A Guide to Paris

Resources, free sights, and hotel recommendations for planning a Paris vacation

Paris is the City of Light. It's the world capital of romance, birthplace of bohemians and impressionists, muse to Hemingway and the Lost Generation, and high temple of haute cuisine.

You can overload on art at the Louvre, cruise the Seine admiring 18th-century palaces, write poetry at a café table, dance in the dappled colors streaming through Notre Dame's stained glass, dine stupendously in a tiny bistro, or steal long kisses atop the Eiffel Tower.

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Top sights in Paris
Paris itineraries
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It's easy to romanticize this city—and just as easy to denigrate it. You've heard the people are rude, museums are crowded, traffic is horrendous, Champs-Elysées has become a McDonaldized strip mall, and everything is far, far too expensive. But don't think of these as obstacles to a good time.

So the people aren't as open-armed welcoming as those in the Sicilian countryside—if you don't expect them to be, you won't be disappointed. The museums are indeed popular, so go early to beat the crowds. As for the traffic: Don't drive; the Parisian Métro is fantastic. Accept the Champs-Elysées for what it has become, go see a French movie in one of its multiplexes, and look for elegant Paris elsewhere.

And while Paris has the potential to be the biggest wallet drain of your entire trip, I also know of no city more chock-a-block with great values on everything from meals and hotels to shopping and museum passes. You've just got to be willing to search them out—and this site is devoted to helping you do just that.

Most important, while those positives and negatives are all true to some extent, they aren't the sum of the city. Paris is a city alive, one that has managed to achieve some sort of balance between being a vibrant, modern metropolis and also a city of yesterday's heroes and dreams. It's a town both of trendy nightclubs, cutting-edge cuisine, and the highest of high fashion, and one of venerable museums, café memories of literary greats, and a sweeping 18th- and 19th-century grandeur.

It's this balance, and the contrasts of the good sides and the bad, that keep Paris intriguing, keep it attractive, and keep an army of visitors and faithful admirers coming back year after year.

Top Sights

The Louvre

2) The Eiffel Tower
3) Notre Dame Cathedral
4) Cafe culture
5) Musée d'Orsay
6) Cruising the Seine
7) Arc de Triomphe
8) Montmartre

9) Shopping

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Free Sights

Musée Carnavalet
2) Musée du Petit Palais
3) Sacre Coeur
4) St-Germain-des-Pres
5) Musée d'Art Moderne
6) Musée Cognacq-Jay

7) Maison de Balzac
8) Jardin de Tuileries
9) Perfume Museum

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Reid's List

1) Rodin Museum
2) Pompidou Museum

3) Picasso Museum
4) Jardin des Plantes
5) The Sewers of Paris
6) Sainte-Chapelle
7) Père-Lachaise Cemetery
8) Thermes de Cluny
9) Institue du Monde Arabe

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Paris for Free

- The Louvre is free. No, really—and I don't mean by sneaking in the back door. Here are dozens of free museums and other cost-free things to see and do in the City of Lights... » Full Story