Top 10 Sights in Paris: Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Versailles and More

Paris rewards first-time visitors with an extraordinary concentration of landmarks: a 330-metre iron tower, the world’s most visited art museum, a Gothic cathedral reborn after fire and a royal palace a short train ride away. These are the top 10 sights in Paris, with the history behind each one and practical tips for fitting them into a few days.

1. Eiffel Tower: 330 metres of wrought iron

Built for the 1889 World’s Fair, which marked the centenary of the French Revolution, the tower was designed by Maurice Koechlin and Émile Nouguier of Gustave Eiffel’s company, with architectural flourishes by Stephen Sauvestre. Construction took just over two years, from January 1887 to March 1889. Today it stands 330 metres tall with its antennas, and the top platform sits 276 metres above the Champ de Mars.

Around six to seven million people go up each year. You can take the lift, or climb roughly 600 steps to the second floor and save the lift for the summit. Book on the official Eiffel Tower website, where second-floor and summit tickets are sold separately, and plan the summit for a clear day.

2. The Louvre: from royal palace to museum

The Louvre opened as a public museum on 10 August 1793, in a palace that had been a royal residence for centuries. It owns more than 615,000 objects and displays about 35,000 of them across some 72,700 square metres, drawing around nine million visitors a year. I. M. Pei’s glass pyramid, proposed in 1984, became the main entrance when its underground lobby opened in 1989.

The big three are the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory of Samothrace, a Greek marble Nike of about 200–190 BC found in 1863 on the Aegean island of Samothrace, which has crowned the Daru staircase since 1884. The museum is closed on Tuesdays. Pick one or two departments and book a timed slot; our Louvre planning guide has more.

3. Palace of Versailles

About 16 kilometres southwest of Paris, Versailles began as Louis XIII’s hunting lodge in 1623. Louis XIV transformed it into the seat of the French court and government, which lived there from May 1682 until the Revolution in October 1789. The Hall of Mirrors, with 578 mirrors facing 17 windows, is where the Treaty of Versailles ended the First World War in June 1919.

The park covers about 815 hectares, including 93 hectares of formal gardens, plus the Grand and Petit Trianon. Versailles became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. Give it a full day, travel out by suburban train, and use the official visit planner for tickets and opening days.

4. Notre-Dame and the churches of Paris

Notre-Dame de Paris has stood on the Île de la Cité since its cornerstone was laid in 1163; the cathedral was largely finished by 1260. Its twin towers rise 69 metres, and its three great medieval rose windows date from about 1225 to 1260. Fire destroyed the spire and much of the roof on 15 April 2019, and after five years of restoration the cathedral reopened on 7 December 2024. Entry to the cathedral is free; reserve a time slot through the official Notre-Dame booking service to skip the longest line.

Pair it with the Sainte-Chapelle, a few minutes away on the same island.

5. Palais Garnier: the opera of the Phantom

Charles Garnier’s opera house was built between 1861 and 1875 and seats 1,979. Its white marble Grand Staircase splits into two flights leading to the gilded Grand Foyer, and the auditorium’s seven-tonne chandelier hangs below a ceiling painted by Marc Chagall in 1964. Gaston Leroux set his 1910 novel The Phantom of the Opera here, inspired partly by an 1896 accident when a chandelier counterweight fell into the hall. Take a daytime tour of the public spaces, or book a ballet to see the auditorium in use.

6. A Seine cruise from the Pont Neuf

A boat trip is the easiest way to see how the city’s landmarks line the river. Vedettes du Pont Neuf leaves from the Square du Vert-Galant at the western tip of the Île de la Cité, and its one-hour guided cruise runs past the Louvre, Notre-Dame and the Eiffel Tower with commentary on the bridges and monuments. Go at sunset for the best light.

7. Arc de Triomphe

Napoleon commissioned the arch in 1806 after his victory at Austerlitz; it was completed in 1836 and stands 49.5 metres high at the top of the Champs-Élysées, where twelve avenues meet at Place Charles de Gaulle. Beneath it lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from the First World War, with an eternal flame. Reach it through the underpasses from the Champs-Élysées or Avenue de la Grande Armée, then climb 284 steps to the roof terrace for a view straight down the avenues.

8. Père Lachaise Cemetery

Opened in 1804 in the 20th arrondissement, Père Lachaise covers 44 hectares of tree-lined lanes and is the resting place of Chopin, Molière, Balzac, Proust, Oscar Wilde, Édith Piaf, Sarah Bernhardt and Jim Morrison. The Communards’ Wall marks where 147 fighters of the Paris Commune were shot during the Bloody Week that ended the Paris Commune. Pick up a map at the entrance and choose a handful of graves; the hillside paths take longer than they look.

9. Galeries Lafayette Haussmann

Paris’s grand department store dates from the 1890s, and its flagship on Boulevard Haussmann is worth visiting even if you buy nothing. The 43-metre Neo-Byzantine glass-and-steel dome, designed by Ferdinand Chanut, was inaugurated in 1912 above Art Nouveau staircases. Look up from the ground floor, then head to the rooftop terrace for a panorama over the Opéra district. It is a five-minute walk from the Palais Garnier.

10. Bastille Day, 14 July

France’s Fête nationale commemorates the storming of the Bastille in 1789 and the Fête de la Fédération of 1790, and became the national holiday in 1880. In Paris the morning brings what is described as the oldest and largest regular military parade in Europe, down the Champs-Élysées, and the evening ends with fireworks over the Eiffel Tower. Book accommodation early if your trip falls in mid-July.

Planning three days in Paris

• Day 1: Eiffel Tower in the morning, a Seine cruise, then the Arc de Triomphe and Champs-Élysées at dusk.
• Day 2: The Louvre (not Tuesday), Notre-Dame and the Sainte-Chapelle, then the Opéra and Galeries Lafayette.
• Day 3: Versailles, or Père Lachaise and Montmartre if you prefer to stay in the city.

Book the timed sights first and group the rest by neighbourhood. For more of the skyline, see our observation-tower comparison and the Victor the eagle Paris-flight story.

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