In case you haven’t heard, there’s a large sporting event happening in Paris between July 26 and Aug. 11. Fifteen million visitors are expected in France’s capital for the fun and games, and you may be one of them! Or perhaps you’re waiting for the crowds to thin out before visiting.
On the Travel desk, we publish a lot of articles about Paris, but don’t always collect them in one place. Could there be a more opportune moment?
Here are some of our favorite Paris guides from recent years, which are absolutely packed with ideas. What other information would you find useful for Paris, or France? Let us know in the comments.
Paris has more than 100 museums. The smaller ones can be the most rewarding.
Everyone knows the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. When Laura Cappelle wrote her guide on how to spend to 36 Hours in Paris, she wanted to share its under-the-radar spots, where you’re not shoulder-to-shoulder in crowds. One memorable recommendation is the Gustave Moreau Museum, housed in the painter’s former apartment and studio, its floors connected by a magnificent winding wrought-iron staircase. The Petit Palais is another underrated gem that offers a short, delightfully random tour through French art history.
(Pro tip: There are more than 650 comments on the article, where readers share their own Paris must-dos. One reader wrote of the small and free Marie Curie Museum: It was “one of my favorite Paris memories. It tells her story well and you can view her actual laboratory.” Noted!)
Read: 36 Hours in Paris
Walk, walk, walk (until your legs want to divorce your body).
Paris rewards the aimless wanderer. If you could use a little direction to start, the florist Sandra Sigman shared her favorite floral-focused stroll. Just short of three miles, it weaves through the gardens, green spaces and flower shops of the 6th and 7th arrondissements. There’s even a map! Of course, you can’t eat flowers: She thoughtfully factored in a cheese and macaron stop, too.
Read: A Walk in Paris: Gardens, Greenery and Flower Shops
Forget ‘tweezer cooking.’ Bistros are more fun.
Parisian bistros come in all shapes, from the rustic to the more refined, but what binds them is refreshingly simple cooking. The writer Alexander Lobrano had the enviable job of eating his way around them last summer, and shared his six bistros to try. If steak au poivre, pâté and juicy chicken with morel mushrooms appeals, you are spoiled for choice. A refreshing inclusion on the list is Des Terres, a vegetarian-friendly and reasonably priced option.
Read: 6 Paris Bistros to Try Now
See Paris through a different lens.
Even longtime residents can fall in love with their city again, with a fresh perspective. The writer Vivian Song encourages visitors to notice how the city’s trees — from the dramatic weeping willows along the Seine to the military rows of London plane trees that line the Champs-Élysées — play an underappreciated supporting role in Paris’s elegance and grandeur.
Elaine Sciolino makes another compelling case: “Study Paris through its bridges, and you have a mosaic of the city’s history and architecture.” She maps 35 bridges crossing an eight-mile length of the Seine, starting at the Pont National to the Pont du Garigliano. Every one of them has its own story.
And David McAninch took an extreme approach to seeing Paris on foot. He walked all the way around it: 35 miles along the city’s perimeter. What he found was “a Paris that was at turns familiar — the workaday brasseries and tabacs, the bakeries with their yeasty aromas and morning chitchat, the busy traffic circles — and eye-poppingly new.”
Read: Admiring the Trees of Paris
Read: Knowing Paris by Its Bridges
Read: Paris on Foot: 35 Miles, 6 Days and One Blistered Toe
Or, maybe you’re planning a trip to France that avoids Paris by design. Reasonable! Here’s some inspiration for other regions:
Cities, including Bordeaux, Marseille, Nice and Lyon, are hosting Olympic events, too. Even if you missed out on tickets, we have tips for what to do and see in other cities hosting the Games.
The Loire Valley, in central France, draws busloads of visitors for its vineyards and fairy-tale castles. Lindsey Tramuta explored its other attractions, including forest-bathing experiences, horseback riding and a Michelin-starred restaurant on a sprawling estate.
The Canal du Midi offers a bikeable path through the southern towns and landscapes. Traversing the Occitanie region, the canal gives cyclists of all skill levels access to parts of France that are rich in history, yet sometimes passed over by visitors.
On the Picardy Coast, where the Somme meets the Channel, there is nothing and everything to see, and a 19th-century steam railway lets you explore at the perfect pace.
The luxury version of the Orient Express, the classic train journey, costs almost $50,000. But for $1,000 or less, you can book the rail trip from Paris to Istanbul yourself.
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