The Paris of the postcards is real and worth seeing once. But the city that people fall in love with is smaller, quieter, and concentrated in about six arrondissements that most first visits skip entirely.
Cross the river less
Paris rewards depth over coverage. Pick an area — the 11th around Oberkampf, the 10th along the Canal Saint-Martin, the 20th around Belleville — and spend two days in it rather than crossing the city four times a day for landmarks.
The canal is the best walk in the city: from République north to the Bassin de la Villette, past the iron footbridges and the locks, ending at a cinema or the science museum. On Sundays the quays close to traffic entirely.
The museums that are not the Louvre
- Musée de la Vie Romantique, in a courtyard garden in the 9th, with a tearoom that is the point.
- Musée Carnavalet, free, and the best account of the city’s own history.
- Fondation Louis Vuitton in the Bois de Boulogne, as much for the building as the shows.
- Musée Bourdelle, a sculptor’s studio kept as it was, ten minutes from Montparnasse.
The Louvre is a nine-hour building. Give it two hours, see four things properly, and leave before it defeats you.
Eating like it is a weekday
The formule at lunch — starter and main, or main and dessert, at a fixed price — is the single best value in Parisian dining and exists in restaurants that would cost three times as much at dinner. Book nothing; walk in at half past twelve.
For dinner, the neo-bistrots of the 11th take reservations three weeks out and are worth one of them. Everywhere else, arrive at seven-thirty when they open and you will get a table.
Practical
Buy a carnet of ten metro tickets or use contactless directly at the gates. Most museums close on Monday or Tuesday — check which before planning a day around one. And many restaurants close Sunday and Monday entirely, which catches out weekend visitors more than anything else.
Then do one postcard thing anyway. Walk to the Pont des Arts at dusk, look west, and admit that the reputation is earned.