Things to Do in Paris: the Essential 2026 Guide

Set up a HelloRoam eSIM for Paris before you go, and the Métro app, museum tickets and maps work on Orange from the moment you arrive, with the cost settled up front rather than added to your bill by the day.

The top picks in practical order:

• Louvre: Closed on Tuesdays, and open until 9pm on Wednesdays and Fridays. The museum recommends a time slot for every visitor, free entry included.
• Musée d'Orsay: The Left Bank's major art museum, a short walk across the Seine from the Tuileries.
• Sainte-Chapelle: 15 stained glass windows on the Île de la Cité, two-thirds of them original 13th-century glass.
• Seine cruise: Bateaux-Mouches sightseeing cruises leave from the foot of the Pont de l'Alma and last about an hour.

The Paris Museum Pass covers 50+ museums and monuments, as a 2, 4 or 6-day pass at €85, €105 or €125 on its official site. The site says the savings start, on average, from the 4th visit on the 2-day pass, the 5th on the 4-day pass and the 6th on the 6-day pass. The pass does not replace a time slot: the Louvre, Musée d'Orsay, the Palace of Versailles, Sainte-Chapelle, the Conciergerie, the Notre-Dame towers, the Orangerie and the Hôtel de la Marine ask pass holders to book one.

We checked the opening days, prices, booking rules and entry rules in this guide in October 2026. We used official sources only: the sites' own websites, the Paris Museum Pass, the City of Paris, GOV.UK, and the transport and mobile networks' pages. They change during the year, so check each site's own page before you book.

Museums and monuments to book first

Paris's essential museum and monument visits are the Louvre, Musée d'Orsay, Sainte-Chapelle, Arc de Triomphe, and Notre-Dame. These five anchor any first-visit itinerary.

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The Louvre is too big to see in one go, so pick two or three rooms with a clear purpose. The Mona Lisa hangs in the Denon wing, and the Venus de Milo stands in the Sully wing. Visitors from outside the EEA pay €32, EEA visitors €22, and under-18s go free.

Musée d'Orsay fits the afternoon after the Louvre, as the three-day plan below does.

Musée de l'Orangerie, in the Tuileries Garden, holds Monet's Water Lilies: eight large compositions in two oval rooms that Monet designed for them. They were installed there in 1927, a few months after his death. Like the Louvre, it closes on Tuesdays. Until 25 January 2027 it also shows the exhibition Monet, painting time.

The Arc de Triomphe rewards the climb with a rooftop view over the Place de l'Étoile and down the Champs-Élysées. Napoleon ordered it in 1806, and it took until 1836 to finish. Under-18s go up free, as do 18 to 25-year-olds who are EU nationals or legal residents in France. Other adults pay €16 from October to March and €22 from April to September (€16 on Wednesdays). The lift has been out of service since late July 2026, so the 284 steps are the only way up until it returns in 2027.

Sainte-Chapelle sits inside the Palais de Justice on the Île de la Cité. Louis IX built it in the 13th century to hold the Crown of Thorns, and its windows tell 1,113 scenes, from Genesis to the Apocalypse. Its own FAQ explains the long wait: security checks at the Palais de Justice are strict. Buy ahead, as the chapel strongly recommends, or risk a very long wait in busy periods. A non-EEA ticket costs €22, and it opens 9am to 7pm from April to September and 9am to 5pm from October to March.

Palais Garnier, the opera house, opens for self-guided visits with no opera ticket needed. Booking online is mandatory, as no visit tickets are sold on site, and adults from outside the EEA pay €25. Rehearsals often close the auditorium at short notice, so you may not see Marc Chagall's ceiling on the day.

Notre-Dame de Paris reopened in December 2024, five years after the 2019 fire, and restoration work goes on around it. Entry to the cathedral floor is free. The towers are a separate visit: 424 steps up, €16 for adults, with tickets sold online only and free entry for under-18s.

Several of these sights are free on set days. The Louvre is free for everyone on the first Friday of the month after 6pm, except in July and August. The Arc de Triomphe, Sainte-Chapelle and the Notre-Dame towers are free on the first Sunday of January, February, March, November and December. The Orangerie is free on the first Sunday of every month, and the Palace of Versailles on the first Sunday from November to March. Book a slot even on a free day: the Orangerie and the Notre-Dame towers require one.

Quieter corners beyond the big sights

Beyond the standard circuit, Paris has Montmartre's village streets, the Jardin du Luxembourg, Parc des Buttes-Chaumont in the 19th arrondissement and the Belle Époque restaurant Le Train Bleu at Gare de Lyon.

Montmartre feels like a village above the city rather than a neighbourhood within it. Entry to the Sacré-Coeur basilica is free, and it opens every day from 6.30am to 10.30pm. Climb to its dome for a view over Paris. Each October, around the second weekend, the neighbourhood holds the Fête des Vendanges, its grape harvest festival. In 2026 it ran from 7 to 11 October.

The Seine cruise deserves more credit than it typically receives. The riverfront view of Notre-Dame, the Conciergerie, and the Musée d'Orsay from water level is a distinctly different perspective from anything street-facing.

Le Train Bleu inside Gare de Lyon is a Belle Époque restaurant that opened in 1901, decorated with paintings, chandeliers and gilding. Its restaurant room and three of its salons have been listed historic monuments since 1972.

Jardin du Luxembourg is the French Senate's garden and a good afternoon stop after the Tuileries. Its opening hours change with the seasons, on the 1st and 16th of each month, so check the garden's website before an evening visit.

Parc des Buttes-Chaumont in the 19th arrondissement is a hilly park with a lake, built on an old gypsum quarry. The City of Paris has closed the island, the Temple de la Sibylle and both waterfalls because the ground there is unstable. Part of the path around the lake is shut too. The other 95% of the park stays open while the city prepares a renovation of its centre that will take several years.

Day trips from Paris worth the journey

Four day trips suit a first visit: Versailles, Giverny, Chartres and Reims, with Mont-Saint-Michel as a much longer fifth. Train times change with the timetable, so check SNCF Connect before you plan the day.

For Versailles, take the RER C to Versailles Château Rive Gauche, a 10-minute walk from the palace. Buy one Métro-Train-RER ticket for each way, as it covers trains and the RER across the Île-de-France region, except to the airports. The palace is closed on Mondays.

From April to late October, the gardens charge for entry on Musical Fountains Show and Musical Gardens days, Tuesday to Sunday. A Passport ticket covers the palace, the Trianon estate and the gardens: €25 for visitors from outside the EEA, or €35 on those show days. From November to late March, the gardens are free for everyone, every day. On a clear afternoon, the formal parterres, the orangery and the Grand Canal can be more rewarding than the crowded palace rooms.

Giverny is the Normandy village where Monet lived from 1883 and made the water garden he painted for decades. Check the Fondation Claude Monet's opening dates before you book the trip.

Chartres suits anyone who has spent enough time in Paris museums: its medieval cathedral is the reason to go. The cathedral is open every day from 8.30am to 7.30pm.

Reims adds something Paris can't: Champagne, with cellar tours at the Champagne houses in the city.

Mont-Saint-Michel is a long way from Paris for a single day. It is the right choice for a dedicated trip, not something to graft onto an already full Paris week.

The Paris shortlist when time is tight

No itinerary covers everything. The minimum shortlist, if time is the real constraint, is the Louvre, Musée d'Orsay, Montmartre, and Sainte-Chapelle. All four sit at the heart of the three-day plan below.

Le Marais deserves half a day minimum. Start at the Place des Vosges. Skip the Marché des Enfants Rouges for now. A fire on the night of 11 to 12 October 2026 destroyed its roof and stalls. The City of Paris says some traders now sell fruit, vegetables, flowers and cheese outside it, at 39 rue de Bretagne.

Paris's big five landmarks, and how to see each one

Paris's five landmark sites are the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Notre-Dame, the Arc de Triomphe and Sacré-Coeur. The Louvre, Notre-Dame and the Arc are covered above, and Sacré-Coeur is part of the Montmartre walk.

The Eiffel Tower reads better from the Trocadéro esplanade, across the Seine, than from the base. Up close, the structure fills the frame and loses context. From the Trocadéro, the full silhouette resolves against the sky, which is the version in every photograph worth keeping.

What to wear in Paris, red included

Yes, you can wear red in Paris. Colour choice in Paris is entirely your own, and no cultural prohibition on red exists. The notion that Parisians enforce rigid unwritten rules about what visitors should wear is a myth.

The idea that colour coordination matters here has little grounding in how Parisians actually dress. Practicality outranks presentation in daily life. Comfortable shoes, layers that work across variable spring weather, something reasonably tidy for a restaurant dinner.

Smart-casual suits the nicer brasseries and bistros well. Clean trainers, dark jeans, and a collared shirt or neat blouse handle most situations comfortably. Overly formal attire is unnecessary; Paris is relaxed by European city standards, and genuine dress codes, where they exist, appear explicitly in the booking terms.

Trainers are broadly accepted, including in moderately upscale venues. The one visible misstep is looking unprepared for the weather.

So: wear red. Wear whatever you'd feel confident in at home. The more carefully considered wardrobe decision in Paris is footwear, because three days of serious sightseeing covers real ground. Our holiday packing list covers everything else worth bringing.

What to do in 3 days in Paris: a day-by-day plan

Three days is enough to cover Paris's headline attractions without feeling rushed, if you book time slots before you leave the UK. Without one, busy days can mean a very long wait or no entry at all, even with a Paris Museum Pass. Buy only on each site's official website, as the Paris Museum Pass warns that fake sites copy museum ticketing.

Day 1: Louvre, Tuileries, Musée d'Orsay

Be at the Louvre for its 9am opening, on any day but Tuesday, when it is closed. Walk through the Tuileries Garden afterwards, then cross the river to the Musée d'Orsay for the afternoon. Check Orsay's own site for its weekly closing day before you fix the date.

Day 2: Montmartre and Le Marais

Start in Montmartre, Sacré-Coeur included, then spend the afternoon in Le Marais: the Place des Vosges and the Jewish Quarter. Leave the Centre Pompidou off the plan: its building closed on 22 September 2025 for renovation and is due back in 2030.

Day 3: Historic core and west

Book Sainte-Chapelle for its 9am opening, then spend the afternoon at the Arc de Triomphe for the view down the Avenue des Champs-Élysées. An evening near the Palais Garnier rounds the trip with some neighbourhood texture worth lingering in.

Before you leave the UK: passport rules, border checks and the time difference

UK passport holders can visit France without a visa for up to 90 days in any 180-day period, GOV.UK says. Your passport must be under 10 years old on arrival and valid for 3 months after you leave.

The EU's Entry/Exit System (EES) has been fully running since 10 April 2026, the European Commission says. You may be asked for your fingerprints and a photo at the border. For Eurostar passengers, GOV.UK says this happens at St Pancras before you leave the UK. ETIAS, the EU travel authorisation UK visitors will need once it starts, is not required yet. The official ETIAS website says it is not in operation and takes no applications. The EU will announce the start date several months ahead. Check GOV.UK's France travel advice before you go, as entry rules can change.

Paris is on Central European Time, one hour ahead of the UK all year. France and the UK both change their clocks on the last Sunday of March and the last Sunday of October.

Staying connected in Paris: SIM cards, eSIMs and Wi-Fi

Museum and café Wi-Fi comes and goes, so mobile data is what keeps maps, Métro times and e-tickets working as you move between sights.

Whether you pay to roam in France depends on your UK plan. O2 includes France in its Europe Zone at no extra cost, using your UK allowance up to a 25GB roaming limit. Vodafone sells an 8-day Europe pass for £16, or 15 days for £21, to pay monthly customers whose plan leaves Europe out. On Three plans without roaming built in, you buy a Go Roam pass or pay a daily charge, and the rate depends on your plan and when you joined. Check your own network's roaming page before you travel, or see the UK networks that include France at no extra cost. Our guide on how to avoid roaming charges compares the options.

Three options compared

The dual-SIM case

Keeping your UK number active while using a French data plan matters if your bank sends payment codes by text. A dual-SIM setup, one physical SIM for calls and texts and one eSIM for data, keeps both working without extra hardware.

A local prepaid SIM from a tabac works for shorter stays, but take your passport: Orange says the law has required ID to activate any prepaid SIM in France since 2016, at every operator. For anything longer than a long weekend, a HelloRoam France eSIM runs on Orange, and you can top it up from your phone if a busy week uses more than you planned. As of October 2026, the France data plans include 30-day plans from 3GB to 50GB.