What (else) to see and do in and around Paris

Apart from the magic and the museums, there are, of course, hundreds of interesting things to see and do in and around Paris. On this page are a few suggestions.

If the ‘attraction’ has its own website, the name is a link. I recommend you look at these, if only to check opening days and times (where relevant). As mentioned on the Paris museums page, we had a day’s plans thrown by our guide book getting a museum opening time wrong and I would hate something similar to happen to you. If a monument has an entrance fee, it may well be covered by the Paris Museum Pass, so it’s worth checking.

Within Paris

If you want to go up, be prepared for some long queues. If you don’t like heights, there’s a lot to appreciate even from the ground.

Metro: Trocadéro or École Militaire/La Motte Picquet Grenelle or Champs de Mars-Tour Eiffel (or walk from Magic Dream in about 15 minutes)

Arc de Triomphe
Second on the list is the famous monument at the western end of the Champs Elysées. Under the arch is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and inside is a small museum that gives you the history. The entrance fee includes access to the roof of the arch, from where you can see for miles.

If you get there after 10am on any day except a public holiday, you should be able to go in/up.

Metro: Charles de Gaulle-Étoile

Les Champs Elysées
Famously stylish avenue leading from the Arc de Triomphe to the place de la Concorde. I wouldn’t particularly recommend buying or consuming anything there but you must walk down at least part of it if you’re going to feel you’ve visted Paris properly.

Montmartre
The area of Montmartre is on and around one of Paris’s few hills. The mont part of the name means mount or mountain and martre is martyr. St Denys, the first Bishop of Paris, was among the earliest Christians to be martyred here, in the 3rd century, and many followed him.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, Montmartre became famous as a bohemian part of town, full of artists. Many wonderful painters have, indeed, lived and worked in the village atmosphere of Montmartre - including Utrillo, Pissarro, Modigliani, Picasso, Dalí, Renoir, Degas and van Gogh. These days, the place is very touristy but it’s still well worth visiting.

We walked to Montmartre from our hotel (see Where to stay in Paris), on the Barbès Rochechouart side, up the hill to the Sacré Coeur basilica. (If you’re staying further away, you can take the metro to Anvers.) It’s quite a sweat to get up the hill but it doesn’t actually take very long and the view from the top is tremendous. If you really can’t face the climb, there is a funicular service from the place Suzanne Valladon. Conversely, if you’re feeling really keen, you can buy a ticket and go up the steps to the dome of the basilica, which is the second highest vantage point in Paris after the Eiffel Tower.

The Basilique du Sacré Coeur is very beautiful but do bear in mind that it’s a functioning church rather than a museum. The service schedule is on the website (click on the link).

Walking up this way, you don’t see the best of Montmartre - in fact, Iain remarked that it reminded him of Blackpool. So come down on the other side (the right-hand side as you look out over Paris from the basilica steps), towards place du Tertre. Between here and place des Abbesses (where there is a metro station, if you want to come in this way) is where you’ll find more of the ‘real’ Montmartre, as it used to be.

Among the interesting things to explore are a couple of museums: the Dalí Espace Montmartre, where the Catalan surrealist’s art is exhibited and appreciated, and the Museé de Montmartre (closed on Mondays), where you can learn more about the fascinating history of Montmartre.

Montmartre also has its own vineyard – the last one in Paris, as you might imagine. It produces 1,700 50cl bottles every year, which are sold in various outlets in the area, including the museum. It’s not the greatest wine (nor the cheapest) but it’s sold in aid of local charity.

You might also be interested to stroll around the cemetery (see below) or, if you’re here on Saturday, Sunday or Monday, browse the flea market (see below).

In stark contrast to all the culture, Montmartre is also famous for its rather seedy nightlife (see below).

Wine tasting in Paris
An excellent little company called Ô Chateau offers tastings of French wines, presented in English. There are packages to suit different budgets and it’s all very relaxed and accessible – not at all like the pretentious events wine tastings usually are. If you’re even remotely interested in wine, be sure to include this experience in your schedule.

You can read more and book your session online on the Ô Chateau website (in English).

Cemeteries of Paris
The cemeteries in Paris are well kept, peaceful and full of the graves of famous people. The best known are those at:

Montmartre
Address: 20, avenue Rachel
Metro: Blanche or place de Clichy
Look out for (amongst many others): Edgar Degas, Hector Berlioz, Jacques Offenbach

Montparnasse
Address: 3, boulevard Edgar Quinet
Metro: Raspail
Look out for (amongst many others): Guy de Maupassant, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir

Père Lachaise
Address: 16, rue de Repos
Metro: Père Lachaise or Gambetta
Look out for (amongst many others): Honoré de Balzac, Sarah Bernhardt, Yves Montand, Édith Piaf, Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde… as well as Étienne-Gaspard Robert (or ‘Robertson’ as he was known), the illusionist who invented Phantasmagoria, the technique of showing moving pictures using a magic lantern; and Georges Méliès, magician and pioneering film-maker

Maps are generally available at the cemeteries, to speed up your search for the graves you’re interested in.

Notre Dame de Paris
This wonderful, Gothic cathedral on the Île de la Cité, in the middle of the Seine, is famous as the setting for Victor Hugo’s book by the same name but it’s also a place of enormous beauty and both historical and architectural interest. It’s one of the sights of Paris and well worth a look – although, as with Sacré Coeur, do remember it’s a church and not a museum.

Metro: Cité or St-Michel

The Latin Quarter
While you’re in the area, slide over the bridge and into the Latin Quarter. This part of town is where the famous Sorbonne university is and gets its name because, until the French Revolution, the lecturers and students used to communicate in Latin.

If you’re inspired by the intellectual vibe, you can buy a high-brow (or otherwise!) book in one of the English-language bookshops and read it in one of the many cool cafés. That is, if you haven’t brought some Paris reading (or magic reading) with you.

The domed building at the top of Mt Ste-Genevieve is the Panthéon, where French heroes (including Victor Hugo) are buried. If you’re not all graved out after visiting a cemetery (see above), you might like to explore the crypt.

Continuing this theme… if you’re feeling strong and don’t suffer from claustrophobia, the Paris Catacombs are interesting. Just across the road from the Denfert-Rochereau metro station you can descend into the tunnels that are now the resting place of the skulls and bones of millions of Parisians, moved there in the 1780s from the city’s overflowing cemeteries. You have to buy a ticket, of course, and the opening times are short. I believe Les Catacombes are open Tuesday to Sunday, between 2 and 4pm and also between 9 and 11am at weekends.

Arabic culture is well represented in the Latin Quarter. The Institut du Monde Arabe is a cultural centre inside an impressive building, both of which aim to form a bridge between France and the Arabic countries. The architecture is fascinating and inside there is a museum, a library, a restaurant and a cafeteria, and always a lot going on.

The main Paris Mosque is a beautiful place to visit. In the Moroccan-style environment, you can learn some more about Islam, consume some marvellous north African cuisine at the café, or relax in the hammam (Turkish bath - separate days for men and women).

Shopping in Paris
If you’re into shopping, you’ll find endless scope in Paris. Just bear in mind that the opening hours of smaller shops are shorter than we are accustomed to in Britain and most close for lunch.

On the boulevard Haussmann (metro: Chaussée d'Antin La Fayette, Havre Caumartin or Opéra) are two grand department stores, the Galeries Lafayettes and Printemps. These sell all sorts of things, as department stores do, but in a Parisian kind of way.

As I’ve said, I wouldn’t particularly recommend buying or consuming anything on the Champs Elysées but an interesting place to look round is the so-called Publicis Drugstore. This is actually a shopping and eating complex that encompasses a wine shop, a cigar shop, a bookshop, a beauty salon, a brasserie, a newsagent, a cinema and a pharmacy (the original drug store, I suppose). You’ll find this glass extravaganza at the Arc de Triomphe end, near place Charles de Gaulle, and it’s open every day.

On the boulevard Rochechouart (metro: Barbès Rochechouart or Anvers) there’s a department store called Tati, where you can find some excellent bargains.

If you’re looking for music, French books or equipment/gadgets, FNAC is a reliable chain with decent prices, and there are several branches around Paris.

Otherwise, there are a myriad little specialist shops all over Paris. Le Marais (see below) is a particularly cool area for shopping, as well as being home to the magic café bar and the magic museum. (Metro: St-Paul)

For some comments about food and drink shopping, see the Food and drink in Paris page.

The magic shops in Paris are discussed on the Paris magic! page.

Markets in Paris
There are some fantastic markets in Paris and, personally, I prefer browsing around them to shopping. If you’re self-catering, you’ll find some wonderful foodstuffs at the markets and if you’re looking for interesting souvenirs and/or bargains, there are plenty of those too.

The Mairie de Paris provides an online search facility for locating a market. You can search by arrondissement and also see what different types of market there are.

The flea markets in Paris are excellent. There are several around but the one not to miss is Les Puces de Saint-Ouen in Montmartre. I like the fact that puce means flea – it’s exactly the same concept in French.

Marché aux Puces de Saint-Ouen
Open all day Saturday to Monday, though Sunday is the best day to go. This is the biggest flea market in Europe. Or rather, it’s a collection of markets, which just makes it more interesting.
Metro: Porte de Clignancourt

Do be careful of pickpockets around the markets and don’t be afraid to haggle.

Le Marais
I highly recommend this area of Paris. Not only is it great for magic, it also has some very good museums, some nice shops and an uplifting atmosphere (I thought). Considering it used to be a marsh (that’s what the name means), this happening part of town has done remarkably well for itself.

What we did was take the metro to Bastille (the station is a pleasant experience in itself), have a look at the canal and then the big square and the monument to Revolution. The infamous prison, stormed on 14th July 1789, has been completely erased but the place still holds great political significance.

If you go south from here, past the Opéra, you can get on to the Promenade Plantée, a cultivated walkway along what used to be a railway line and viaduct. This gives you some beautiful and unusual views and, if you’ve got the time and inclination, you can walk all the way to the Bois de Vincennes, the woods on the south-eastern edge of town.

West of the Bastille, you’ll find the place des Vosges, an elegant and historic little square with cafés, galleries and, at no 6, Victor Hugo’s house (which you can visit; see Paris museums).

The Marais is a traditionally Jewish area and, particularly on and around the rue des Rosiers, you’ll find a lot of Jewish restaurants and shops. These include some wonderful food shops, such as Sacha Finkelsztajn’s.

If you walk down the rue St-Antoine, past the turnings right to the magic café bar and left to the magic museum, it becomes the rue de Rivoli and a few minutes later you’ll come to the Hôtel de Ville (Town Hall). This is worth a look, even if only from the outside, though there are often exhibitions inside.

From here, you’re much nearer than you might think to Notre Dame Cathedral (see above).

Boat cruise through Paris
A boat trip along the Seine is a peaceful and lovely thing to do. I recommend the Bateaux Mouches (see the Getting around Paris page).

See Paris magic! for info about the magic boat Metamorphosis.

Paris nightlife
Paris is not known for its thumping-disco nightlife. While you can certainly find places to dance all night, I don’t know where they are and I can’t advise you. However, there are loads of other things you can do in Paris in the evening. For example, you could:

Have a leisurely dinner at a nice restaurant
See Food and drink in Paris – and Paris magic! for dining with magic.

Have dinner or a drink at a “bistrot à chansons”
Traditional French singing is another experience that should be had when you’re in Paris. If you like the idea of this, try Le Limonaire, open Tuesday to Sunday evenings. There’s no official charge for the entertainment but the singer will pass a hat.

Go to a cabaret
These cabarets are the stereotypical Paris nightlife and, as such, have become terribly touristy. There are many places to choose from around Montmartre and Pigalle, ranging from the fairly classy to the downright obscene. Perhaps the most iconic cabaret is Le Moulin Rouge but another famous one is Le Crazy Horse, on the avenue George V.

Note to magic fans: If you’ve heard that Gaetan Bloom is working at Le Crazy Horse and you’re thinking of going to see him, he’s not there any more. I’d heard a lot of conflicting reports as to whether he was still there and I went into the place to ask. So there you have it, from the Crazy Horse’s mouth.

Spend an evening in the Middle Ages (if it’s Thursday)
Hire a costume then eat, drink and be merry in medieval style at La Taverne Médiéval (metro: Bréguet Sabin or Chemin Vert). All in a very atmospheric place called Les Caves Saint Sabin (see also Paris magic!).

Go to a magic show!

What to see and do outside Paris