Things to Do in Paris, France (2026)

Paris · FR

Montmartre Water Tower

The Montmartre Water Tower is a striking 43-metre neo-Byzantine structure perched on the Butte Montmartre, its white concrete façade punctuated by crenellated cornices and arcades that echo the nearby Sacré-Cœur Basilica. Built in 1927 to bring reliable water pressure to the highest parts of the hill, it remains fully operational—and doubles as a broadcast antenna for community radio stations. For visitors, it is one of Montmartre's most photogenic and surprising landmarks: a working piece of Parisian infrastructure disguised as a miniature fortress.

River

Paris · FR

La Seine

The Seine is the spine of Paris, and at the point where this guide is anchored — the water between the Île de la Cité and the Île Saint-Louis in the 4th arrondissement — you are standing at the very cradle of the city. Since the Gaulish Parisii tribe settled here in Roman times, Paris has grown on either bank, and the river still threads the capital's greatest monuments past your eyes: Notre-Dame, the Louvre, the Conciergerie, the Musée d'Orsay, Pont Neuf and Pont Alexandre III. What makes this stretch special is that it is genuinely walkable and boatable. The lower quays have been freed from cars (closed to traffic since 2014 on the Left Bank and 2016 on the Right Bank) and turned into the green, pedestrian Parc Rives de Seine, while the UNESCO-listed banks between the Pont de Sully and the Pont d'Iéna — including both islands — can be explored on foot along the bouquinistes' green boxes or from the water on a roughly one-hour sightseeing cruise. In summer the riverbanks become the city's living room: deckchairs, guinguette bars on converted barges, and, for the first time in a century, supervised public swimming.

Cultural center

Paris · FR

Place du Carrousel

Tucked between the Louvre's colonnades and the green expanse of the Tuileries Garden, the Place du Carrousel is one of central Paris's most layered public squares. On the surface it reads as a wide, elegant forecourt framed by a gilded Napoleonic triumphal arch; below it hides one of the city's best-known surprises, the glass-and-steel Inverted Pyramid that skylights the underground Carrousel du Louvre. It is a place where royal pageantry, revolution, empire and contemporary architecture all sit within a few steps of one another. For visitors, the square works as a hinge on the great walk between the Louvre Museum and the Champs-Élysées, and as a quieter, grander way to enter the museum than the famous Pyramid above the main courtyard. Whether you stop to read the carvings on the arch, duck downstairs to the pyramid's tip, or simply watch the light move across an open space that once held a palace, the Place du Carrousel rewards a slow fifteen minutes as much as a deeper exploration.

Fresque de street-art de la rue des Trois Couronnes

Cultural landmark

Paris · FR

Fresque de street-art de la rue des Trois Couronnes

On a quiet side street in Paris's 11th arrondissement, a single wall refuses to stay still. The Wall of 3 Crowns — Le Mur des 3 Couronnes — is a rotating public mural that gets a fresh coat of paint every month from a different invited artist. The exterior face is free and open around the clock, making it one of the most reliably surprising stops on any Paris street-art trail. What makes this project distinctive is that the art is only half the story. The wall belongs to the Collectif des 3 Couronnes, a volunteer collective that transformed a derelict urban wasteland into a garden, gathering space, and short-term shelter for people experiencing homelessness. The monthly murals give the neighbourhood a reason to stop, look, and discover what lies behind the door.

Sculpture

Paris · FR

Vénus de Milo

The Venus de Milo is the ancient marble goddess who has embodied ideal Greek beauty at the Louvre since 1821. Carved in the Hellenistic period and found half-buried on the Aegean island of Melos (Milo) in 1820, this armless Aphrodite stands a shade over two metres tall, made of luminous Parian marble, and is one of the three most famous female figures in the museum alongside the Mona Lisa and the Winged Victory of Samothrace. Her missing arms and serene, half-draped pose have fed centuries of speculation, while the room she stands in—the Galerie des Antiques in the Sully wing, dressed in imperial red and grey marble—makes her all the more striking. For many visitors, coming face to face with her is the emotional high point of a Louvre visit.

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A little more
of Paris.

Montmartre Water Tower

La Seine

Place du Carrousel

Fresque de street-art de la rue des Trois Couronnes

Vénus de Milo

Finding your next place…

A little more
of Paris.

Montmartre Water Tower

La Seine

Place du Carrousel

Fresque de street-art de la rue des Trois Couronnes

Vénus de Milo