Planning a Trip to Paris
How many days you actually need, which neighborhood to sleep in, what has to be reserved weeks ahead — and what you can happily leave to the morning. This is how I plan Paris for my clients, written from the city I live near.
Paris is not a difficult city to visit. It is a difficult city to sequence. The monuments are scattered, the museums have timed entry, the best restaurants release tables a month out, and the Métro will happily send you across the river three times in a day if nobody has thought about the order of things.
So I plan Paris by neighborhood rather than by checklist. One arrondissement per morning, one river crossing per day, lunch where you already are. Done that way, four days in Paris feels generous instead of frantic — and you come home remembering a café table rather than a queue.
Where to stay in Paris.
The 1st & 2nd — Louvre, Palais Royal, Tuileries
First visits, short stays
Central to the point of being unfair: the Louvre, the Tuileries and the Seine are a walk away, and the Métro lines converge here. Best for a three- or four-night first trip when you want to lose no time in transit. Quieter than its reputation after the shops close.
The 6th & 7th — Saint-Germain, Musée d'Orsay
Couples, honeymoons, repeat visitors
The Paris most people picture: bookshops, the Luxembourg gardens, the market street on rue de Buci, Orsay and Rodin within walking distance. It is my usual recommendation for a romantic trip, and it eats well at every price.
The 8th — Champs-Élysées, rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré
Shopping trips, grand hotels
Where the palace hotels and the couture houses are. Choose it if the shopping and the afternoon-tea-in-a-gilded-salon side of Paris is the point of the trip, and expect a grander, less neighborhood-feeling stay.
The Marais — 3rd & 4th
Girls trips, boutiques, dinner
Narrow streets, independent boutiques, galleries, and the best casual dinners in the city. Lively at night, which is either the reason to book it or the reason not to. Lifts are rare in the older buildings — I always check before confirming a room.
What to book ahead in Paris.
The museums that need a reserved hour
The Louvre, Orsay, the Orangerie and Sainte-Chapelle all reward a booked slot, and the difference between 9am and 11am at the Louvre is an hour of your life. I build the museum around your energy, not the other way round — and I would rather give you two rooms properly than eight at a march.
Restaurants, weeks not days
The tables worth having in Paris open their books roughly a month ahead and fill in a morning. Tell me how you like to eat — long lunches, bistro classics, one extraordinary evening — and I reserve accordingly, including the small places that never appear in a guidebook.
A private guide who lives here
A good Paris guide is not a narrator. Mine will reroute around a strike, know which bakery is actually worth the detour, and read whether you want history or gossip. Half a day with the right person changes how you see the rest of the week.
The evening things
Palais Garnier, a Seine dinner cruise, the Eiffel Tower at the hour it begins to sparkle, a cabaret if that is your taste. These are the details people remember, and they are also the ones that sell out. Sunset shifts by hours across the seasons — I plan the evening around the actual light on your dates.
Day trips, chosen carefully
Versailles, Giverny, Champagne and Normandy are all within reach, but each one costs you a full Paris day. On a four-night trip I usually argue for none; on a week, one, with a private driver so the travel is part of the pleasure.
Arriving in Paris.
Charles de Gaulle or Orly
Most transatlantic flights land at Charles de Gaulle (CDG), north-east of the city; Orly sits closer to the south and handles more of the European routes. From CDG the RER B train reaches Gare du Nord and Châtelet quickly but with stairs and crowds, and from Orly the tram-and-Métro combination means changes. With luggage, after an overnight flight, I book a private transfer to the door of your hotel every time.
Your first hours, and jet lag
Paris hotel rooms are rarely ready before mid-afternoon, so I plan the first day as a soft landing: bags left with the concierge, a walk along the Seine or through the Tuileries, an early dinner near your hotel, asleep by ten local time. Nothing ticketed on day one — the Louvre is wasted on a body still on New York time.
Arriving by train
If you are coming from London on the Eurostar or from Provence on the TGV, you arrive in the middle of the city rather than at its edge — Gare du Nord, Gare de Lyon, Gare Montparnasse. These stations are busy and pickpocketed; I arrange a meet-and-greet at the platform when clients arrive with several cases.
Getting around once you are here
Paris is a walking city with a Métro underneath it. A rechargeable Navigo Easy card or the contactless ticket on your phone covers the Métro, buses and trams, and the buses are far prettier than the tunnels. Taxis are easy to book through your hotel; ride-hailing works but not always at the airport curbside.
The Paris must-sees, in an order that works.
The Louvre and the Musée d'Orsay
The Louvre first thing, entering through the Pyramid with a timed ticket, and only the wings you actually care about. Orsay on another day for the Impressionists — Monet, Degas, Van Gogh — and lunch behind the great clock. Two half-days, never one long one.
The Eiffel Tower, Trocadéro and the Seine
The best view of the tower is not from it. Trocadéro at first light, the Champ de Mars in the late afternoon, and the tower itself at dusk when it begins to sparkle on the hour. A Seine cruise or a private boat at sunset ties the whole city together in an hour.
Notre-Dame, Sainte-Chapelle and Île Saint-Louis
Notre-Dame has reopened, and the queue moves best early. Sainte-Chapelle next door is the one people are unprepared for — a room made of stained glass. Then cross to Île Saint-Louis for ice cream at Berthillon and the quietest walk in central Paris.
Montmartre, the Marais and Saint-Germain
Sacré-Cœur and the vineyard lanes behind it in the morning before the crowds; the Marais for Place des Vosges, the Picasso museum and falafel on rue des Rosiers; Saint-Germain for Café de Flore, the Luxembourg gardens and the bookshops. One neighborhood per half-day.
Versailles, Giverny and the day trips
Versailles rewards a private guide and an early slot, with the Trianon and Marie-Antoinette's hamlet as the part most people miss. Giverny is a summer pleasure, Champagne a long lunch with tastings, Normandy a full and moving day. Each one costs you a Paris day — choose one, not three.
Paris culture, etiquette and the local rhythm.
Bonjour is not optional
Say bonjour when you enter any shop, bakery or restaurant, and au revoir when you leave. It is the single thing that changes how Parisians treat American visitors. A little French attempted politely is welcomed; English is widely spoken in central arrondissements once the greeting is out of the way.
When Paris eats
Lunch runs roughly noon to two, dinner starts at eight and fills by nine. Between those hours kitchens close, and a brasserie or café is your friend. Bread and water arrive without asking, tap water — une carafe d'eau — is free, and service is included; a couple of euros left on the table is generous, not expected.
Sundays, Mondays and August
Many shops shut on Sunday and the Marais is the lively exception. Most museums close one weekday — the Louvre on Tuesday, Orsay on Monday — so I build the week around those closures. In August Parisians leave and some of the best neighborhood restaurants close for weeks; I check every reservation against that.
Markets, cafés and how to dress
The open-air markets — rue Mouffetard, Bastille on Sunday, the Marché des Enfants Rouges — are the most Parisian mornings available to a visitor. Sitting at a café table for an hour over one coffee is expected, not rude. Parisians dress simply and darkly; a scarf and real shoes will do more for you than anything new.
Strikes, pickpockets and staying calm
A grève can close a Métro line or a museum with a day's notice. My clients get a message from me rather than a surprise, plus a re-plan. Keep bags closed and in front of you on line 1, at Gare du Nord and around the tower — petty theft is the only real risk in a very safe city.
How many days do you need in Paris?
Three nights. Enough for the essentials done well: two museums, two neighborhoods, one memorable dinner, one evening on the water. No day trips. Stay central.
Four to five nights. The sweet spot. Room for the major museums, a proper shopping morning, a guided walk, a market, and one afternoon with nothing scheduled at all.
Seven nights. Paris with a day trip or two, and time to live slightly like a resident — the same café each morning, an errand, a picnic in the Luxembourg gardens.
Paris plus a second region. Ten to fourteen nights lets you add Provence, the Loire, Champagne or Normandy by train without either half feeling rushed.
Paris sits inside most of my French itineraries — see custom France travel planning for the wider country, my girls trip to Paris in December guide for the holiday markets, and European honeymoons or girls trips to Europe if the occasion shapes the trip.
Let's plan your Paris.
Send me your dates and who is traveling. I will tell you honestly how many days you need, where to stay, and what to book first.
Start Planning My Paris Trip