7 Best Sights in Paris, France

Maison La Roche is a must-see for architecture and design lovers. Built as a residence in 1923, it’s a stellar example of Swiss architect Le Corbusier's innovative construction techniques based on geometric forms, recherché color schemes, and a visionary use of iron and concrete. The sloping ramp that replaces the traditional staircase is one of the most eye-catching features. Hour-long English tours are available (four-person minimum) by advance booking.

The story of the Camondo family is steeped in tragedy, but you'd never know it by the interiors of this superb museum, as beautiful as the day patriarch Moïse de Camondo last closed its sculpted doors. Born in Istanbul to a successful Jewish banking family, Camondo built his showpiece mansion in 1911 in the style of the Petit Trianon at Versailles and stocked it with some of the most exquisite furniture, wainscoting, artworks, and bibelots of the mid- to late 18th century. Despite his vast wealth and purported charm, his wife left him five years into their marriage. Then his son, Nissim, was killed in World War I. Upon Moïse's death in 1935, the house and its contents were left to the state as a museum named for his lost son. A few years after Moïse's death, daughter Béatrice, her husband, and two children were deported from France and murdered at Auschwitz. No heirs remained, and the Camondo name died out. Today, the house is an impeccable tribute to Moïse's largesse and his passion for French decorative arts. Besides the mansion's grand spaces, such as various living rooms, a visit includes some of the family's private apartments, the kitchen, scullery, and the servants' dining room. There's also a chic contemporary café with a lovely terrace in the adjoining former garage.  Please note that the museum closed for renovations in August 2024 and is scheduled to reopen in February 2026.

It's a shame you can't go inside this house, which is considered the city's first Art Nouveau structure. Dreamed up in 1898 by Hector Guimard, the wild combination of materials and the grimacing grillwork led neighbors to call it Castle Dérangé (Deranged). Yet the project catapulted the 27-year-old Guimard into the public eye, leading to his famous métro commission. After ogling the sea-inspired front entrance, go partway down the alley to admire the inventive treatment of the traditional Parisian courtyard, complete with a melting water fountain. A few blocks up the road at No. 60 is the Hotel Mezzara, designed by Guimard in 1911 for textile designer Paul Mezzara. You can trace Guimard's evolution by walking to the subtler Agar complex at the end of the block. Tucked beside the stone entrance at the corner of Rue Jean de la Fontaine and Rue Gros is a tiny café-bar with an Art Nouveau glass front and furnishings.

The birthplace of Cubism isn't open to the public, but a display in the front window details this unimposing spot's rich history. Montmartre poet Max Jacob coined the name because the original structure here reminded him of the laundry boats that used to float in the Seine, and he joked that the warren of paint-splattered artists' studios needed a good hosing down (wishful thinking, because the building had only one water tap). It was in the Bateau-Lavoir that, early in the 20th century, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, and Juan Gris made their first bold stabs at Cubism, and Picasso painted the groundbreaking Les Demoiselles d'Avignon in 1906–07. The experimental works of the artists weren't met with open arms, even in liberal Montmartre. All but the facade was rebuilt after a fire in 1970. Like the original building, though, the current incarnation houses artists and their studios.

The modest home of the great French 19th-century writer Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850) contains exhibits charting his tempestuous yet prolific career. Balzac penned nearly 100 novels and stories known collectively as The Human Comedy, many of them set in Paris. You can still feel his presence in his study and pay homage to his favorite coffeepot—his working hours were fueled by a tremendous consumption of the "black ink." He would escape his creditors by exiting the flat through a secret passage that led down to what is now the Musée du Vin.

France's most famous scribe lived in this house on the southeast corner of Place des Vosges between 1832 and 1848. It's now a museum dedicated to the multitalented author. In Hugo's apartment on the second floor, you can see the tall desk, next to the short bed, where he began writing his masterwork Les Misérables (as always, standing up). There are manuscripts and early editions of the novel on display, as well as others such as Notre-Dame de Paris, known to English readers as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. You can see illustrations of Hugo's writings, including Bayard's rendering of the impish Cosette holding her giant broom (which has graced countless Les Miz T-shirts). The collection includes many of Hugo's own, sometimes macabre, ink drawings (he was a fine artist), and furniture from several of his homes. Particularly impressive is the room of carved and painted Chinese-style wooden panels that Hugo designed for the house of his mistress, Juliette Drouet, on the island of Guernsey, when he was exiled there for agitating against Napoléon III. Try to spot the intertwined Vs and Js (hint: look for the angel's trumpet in the left corner). A recent restoration not only spiffed up the house but made the museum fully accessible to people with physical or mental disabilities and impaired sight or hearing, with improved touch screens and audioguides. It also added a lovely garden terrace and a café by Paris's famous pastry shop Maison Mulot.

Built in 1407 and reputed to be the oldest stone house in Paris (though other buildings also claim that title), this abode has a mystical history. Harry Potter fans should take note: this was the real-life residence of Nicolas Flamel, the alchemist whose sorcerer's stone is the source of immortality in the popular book series. It's not all fanciful: a wealthy scribe, merchant, and dabbler in the mystical arts, Flamel willed his home to the city as a dormitory for the poor—on the condition that boarders pray daily for his soul. Today, the only way to gain entry to the building is to dine in the Michelin-starred restaurant residing on its beamed first floor.