Things to Do in Paris: Beyond the Eiffel Tower (2026 Guide)

Paris is the most visited city in the world. And the most visited version of Paris — Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Champs-Élysées, Notre-Dame — is a beautiful but incomplete picture.

The Paris that Parisians live in is quieter, tastier, and more interesting.

Skip the Lines, Find the Real Paris#

Canal Saint-Martin (10th arrondissement) — Iron footbridges over a tree-lined canal, with cafés and vintage shops on both sides. This is where young Parisians hang out on summer evenings with a bottle of wine and a baguette.

Le Marais on a Sunday — The only Parisian neighborhood that is lively on Sundays (most of Paris shuts down). Falafel on Rue des Rosiers, galleries, boutiques, people-watching.

Rue Montorgueil (2nd arrondissement) — A pedestrian market street with fishmongers, cheese shops, bakeries, and flower stalls. More authentic than any tourist market.

Parc des Buttes-Chaumont (19th arrondissement) — Paris's most dramatic park. Built in an old quarry with cliffs, a lake, a temple on a hill, and waterfalls. Zero tourists. Parisians come here for picnics.

The covered passages — 19th-century glass-roofed shopping arcades scattered across the 2nd and 9th arrondissements. Galerie Vivienne is the most beautiful. Passage des Panoramas is the oldest.

Food Like a Parisian#

• Croissant — Not from a tourist bakery near the Eiffel Tower. Paris runs an annual competition for the best croissant and the best baguette, and the winners change every year — search the current year's meilleure croissant de Paris and go there. Any boulangerie with a queue of locals at 8am is the reliable fallback.
• Baguette — Buy one from any boulangerie with a line. Eat it while walking. This is normal and encouraged.
• Bistro lunch — The formule (set lunch menu) at a neighborhood bistro is the best value in Paris. 3 courses for 15-20 euros.
• Wine bar — Natural wine bars in the 11th arrondissement (Oberkampf area) are where Parisians drink now. Not the formal wine restaurants.
• Crêpes — Rue du Montparnasse has a row of Breton crêperies. Order a galette complète (ham, cheese, egg in a buckwheat crêpe) and a bowl of cider.

The Rules#

• Never eat at a restaurant directly facing a major monument. Walk two streets away.
• Say "Bonjour" when entering any shop or café. Not saying it is considered extremely rude.
• Parisians do not rush. Lunch is at least an hour. Coffee is sipped, not gulped.
• The métro is the fastest way around. Uber works but is expensive.

What things cost, and which pass is worth it#

The Paris Museum Pass (€70/2 days, €90/4 days, €110/6 days) only wins if you do roughly three major museums a day, which is more museum than most people want. Do the maths against your actual list before buying.

Navigo Découverte is the real saving. It runs Monday to Sunday regardless of when you buy it, covers all zones including both airports and Versailles, and at €31.60 beats single tickets after about twelve journeys. Buy it on a Monday if you can; buying on a Friday gets you three days.

Free for everyone: national museums on the first Sunday of the month (Louvre included, and it is heaving), and under-26 EU residents get in free year-round to most national museums.

Free Paris, which is most of the good part#

• The Seine at night, walked rather than cruised. The lower quays between Pont Neuf and Pont Alexandre III are the best hour in the city and cost nothing.
• Père Lachaise — a hillside cemetery the size of a neighbourhood. Free, and the most atmospheric place in Paris on a grey day.
• Petit Palais — permanent collection free, right opposite the Grand Palais, and almost empty.
• Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris — permanent collection free, with Dufy's enormous La Fée Électricité.
• Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, Parc Monceau, the Promenade Plantée — the elevated garden that New York's High Line was copied from.
• Sacré-Cœur — free to enter; the dome costs €8 and is worth it.
• The covered passages, listed above.
• Every church: Saint-Sulpice, Saint-Eustache, Saint-Germain-des-Prés.

When it rains#

Paris rains lightly and often, and the city is built for it. The covered passages were literally invented for this. Beyond them: the Louvre's less-visited wings (Richelieu is half-empty while everyone queues for the Mona Lisa), the Musée de l'Orangerie for the Water Lilies rooms, Galeries Lafayette's dome and free rooftop, a long lunch, or the Marché des Enfants Rouges, the covered market in the Marais.

Paris with kids#

Jardin du Luxembourg — the model sailboats, the puppet theatre, and the best playground in central Paris. Jardin des Plantes with its small zoo and the Grande Galerie de l'Évolution, which is genuinely spectacular. The Cité des Sciences at La Villette. Boat down the Canal Saint-Martin through the underground tunnel. And the Eiffel Tower stairs, which children usually prefer to the lift queue.

Skip: the Louvre with under-eights, unless you go straight to the Egyptian rooms and leave.

Paris at night#

The rooftop-bar version is not the local one. What Parisians actually do: an apéro on the canal with a bottle from any shop, natural wine bars around Oberkampf and Belleville, Le Comptoir Général near the canal, a late film at one of the tiny independent cinemas in the Latin Quarter, or simply the quays of the Seine on a summer evening, which is free and better than most things you could pay for.

The métro runs to about 01:15, and 02:15 on Friday and Saturday. After that it's a Bolt or Uber.

What to skip#

• Restaurants facing a monument. Already said above, and it remains the single most useful rule in Paris.
• The Champs-Élysées, unless you specifically want chain shops. Parisians go for the cinema and nothing else.
• Moulin Rouge, at €130 and up, unless the cabaret is genuinely the thing you came for.
• The Mona Lisa, in the sense of planning around it. It's small, behind glass, at the back of a scrum. The rest of the Denon wing is extraordinary and empty by comparison.
• Bateaux-Mouches at peak hour. Walk the quays instead, or take the Batobus if you want to be on the water.
• A padlock for a bridge. The railings collapsed under the weight and the council removes them.

The three scams#

Paris's are famous and all three are avoidable:

1. The gold ring. Someone "finds" a ring at your feet, offers it to you, then asks for money. Keep walking.
2. The petition / clipboard. A group of young women ask you to sign for a charity. While you read, a pocket is emptied. Near the Eiffel Tower, Sacré-Cœur and the Louvre.
3. The friendship bracelet at Montmartre — a bracelet is tied on your wrist, then a price appears. Hands in pockets on the steps up to Sacré-Cœur.

Real pickpocketing concentrates on Métro line 1, at Châtelet–Les Halles, and on the RER B from Charles de Gaulle — the line every new arrival takes with all their luggage.

When to come#

April to June and September to October are the best months by a distance — mild, long days, everything open. July and August are hot, busy, and a surprising amount of the city closes in August as Parisians leave. November to March is cold and grey, and also the only time you will have the museums to yourself; January and February have the cheapest flights and hotels of the year.

A Local Friend in Paris knows which bakery just won the best croissant award, which wine bar has the best natural wines by the glass, and which museum has a free evening that nobody knows about.

Also worth reading: Is Paris Safe? What Travelers Should Know in 2026.