69 Best Sights in Paris, France

Home to four major cultural centers, this honey-colored Art Deco structure on Place du Trocadéro was built in the 1930s to replace a Moorish-style building constructed for the 1878 World's Fair. Its esplanade is also a top draw for camera-toting visitors intent on snapping the perfect shot of the Eiffel Tower. Facing the building from the Place du Trocadéro, to the left are the Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine—billed as the world's largest architectural museum—and the Theâtre National de Chaillot, one of the city's major dance and performance venues, which occasionally stages plays in English. The twin building to the right contains the Musée de l’Homme, a thoroughly modern anthropology museum, and the marvelous Musée National de la Marine, reopened in 2023 after a six-year restoration. Sculptures and fountains adorn the garden leading to the Seine.

The city's Museum of Fashion occupies a suitably fashionable mansion—the 19th-century residence of Maria Brignole-Sale, Duchess of Galliera. Inside, exhibition spaces on two floors focus on costume and clothing design. Covering key moments in fashion history and showcasing legendary French designers, the museum's collection includes 200,000 articles of clothing and accessories that run the gamut from basic streetwear to haute couture. Galleries at the garden level focus on fashion history from the 18th century to the present via pieces from the permanent collection. Information about changing exhibitions is on the website. Don't miss the lovely 19th-century garden that encircles the palace, a favorite spot for neighborhood Parisians to take a coffee and a book.

Rome has St. Peter's, London has St. Paul's, and Paris has the Panthéon, whose enormous dome dominates the Left Bank. Built as the church of Ste-Geneviève, the patron saint of Paris, it was later converted to an all-star mausoleum for some of France's biggest names, including Voltaire, Zola, Dumas, Rousseau, and Hugo. Pierre and Marie Curie were reinterred here together in 1995, and feminist-politician Simone Veil became only the fifth woman in this illustrious group when she was entombed in 2018. Begun in 1764, the building was almost complete when the French Revolution erupted. By then, architect Jacques-German Soufflot had died—supposedly from worrying that the 220-foot-high dome would collapse. He needn't have fretted: the dome was so perfect that Foucault used it in his famous pendulum test to prove the Earth rotates on its axis. Today the crypt, nave, and dome still sparkle (the latter offering great views), and Foucault's pendulum still holds pride of place on the main floor, slowly swinging in its clockwise direction and reminding of us of Earth's eternal spin.

A lake, a butterfly garden, a bonsai pavillion, and seasonal displays of blooms make the Bois de Vincennes's 70-acre floral park a lovely place to spend a warm afternoon. Kids will also enjoy the extensive playgrounds and the marionette (guignol) theater. A café and a sit-down tea salon make dining easy, but picnicking under the trees is highly recommended, especially when the park hosts jazz and classical concerts (most weekends from June through September). In winter months, some attractions may be closed.

This 38-acre park on the southern edge of the city is one of Paris's best-kept secrets. Home to an enormous variety of flora and fauna, as well as a small rose garden, one can stroll or jog around the hilly footpaths or lounge and picnic on a number of giant lawns. There are free playgrounds for children and a small lake with ducks and other waterfowl. If you're feeling especially energetic and adventurous, cross Boulevard Jourdan and explore the campus of the unique and historic Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris. The campus is home to a variety of architectural wonders, both modern and historic, which house visiting professors and students from around the world.

Visiting graveyards in Paris can become addictive. Less well known than Montparnasse or Père Lachaise, Passy Cemetery, which dates from 1821, is raised high above Place du Trocadéro behind towering walls so that passersby hardly know it's there. Here under the chestnut trees are the tombstones of famous aristocrats and artists, such as composer Claude Debussy, Impressionist painters Édouard Manet and Berthe Morisot, and fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy, all with superb, and eternal, views of the Eiffel Tower.

Named after Russian Tsar Alexander III who negotiated the Franco-Prussian alliance of 1892, this ornately sculpted and gilded Beaux Arts–style bridge was inaugurated in 1900 for the Universal Exposition, like its cousins the Grand Palais and Petit Palais. At the time, it was considered a benchmark in engineering, built low to maximize the views between the Champs-Élysées on one side and Invalides on the other. To this day its elegant lines, sculpture-topped columns, and dramatic Art Nouveau lamps are catnip for Instagrammers, fashion shoots, and filmmakers, and it's the ideal spot for taking in views of the surrounding monuments. It’s wonderful to see on a nighttime boat ride on the Seine when it’s fully lit up.

The English-language bookstore Shakespeare and Company is one of Paris's most eccentric and lovable literary institutions. Founded by George Whitman, the maze of new and used books has offered a sense of community (and often a bed) to wandering writers since the 1950s. The store takes its name from Sylvia Beach's original Shakespeare & Co., which opened in 1919 at 12 rue d'Odéon, welcoming the likes of Ernest Hemingway, James Baldwin, and James Joyce. Beach famously bucked the system when she published Joyce's Ulysses in 1922, but her original store closed in 1941. After the war, Whitman picked up the gauntlet, naming his own bookstore after its famous predecessor.

When Whitman passed away in 2011, heavy-hearted locals left candles and flowers in front of his iconic storefront. He is buried in the literati-laden Père-Lachaise cemetery; however, his legacy lives on through his daughter Sylvia, who runs the shop and welcomes a new generation of Paris dreamers. Walk up the almost impossibly narrow stairs to the second floor and you'll still see laptops and sleeping bags tucked between the aging volumes and under dusty daybeds; it's sort of like a hippie commune. A revolving cast of characters helps out in the shop or cooks meals for fellow residents. They're in good company; Henry Miller, Samuel Beckett, and William Burroughs are among the famous writers to benefit from the Whitman family hospitality.

Today, you can still count on a couple of characters lurking in the stacks, a sometimes spacey staff, the latest titles from British presses, and hidden secondhand treasures in the odd corners and crannies. Check the website for readings and workshops throughout the week.

For centuries, this 170-foot bell tower guided pilgrims to a starting point of the Chemin de St-Jacques (Way of Saint James). Built in 1508 in the Flamboyant Gothic style, it's all that remains of the Église St-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie, which was destroyed in the French Revolution. Purchased by the city in 1836, the tower languished until a three-year renovation, completed in 2009, restored 660 tons of stone and statues, including the gargoyles hanging from the upper reaches and the figure of Saint James gracing the top. Blaise Pascal was among the medieval scientists who conducted experiments here (his involved gravity), which is why his statue sits at the base. If you wish to enter the tower, guided tours are occasionally offered in spring, summer, and early fall by reservation only.