve built a system that works, and this is the guide I wish I could hand every first-time and repeat visitor. It’s built around one idea: the best days in Paris are the ones with the least planning.
This is a first-hand guide based on years of repeat visits, not a rounded-up list of tourist attractions.
Key takeaways
- Where to stay: the 8th arrondissement — central, walkable, and close to the parks and the best hotel bars.
- Best museum: Musée d’Orsay. If you only have energy for one, choose it over the Louvre.
- The core Paris experience: a coffee, a neighborhood, and a long unhurried walk. It costs almost nothing.
- Best Eiffel Tower view: from the Trocadéro, especially during the nightly sparkle show.
- Don’t miss: Notre-Dame is fully restored and open again.
- Best souvenir to bring home: Le Beurre Bordier butter, vacuum-sealed on-site at Le Bon Marché.
What’s in this guide
- Where to stay in Paris
- Best museums in Paris
- Best shopping in Paris
- Where to eat and drink in Paris
- Best neighborhoods in Paris
- Other things to do in Paris
- How to spend a perfect day in Paris
- FAQ
Where to stay in Paris
For a central, walkable base, stay in the 8th arrondissement. It’s where our old apartment was, and we still gravitate back to it. It isn’t the trendiest neighborhood, but it’s close to the parks and the good hotels, and almost everything in the city is easily accessible from there.
Best museums in Paris
The single best museum in Paris for most visitors is the Musée d’Orsay. The rule that matters more than any individual choice: don’t try to do too many. Pick two or three that resonate and actually spend time in them.
Musée d’Orsay — our favorite
The d’Orsay holds Van Gogh, Monet, and the Impressionists — recognizable, enjoyable, the kind of art you actually want to stand in front of. Near the top there’s a view of Paris through a giant clock face that’s worth the visit on its own. It’s crowded but manageable.
Musée d’Orsay vs. the Louvre — which should you choose?
If you only have the energy for one, choose the Musée d’Orsay. The Louvre is a world-class experience, but it can feel completely overwhelming. The d’Orsay gives you a world-class collection at a human scale.
Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection — for modern art
For modern art, the Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection is excellent: a beautiful building, far less crowded, and a totally different vibe from the big classical museums.
Best shopping in Paris
Paris shopping is best when you treat it as wandering rather than a checklist. These are the spots we return to.
- Merci (Le Marais) — a great concept store with home goods, fashion, books, and a café inside. The kind of place you wander for an hour and walk out with something you didn’t plan on buying.
- Galeries Lafayette & Printemps — the classic department stores. Don’t skip the Galeries Lafayette rooftop: it’s free to go up, the views are great, and it’s a perfect spot for a drink.
- E. Dehillerin (Rue Coquillière) — a must if you enjoy cooking. Restaurant-grade copper cookware, knives, everything, in a shop that looks unchanged in 100 years. One warning: shipping is a pain, so only buy what you can carry home. We learned this the hard way.
- Rue Montmartre kitchen & silverware shops — just around the corner from Dehillerin, a cluster of old kitchen and silverware shops worth poking around. We’ve already decided we’re going back for silverware next time.
- Louise Carmen — for stationery.
- Le Mont Saint-Michel (Le Marais) — they make the original French chore coat, the one everyone has been copying for decades.
Where to eat and drink in Paris
The morning café routine — the core Paris experience
The best way to experience Paris like a local is the morning café routine: get a coffee, pick a neighborhood, and start walking. When you find a street-facing bistro or café with good foot traffic, sit down. You’ll sometimes pay a small premium for the prime outdoor seats, but the people-watching makes it completely worth it. This is the heart of the trip and it costs almost nothing.
The famous literary cafés — Les Deux Magots and Café de Flore in Saint-Germain — were home to Hemingway’s crowd and the existentialists. They’re touristy and overpriced now, and I wouldn’t wait in line for either. But if you walk by and there’s an open table, sit down. The atmosphere is still there.
The best hotel bars in Paris for a drink
Some of the best places for a drink in Paris are the luxury hotel bars around Avenue Kléber — and you don’t need to be a guest. The Peninsula, Shangri-La, and Le Raphaël all have excellent bars or terraces. The Raphaël rooftop is our favorite.
Best restaurants in Paris
| Restaurant | Area | Why go |
|---|---|---|
| Pink Mamma | Pigalle | Fun Italian, multi-floor space with a basement speakeasy. Touristy but deservedly so. |
| L’Entrecôte | Lunch only. One dish: steak frites with a buttery walnut herb sauce and a Dijon-dressed salad. Perfect. | |
| Allard | Old-school and pricier, but a genuinely classic French experience. Get the duck with olives. | |
| Bofinger | Near Bastille | A Paris institution — brass, red velvet, old-world. A long, leisurely meal that feels like a century ago. |
| Restaurant Janine | Good contemporary French dinner. | |
| Dubillot | Hearty, slightly upscale bistro. | |
| Dalia | Mediterranean with a younger crowd. | |
| Mon Crème | Breakfast or lunch. | |
| Caveau de la Huchette | Latin Quarter | Jazz bar in an actual medieval cave. (Still on our list — putting it here so we finally go.) |
| The Cricketer | A solid soccer bar if you need to watch a match. |
Reservation tip: L’Entrecôte doesn’t take reservations and the line forms fast — get there by 11:30–11:45 or you’ll be waiting.
The apartment picnic
One of our favorite Paris evenings is the apartment picnic: head to the Le Bon Marché food hall, let everyone pick out whatever looks good, and bring it all back to eat together. It’s a welcome change of pace after several long French dinners in a row.
While you’re there, buy Le Beurre Bordier. They sell it at Le Bon Marché and will vacuum-seal it on-site. Buy it the day before you leave — it holds up fine for the journey home, freezes well, and keeps for up to a year. We ration ours for special occasions.
Crêpes
Get one from a street stand: Nutella and banana. When I was little there was a crêpe stand on my walk home from school, and I had just enough allowance for one a day — I put on a little weight that year. Worth it.
Best neighborhoods in Paris to explore
Le Marais — our favorite
Le Marais is the best neighborhood in Paris for wandering — dense, walkable, and endlessly interesting. You can easily spend a full day here with no plan at all. For lunch, Marianne’s is a great central spot: you pick from a long list of falafel and mezze and share everything. There’s a good market nearby too.
Saint-Germain-des-Prés — the most “classic Paris” afternoon
If someone asked me where to go for the most quintessentially Parisian afternoon, this is it: cafés, bookstores, luxury shopping, and beautiful streets.
Montmartre — and the one rule that matters
Go to Sacré-Cœur, walk around Place du Tertre, and see the old vineyard. The logistical tip that matters: Uber up, walk down the hill. Do not walk up. On the way down, look for Hôtel Particulier Montmartre, tucked off a hidden alley — a fantastic, secluded lunch spot that’s easy to miss.
Latin Quarter — best at night
Narrow winding streets, students everywhere, and a lot of energy after dark.
Tuileries / Louvre area
Walk the garden and admire the architecture — you don’t have to go into the Louvre itself. If you haven’t been to the d’Orsay yet, go there instead.
Other things to do in Paris
- Eiffel Tower from the Trocadéro — the best view of the tower. Stay for the nightly sparkle show. The photographers at the base are genuinely good: they shoot, edit on the spot, and AirDrop the photos to your phone for €5–10.
- Parc Monceau and the Tuileries — two great parks. Make time to simply walk through them.
- Notre-Dame — fully restored and open again. Go see it.
How to spend a perfect day in Paris
The best days in Paris follow a simple rhythm: bistro coffee in the morning, explore a neighborhood, a long lunch, a drink or two at a fancy hotel bar, then dinner. That’s the whole formula, and it never fails.
Before you go, read A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway — his memoir of living in Paris in the 1920s. The cafés, the neighborhoods, the wandering unhurried lifestyle: it captures exactly the way I like to enjoy this city.
Paris travel FAQ
What is the best arrondissement to stay in for first-time visitors? The 8th arrondissement is a great base — central, walkable, and close to the parks and the best hotel bars. It isn’t the trendiest area, but nearly everything in the city is easy to reach from there.
Is the Musée d’Orsay better than the Louvre? For most visitors, yes. The Louvre is world-class but can feel overwhelming. The Musée d’Orsay offers a world-class Impressionist collection — Van Gogh, Monet — at a more manageable scale. If you only have energy for one, choose the d’Orsay.
What are the best restaurants in Paris? Standouts include L’Entrecôte (steak frites, lunch only), Allard (classic French, get the duck with olives), Bofinger (a grand old-world institution near Bastille), and Pink Mamma (fun Italian in Pigalle).
Do you need a reservation at L’Entrecôte? No — but there’s no reservation system and the line forms quickly, so arrive by 11:30–11:45 for lunch to avoid waiting.
Where is the best view of the Eiffel Tower? From the Trocadéro, which faces the tower directly. Stay for the nightly sparkle show.
Is Montmartre worth visiting, and how do you get up the hill? Yes — for Sacré-Cœur, Place du Tertre, and the old vineyard. Take an Uber up the hill and walk down; don’t try to walk up.
What should I buy in Paris to bring home? Le Beurre Bordier butter is the top pick — buy it at Le Bon Marché the day before you leave, vacuum-sealed on-site; it keeps for up to a year. Copper cookware from E. Dehillerin is excellent too, but only buy what you can carry, since shipping is a hassle.
Is Notre-Dame open again? Yes. Notre-Dame is fully restored and open to visitors again.
What’s the best way to experience Paris like a local? Skip the over-packed itinerary. Get a coffee, pick a neighborhood, and walk until you find a street-facing café worth sitting at. The unhurried morning café routine is the core Paris experience.
