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Paris

France·Europe

Currency

EUR

Language

French

Timezone

Paris

Continent

Europe

Our guide

Discover Paris

Paris punishes people who rush it. The city is compact — twenty arrondissements spiralling outward — and the usual mistake is crossing the Seine four times a day to tick off a list. Take one district, exhaust it, move on. Le Marais in the morning, Saint-Germain in the afternoon, Montmartre at the end of the day when the light falls on Sacré-Cœur.

When to go

April to June and September to October are the two windows. In summer the residents leave and the queues arrive; many of the better kitchens close for August. Winter is damp, but the museums are empty — no small thing when you have seen the Orsay queue in July.

Getting around

The métro reaches everything and you are never more than 500 metres from a station. Buy a carnet or a pass rather than single tickets. That said, Paris rewards walking: the Louvre to Notre-Dame is twenty minutes along the river, and far better company than Line 1.

Where to eat

The literary cafés of Saint-Germain — Les Deux Magots, Café de Flore — charge for the address more than the plate. Le Procope, open since 1686, claims to be the city's oldest café. To eat genuinely well, leave the main axes: the good Paris tables sit on side streets, not boulevards.

Good to know

Many museums close one day a week and it is not the same day everywhere — the planner works around it when building your days. Book the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre online; the difference in queueing is substantial. Paris has twenty-five listed halal addresses, mostly in the north-east and near the Grande Mosquée.

Smart Planning