Paris, one of the most popular destinations for city breaks in Europe, is an ideal choice for a one-day excursion. While going to Paris just for a day might seem ambitious, it's surprisingly feasible thanks to the quick journey on the Eurostar. If you catch the first train out and the last one back, you'll have over 11 hours to explore the sights of Paris.
This city is renowned for its iconic landmarks, exquisite food, and exceptional shopping experiences. There's an abundance to try, see, buy, eat, and drink. To help you make the most of your brief visit, we've compiled a guide of the best things to do in Paris if you're only there for a day. Of course, if you decide to extend your stay in this captivating city, we wouldn't blame you. For those looking to explore more while keeping an eye on their budget, we highly recommend visiting our page on cheap Paris holidays, offering valuable tips and deals to enhance your experience without breaking the bank.
Start with the Basilica of the Sacré-Cœur in Montmartre (see neighbourhood guide below). The highest point in Paris, you can see the beautiful city spread out in front of you. Head back down the hill and jump on the Metro down to L'Arc de Triomphe and see the famous Avenue des Champs-Élysées stretching out. You can either walk down the boulevard to the Place de la Concorde for fantastic views of the Eiffel Tower (while checking out the shops), or jump straight back on the metro and head straight to the iconic landmark itself.
After lunch take a boat trip down the Seine and stop off at either Notre-Dame or the Louvre and maybe visit the world's most iconic painting, the Mona Lisa. You're now in the heart of Paris, close to some of the major museums, parks and landmarks. Take a walk around the historic streets of nearby Le Marais (see below) and have a leisurely dinner, before wandering back up to Gare du Nord to get your train back home. One thing to remember is that a lot of the major attractions may have large queues at busy times of the day or at peak holidays, so be sure to factor that in or book ahead if you're just there for the day.
If you just want to feel like a Parisian for the day and soak up some of the ambiance of the City of Lights, spend some time getting to know a particular area. If you've arrived by Eurostar, hilly Montmartre should be your first stop to really make you feel like you've arrived in Paris - it's only a 20 minute walk (or you can jump on the funicular and bypass the steps up to the Sacré-Cœur) for the best views across the city. The area feels like proper Paris (Amélie was filmed here). There's lots of windy, cobbled streets and lampost-lined plazas - all with a genteel shabby chic atmosphere. It even has a small vineyard - Le Clos Montmartre.
The neighbouring area of Pigalle/Saint-Georges is home to the Moulin Rouge and is the Parisian equivalent of London's Soho. The part called La Nouvelle-Athène also has some lovely buildings.
This was the aristocratic and Jewish heart of the city and is very much "Old Paris", with lovely buildings and quintessential Parisian features. It's packed with cafes and restaurants. In summer, get a picnic and sit in the pretty Place des Vosges. There's plenty of street art here, as well as art galleries and museums and Paris's oldest covered market, Marché des Enfants Rouges.
You can get the metro straight from Gare du Nord to the bohemian area of Saint-Germain-des-Prés on the Left Bank in less than 20 minutes.There's plenty of independent shopping to be found here, from high-end couture to quality vintage garments, and you're only a short walk away from attractions like Notre-Dame and Le Jardin du Luxembourg. If you're heading that way towards the river, you'll walk past the Quartier Latin, one of the oldest parts of the city and the place to browse the second-hand stores and bookshops.
If you're on a sightseeing day trip, a hop on/hop off bus will take you to the main Paris points of interest. Companies like City Sightseeing have open top buses around the major sites.
One of the most recognisable structures in the world, the Eiffel Tower still dominates the Paris skyline more than 125 years after it was built. If you're a first-time visitor, make time for a photo here. Be sure to climb the 324m tower as well - tours start at 9.30am with the last ones going until midnight in the summer, but book in advance as this is the most visited, paid for monument in the world.
Equally magnificent is the Roman-inspired Arc de Triomphe at Place de l'Étoile. The traffic-filled streets sprawl away from it in all directions - including the magnificent Avenue des Champs-Élysées. You can pay to go inside and see Paris from the panoramic terrace at the top.
The Gothic splendour of Notre-Dame Cathedral takes pride of place on the UNESCO World Heritage List, and will forever be immortalised as the home of the hunchback in Victor Hugo's famous novel. You're in the exact centre of Paris as all places in France are officially measured from here. Another Gothic building is the medieval Sainte-Chapelle. It's home to one of the finest stained glass window collections in the world. Much of it dates back to the 13th century. The Basilica of the Sacré-Cœur in Montmartre also has spectacular views of Paris, but it's worth popping inside too. You can see the whole of Paris from the front steps and, on a clear day up, as far as 50km from the dome (which is 200m above the River Seine).
If you want to see what lies beneath the pretty Paris streets, visit the atmospheric Paris Catacombs (Municipal Ossuary). These have been a macabre tourist attraction since 1787 - so be aware there can be large queues, especially at peak times. Booking a guide can help bypass this if you're in a rush. The Panthéon is another iconic Parisian building - the 18th century architecture and neoclassical dome is certainly impressive. In the mausoleum, you'll find the tombs of Victor Hugo, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire, Émile Zola, Louis Braille and Marie Curie among other French luminaries of the arts, science, philosophy and literature. So many people have made the pilgrimage to the Cimetière du Père-Lachaise, it's regarded as the most visited cemetery in the world. Among those buried here are Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison, Édith Piaf and Chopin (there are maps there to help you find the famous graves).
A boat trip down the Seine is a great way to see some of the major sites along the banks. Many do a loop from the Eiffel Tower, past Notre Dame and back along to the Louvre. There are 37 bridges over the river in Paris. The Pont Neuf is the oldest remaining crossing and joins the Île de la Cité with the Left and Right Banks. Wander across Pont Alexandre III for views of the river and Eiffel Tower - and spot the gilt bronze sculptures depicting winged horses on the bridge. If you're looking for the "love-locks" on the Pont des Arts, we've got bad news. They were removed in 2015. The padlocks, weighing 45 tonnes, left the bridge in danger of collapse.
You'll probably have to stay overnight to fully appreciate Paris's nightlife and theatres, however you can still pay a visit to these legendary landmarks during the day. While the influential heyday of the Moulin Rouge and Folies Bergere may be firmly in the last century, these both remain historic hotspots for cabaret or live music. You can catch some afternoon performances at the Palais Garnier or Opéra Bastille, home of the Opéra National de Paris, as well as take behind the scenes tours during the day.
A few streets over and running parallel to the Avenue des Champs-Élysées is the famous Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. Historically all the major fashion names have had flagship stalls along this chic street and there are plenty of high-end boutiques tucked away in the avenues off it. The street stretches down into the centre of Paris, turning into the Rue Saint-Honoré, for nearly three kilometres until it reaches the Louvre. Over the other side of the river (Left Bank) you'll find shops on Rue de Sèvres, including Hermès and Paris's oldest department store, Le Bon Marché. Another historic department store, the Galeries Lafayette (est. 1912), is famous for its vast size and Neo-Byzantine style stained glass windows on Boulevard Haussmann. The Parisian covered shopping arcades retain many of their original features, like the wrought iron and metal roof of the Passage du Grand-Cerf (1825). You'll find a Christian Louboutin workshop and store in the Galerie Véro-Dodat and its neighbour Galerie Vivienne houses Jean-Paul Gaultier's Pret-a-Porter collection.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, the Saint-Ouen Flea Market (Puces) is rather fun with thousands of dealers spread across this sprawling North Parisian market, open from Saturday to Monday. Be aware that the majority of the stores are shut on Sunday.
If you're arriving in the morning, try an authentic croissant, pain au chocolat or simple café - Blé Sucré (on Rue Antoine Vollon) gets rave reviews for all three. Jean-Paul Hévin is one of France's top chocolatiers. At a couple of his Paris branches you can visit the 'chocolate bar' and try a chocolat chaud on the spot. If the weather's nice, have a picnic and pick up some of the finest bread and cheese in the world.
They take their baking very seriously around here. The Grand Prix de la Baguette de Tradition Française de la Ville de Paris is hotly competed for every year, with the winner providing the baguettes to the the French President's Elysées Palace for an entire year. For sweet snacks, try the Paris-Brest: a choux pastry, cream and praline concoction, named after the famous bicycle race due to its wheel-like shape. Paris is also home to some of the finest macarons on the planet - the French pâtisserie Ladurée has been making them for over a century and they have seven stores in the city.
World's Best Bars have put together a useful map of their favourite bars in Paris, so you'll be able to find somewhere to have a nice drink, wherever you are in the city.
You'll find the Mona Lisa, as well as one of the most intriguing entrances of any art gallery, at the Louvre (closed on Tuesdays). Da Vinci's painting of the mysterious lady draws huge crowds, so make time to see the other masterpieces, like the Aphrodite (Venus de Milo), The Marly Horses and Delacroix's painting of Liberty Leading the People. Le Centre Pompidou is one of the few museums to have as an intriguing exterior as interior, with its distinctive futuristic design and colourful pipes built in 1977. Inside you'll find one of the largest collections of modern and contemporary art in the world, ranging from 1905 to the present day. Housed in the grounds of the Hôtel Biron, the Musée Rodin is the place to visit to see some incredible sculptures both inside the museum and in the pretty gardens, many of which were created by Rodin himself. Head to the Musée de l'Orangerie, and their showpiece, Claude Monet's Les Nymphéas (Water Lilies), which as the artist stipulated, is displayed across two rooms. You'll also find some wonderful paintings by the likes of Renoir, Cézanne and Picasso.
If you love Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, try the Musée d'Orsay. Housed in a former train station, it retains many of the Beaux-Arts original features including the stunning windows and roof. Works by Renoir, Monet, Manet, Gauguin, Van Gogh and Seurat are among the featured paintings. If you want to see some taxidermied animals and fossils, visit the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle. This family-friendly museum has plenty on offer from the natural world.
The vast Jardin du Luxembourg covers 25 acres of the Latin Quarter. It's also got a forest, pond and huge greenhouse with a famous orchid collection. Little ones can watch puppet shows in the summer while adults might fancy a game of chess or have a go on the remote control boats. The guillotine once reigned supreme at the Place de la Concorde during the French Revolution, with Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette among those executed here, however now its a fine public square at the end of the Champs-Élyssées.
The view from the Grande Roue (Big Wheel) gives you a unique perspective of the Axe Historique, a planning quirk which sees some of the major Paris landmarks aligned (Nov-Mar). The giant obelisk in the centre of the square once guarded the entrance to Luxor Temple and was given to France by the Egyptian Government. The Jardin des Tuileries, (named after the preceding tile factories) was created in 1664 and is sandwiched between the Place de la Concorde and the Louvre. Take a stroll through these traditionally French gardens and have a picnic by one of the ponds or just admire some of the public art on display. If you're visiting in the summer with your family, you can attend the Fête des Tuileries, a traditional fun fair.
Paris's botanical gardens, Jardin des Plantes has a huge formal garden, alpine garden and eight other spaces. They have around 15,000 plants and over 2,000 trees in the gardens cultivated over four centuries, and these are the lungs that power the Musée National D'Histoire Naturelle. They also have a menagerie, which is one of the oldest zoos on the planet (1794) and specialise in endangered species like red pandas, snow leopards and orangutans. If you have time, head out of Paris to the spectacular Château de Versailles - one of the most famous stately homes in the world built by King Louis XIV. In the summer they offer a spectacular Fountains Night Show and fireworks displays - and in spring and autumn you can visit the formal gardens on their special musical Tuesdays.
If you've arrived by Eurostar, you can leave your bags in a locker at Gare du Nord, just like Jason Bourne in The Bourne Identity. Near the Eiffel Tower? Then check out Le Pont de Bir-Hakeim - the bridge featured in Last Tango in Paris (starring Marlon Brando) and more recently in Inception, featuring Leonardo DiCaprio. If you loved Amélie, have a cup of coffee in the Café des Deux Moulins at 15 Rue Lepic in Montmartre - this is the café used in the film. Or you might want to see where Andy (Anne Hathaway) in the Devil Wears Prada throws her phone into a fountain (Place de la Concorde).
You can buy a Paris Pass travel card in advance and get it delivered to your home so you can get cracking as soon as you arrive in the city. It works on the Metro, buses, trams and the Montmartre Funicular among other transport options in arrondissement 1-3. It lasts for the calendar day - so it activates as soon as you make your first journey. If you're planning on exploring mainly on foot and making the odd journey, you can buy tickets for the metro, tram and bus in singles or packs of ten.
Paris is one of the cities in the world where there is never really a bad time to go. The peak tourist season is when Paris is hottest from June to August, however a lot of places do shut up for the summer in August. Prices tend to be cheaper during the winter, although as the city of romance, expect it to be busy around Valentine's Day. The quietest day to visit is undoubtedly a Sunday, when many places still traditionally close for the day.
You can be in Paris in just under two and a half hours from London St Pancras station to Paris Gard Du Nord. And with just a minimum check-in of 45-60 minutes before departure for all Standard and Standard Premier travellers, it makes a great early morning option for a day trip.
If you get the first train out on a weekday and the latest train back you have almost 12 hours to spend discovering the delights of Paris. (Due to the time difference you lose an hour on the way there and gain an hour on the way back.)
Outward Journey:
Tues-Fri: Depart 6:01am - Arrive 9:20am
Sat Depart 8:01am - Arrive 11:17am
Sun: Depart 8.31am - Arrive 11:47am
Mon: Depart 8:01am - Arrive 11:17am
Return Journey:
Sun-Fri: Depart 9:13pm - Arrive 10:30pm
Sat: Depart 8:13pm - Arrive 9:30pm
If you're feeling inspired to return, or want to make your trip a little longer, we've got plenty of Paris city breaks to choose from. And if you like the look of some of the neighbourhoods, or want to stay near some of the sights you haven't had time to visit this time, check out our latest Paris hotel deals for those areas.
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