Four days in Paris sounds like enough until you’re standing in front of the Louvre realizing you’ve already burned two hours and haven’t made it past the Egyptian antiquities. Paris rewards the person who slows down and punishes the person who tries to do everything. I’ve been three times. This last trip I finally got it right.
Here’s what actually worked, what I’d cut, and where I ate.
Where to Stay
Stay in the Marais or Saint-Germain-des-Pres. Those are the two answers. The Marais puts you close to the Picasso Museum, Place des Vosges, and the best falafel street in the city. Saint-Germain puts you equidistant from the Orsay, the Luxembourg Gardens, and Cafe de Flore if you want to drop 8 euros on an espresso and feel like you’re in a Godard film.
I stayed at Hotel Caron de Beaumarchais in the Marais, a small boutique hotel on Rue Vieille du Temple. The rooms are small, the decor is 18th-century French without being suffocating, and the location means you walk everywhere that matters. Rates run around 180 to 220 euros a night depending on the season. Not cheap, but you’re not paying for a cab every time you want dinner.
Avoid anything near the Champs-Elysees unless you enjoy paying premium prices to be surrounded by chain restaurants and tour groups. The 8th arrondissement looks good on paper and feels hollow in person.
The Neighborhoods Worth Your Time
Le Marais
This is where I spent most of my time and I have no regrets. The Marais is the oldest surviving neighborhood in Paris, which means narrow medieval streets that somehow contain some of the best vintage shops, contemporary galleries, and food stalls in the city. Start at Place des Vosges in the morning before the crowds arrive. It’s a 17th-century square lined with arcaded brick buildings and a small garden in the center. Victor Hugo lived on the southeast corner. His apartment is a free museum now, which is worth an hour if you care about French literary history.
On Rue des Rosiers, L’As du Fallafel is the falafel spot everyone talks about. The line moves fast, the sandwich is 7 euros, and yes it lives up to the reputation. Go for lunch, not dinner. The alley gets tight and hot by evening.
The Picasso Museum on Rue de Thorigny is legitimately one of the best museums in the city and most tourists skip it in favor of the Louvre. Don’t. It holds the largest collection of Picasso’s work in the world, housed in a 17th-century mansion. 14 euros, rarely crowded, and you can actually stand in front of paintings without someone’s phone in your face.
Saint-Germain-des-Pres
Saint-Germain is the Left Bank literary neighborhood that’s now mostly upscale boutiques and brasseries, but the bones are good. The Luxembourg Gardens are free and beautiful and one of the few green spaces in central Paris where you can sit in a metal chair and watch people play petanque. Go in the morning.
Brasserie Lipp on Boulevard Saint-Germain is old-guard Paris — dark wood panels, tiled floors, waiters who have opinions. Get the choucroute garnie if it’s cold out. It’s a lot of food. The bill will be higher than you expect. It’s worth it once.
For something less expensive and more current, try Cafe Procope on Rue de l’Ancienne Comedie. It claims to be the oldest cafe in Paris, opened in 1686. The food is solid French bistro — onion soup, duck confit, creme brulee — and the price point is reasonable for the neighborhood.
Montmartre
Go to Montmartre once, in the morning, and skip the midday crowds. The view from the steps of Sacre-Coeur is what you came for. Walk down through the steep streets toward Abbesses metro station rather than taking the funicular back up. The neighborhoods around Rue Lepic and Place du Tertre are quieter than the hill itself.
For breakfast in Montmartre, Pain Pain on Rue Abbesses makes exceptional croissants and the line is short if you arrive before 9am.
The Museums
The Louvre
You have to go. The Louvre is vast to the point of being absurd — 35,000 works across 72,000 square meters — and most people walk out feeling vaguely defeated. The trick is to not try to see it all. Pick three things. I mean it. Three things you actually want to stand in front of, not three wings.
My three: the Winged Victory of Samothrace at the top of the Daru staircase, the Vermeer paintings in the Dutch Masters section, and yes, the Mona Lisa, because you should see it once. It’s smaller than you expect. It’s also surrounded by a mob. Look at it for sixty seconds and move on.
Book tickets online in advance at louvre.fr. 22 euros. Go on a Wednesday or Friday evening when the museum is open until 9:45pm and the crowds thin considerably after 6pm.
Musee d’Orsay
The Orsay was a train station, and the building itself — vaulted ceilings, ornate clock faces, the original gilded architecture — is part of the experience. The collection covers 1848 to 1914: Monet, Renoir, Degas, Cezanne, Van Gogh, all of them and most of the major works.
Van Gogh’s self-portrait and Starry Night over the Rhone are on the fifth floor. Start there and work your way down. The cafe on the top floor has a view through the clock face looking toward Sacre-Coeur. 16 euros, closed Mondays.
Orangerie
The Orangerie contains two things worth seeing: Monet’s Water Lilies and a strong collection of early 20th-century French art. The Water Lilies occupy two oval rooms specifically designed by Monet for the paintings. They’re massive — each panel is several meters wide — and the rooms are arranged so the light comes from above. It’s one of those rare museum experiences where the installation and the artwork work together the way they were intended to. 12.50 euros, closed Tuesdays, about 90 minutes to do it properly.
Day Trip: Versailles
Versailles is 40 minutes from Paris on the RER C train and costs about 20 euros to enter the palace. Go on a Tuesday or Wednesday, not a weekend. The Hall of Mirrors is spectacular and completely overwhelming with a thousand other people in it. The gardens are free and enormous — 800 hectares — and the Grand Canal and the Trianon palaces are where you want to spend your afternoon after the palace itself.
Bring food. The on-site restaurants are overpriced and slow. A baguette and cheese by the fountain is the right call.
Food: The Specific List
- Breakfast: Du Pain et des Idees, Rue Yves Toudic in the 10th. The escargot pastry (spiral, not the snail) is worth building your morning around. Open weekdays only.
- Lunch: Chez Janou, Rue Roger Verlomme in the Marais. Provencal cooking, great ratatouille, outdoor seating. Arrive at noon when they open.
- Dinner: Septime, Rue de Charonne in the 11th. The tasting menu runs around 70 euros and the cooking is precise without being precious. Book a month out minimum.
- Wine bar: Le Verre Vole, Rue de Lancry in the 10th. Natural wine, good charcuterie, excellent cheese. Go early or go late.
- Cheese: Fromagerie Laurent Dubois on Boulevard Saint-Germain. 40 euros of cheese to bring back to your hotel room is a perfectly valid dinner option.
What to Skip
The Eiffel Tower line. See it from the Trocadero or Champ de Mars below it. Walk across the Pont d’Iena at dusk when the tower lights up every hour on the hour. You don’t need to go up.
Seine river cruises. Everything you’d see from the boat you can see better on foot from the bridges.
Any restaurant on the main tourist corridors around Notre Dame or near the Eiffel Tower. The food is mediocre and the price reflects the location, not the quality.
What Made This Trip Different
- Paris has 37 Michelin three-star restaurants, more than any other city in the world. New York has five.
- The original Art Nouveau metro station entrances designed by Hector Guimard are still standing at Abbesses, Arts et Metiers, and a handful of others. They’re worth noticing.
- Most Paris museums are free the first Sunday of every month. If your trip lands on that Sunday, adjust your schedule. The Louvre, Orsay, and Orangerie all participate.
- Parisians eat dinner late. Restaurants often don’t fill up until 8 or 8:30pm. If you’re hungry at 6:30, you will either find a tourist trap or a very confused server.
Book Tours and Activities
- Skip-the-line Louvre tours on Viator — worth every penny to avoid the 2-hour queue
- Paris food walking tours — the best way to find places you would never find alone
- Top-rated Paris activities on TripAdvisor
Gear and Guides We Recommend
- Travel Adapter: Europe uses Type C and E outlets. Universal Travel Adapter on Amazon
- Packing Cubes: Four days, carry-on only, no checked bag fee. Packing Cubes on Amazon
- Rick Steves Paris Guide: Opinionated, practical, updated regularly. Rick Steves Paris on Amazon