Paris - the Top Sights?
 

Two questions???

1- Whatare the Top Ten 'Must Sights' you think theaverage first-time Parisian visitor just must see?


I'll Start:

MY PARIS MUST SIGHTS
Eiffel Tower - 3rd Floor Viewing Area
Notre Dame Cathedral- including climbing to the roof
Mona Lisa (and the Louvre too)
Tuileries Gardens and Place du Concorde
Arc de Triomphe- climb & Champs-Elysees
Orsay Museum
Montmartre & Sacre Coeur
Luxembourg Gardens
Boat Trip on the Seine
Versalles - chateau and gardens (yes not in Paris but a short RER/metro ride away).

AND YOURS?

It is impossible to say without knowing one's particular interests.

Where is the second question?

It is la Concorde.
Sainte chapelle.
I like the gardens but would not rank 2 in the top 10.

I like the views from Printemps.
Then a walk along the Seine in the evening from Notre Dame to the Louvre.

I would change the Tuileries out for Ste. Chappelle myself. I'd also consider dropping Luxembourg for a required Metro trip along several lines to see the better/more interesting stations.

I'd also consider dropping Orsay for the Musee de l'Armee and Napoleon's Tomb.

The rest of your list is on mine, most definitely.

for a required Metro trip along several lines to see the better/more interesting stations.>

ah yes a metro ride for sure - I like riding the elevated lines at night- seeing all the activity and lights below.

2nd question was to be what were your own personal musts or favorites - the first what you would generically advise first timers.

yes very subjective but the sights I put in the Top Ten would not have been my personal choices. Like the Louvre - most folks I think are rather bored and beat a track to the Mona Lisa and out.

Notre Dame including climbing the towers
Musee d'Orsay
St Chapelle
Scare Coeur
L'Orangerie
Musee Marmottan
St Denis
Rue St Louis en L'isle
Opera Garnier
Promenade Plantee

Sad it is when Must See lists provide the impetus for travel. Before the age of mass tourism, we went where our interests took us. Of those places mentioned in the OP my first trip to Paris of 2 weeks featured just one of them. Being from Chicago, spending a lot of time in the Art Institute, the Impressionist and Post Impressionist collections at the newly opened Musee d'Orsay were on my list. The others no.

I am a first timer planning 6Ns there! On my list is Shakespeare's bookstore, Sacre Couer in Monmartre, Sainte-Chapelle for it's windows, Panthéon, street market Marché Président Wilson. Of course Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower will not be missed as too the Rodin, d'Orsay, and Andre Jaquarement museums and a drink at the Ritz. And walking,I'm looking forward to being on the streets, and in the neighborhoods, and by the river. So that's 11 and I am sure we will try and fit in Versalles, boat ride on the Seine, and maybe the Catacombs! Heck maybe the gardens of Monet. And........!

I think we all determine our individual must-sees. And then we all see other things that may or may not touch us on our way to and from our must-sees.

In eight or nine trips to Paris, I don't think I've ever climbed Notre Dame. But one December night my sister and I went up to the top of the Eiffel Tower. It was bitter cold that year, even snowed a bit. I don't remember the top of the Eiffel Tower, but I remember she and I finding a cafe in which to have Irish coffees to warm up after our trip up the Tour. It was a joy.

Sad it is when Must See lists provide the impetus for travel.>

Well why do folks chose Paris over say Madrid often or Frankfurt- the things they've been dreaming about seeing for years.

Perhaps the must list should be more general like:

Outdoor markets
canals to explore
neat neighborhoods
walks to take
types of street snack food to try (like Tunisian pastries)
riding the metro
etc.

But I am the type that when I go to a city I want to see all the consensus top sights so I can make my own judgment on them - rather than not going to say Notre Dame and then wondering what is was like and what was the big deal?

There are many different types of travelers.
Some types are
those seeking consensus top sights,
those determining individual must sees,
those who are not particularly interested in seeing much of anything but want to get a feel for the area.

My travels anywhere have been reading, architecture, history based. My first trip here was to see, among many other wonders, the Art Nouveau of Hector Guimard, Paris Art Deco particularly the work of Henri Sauvage, Paris Commune sights/sites, the architecture of Oscar Niemeyer (I'd recently been to Brasilia)the passage where Celine lived (and wrote about extensively) locations of the movie The Red Balloon, Hugo's Court of Miracles and Zola's Rougon-Macquart series. I'm sure that none of these would feature on any top list.

IMO one gets more out of travel when one has invested in the experience rather than by following a list established by others. Lists are wonderful. I'm just sorry that many people seem to need them.

The musée de l’Armée, my husband loved this and I found it interesting.

L'Orangerie
Musee Marmottan (Favorite)

Shakespeare and Company
Saint-Eustache
Père Lachaise Cemetery and Montparnasse Cemetery

The street markets and cafes and just soaking it all in.
So much I love about this city.
The shopping at my two fav stores.

Different people will have different must-sees. I am not that interested in historical monuments in general, When I went to Paris in college, I made a pilgrimage to the address of the fictional family that starred in my French instructional method in school (10 Place d'Italie). I went to a jazz club in the Latin Quarter and I saw Cyrano de Bergerac at the Comedie Francaise. I went to the opera. I went to the Louvre and saw an exhibit of cubism at a museum I remember as the Pompidou but I must be wrong because it appears it wasn't built yet. I walked along the Seine. I went to Notre Dame and still have the photo of my friend and myself sitting in niches made for statues of saints.

When I went over 25 years later, I went to a flea market to hunt for French vintage kitchen items that I was collecting for my new kitchen. I went to the Musee d'Orsay, the Louvre, Notre Dame, Versailles, and the top of the Eiffel Tower (because my friend wanted to see the place her brother proposed to his wife). I went to a chamber music concert at Sainte Chapelle.

Another f5 or more years have passed, and when I go now, I go to the theater, to concerts, to lectures, to street markets, and museums, depending on what exhibitions are open. I shop for jewelry and hunt out favorite restaurants and food items in local shops.

When I went with a friend who was there with her mother-in-law, some of her mother-in-law's friends, and her sister-in-law, we all went to the Cirque d'Hiver, and it was by far the highlight of the trip for the older women.

I've been to Paris 8 times and not a day goes by when I don't think about it.

Perhaps, during my next trip, I will finally get a ticket to go up the Eiffel Tower. Or see the Gargoyles close up at Notre Dame. Maybe I have put off these attractions so I have a reason to return again. I think it's time to see these "new" sights.

Wow...what a tough question. I'll give my top three in each category off the top of my head:

Exterior Viewing: Eiffel Tower (from Trocadero), Notre Dame, Seine Boat Ride

History: Carnavalet Museum, St Denis, Cluny Museum

Art: Louvre, Orsay, Pompidou (actually I prefer the Modern Art Museum of the City on Ave president Wilson...but most would not want to miss the Pompidou)

Outdoors: Luxembourg Gardens, Self-guided Montmartre Walk, Place des Vosges