6 Days in France

Budget: RER B train CDG→central Paris €11.80/$13 (~35 min) or the Orlybus €11.50/$12.50. Premium: Roissybus / pre-booked shuttle €16–35/$17–38. Luxury: private car €80–120/$87–131. Buy a Navigo Easy card or use contactless on the metro; Paris transport is excellent and cheap. 💡 Since 2024 you can tap a contactless card/phone directly on Paris metro gates — no paper tickets needed. For multiple days, a Navigo Easy card loaded with a carnet of 10 rides is the cheapest way to move around. 🍷 First taste: grab a jambon-beurre (ham-butter baguette) from a boulangerie — France's most-eaten sandwich. Look for the 'artisan boulanger' sign, meaning bread baked on site.

Budget: a Left Bank 2-star or Generator/MIJE hostel (€80–150/$87–164). Premium: Hôtel des Grands Boulevards, Hôtel National des Arts et Métiers (€220–380/$240–414). Luxury: Le Bristol, Ritz Paris, Cheval Blanc (€900–2,500/$980–2,725). 💡 Stay in the Marais (3e/4e) or Saint-Germain (6e) — both are central, walkable, and full of cafés and boulangeries. Avoid the far outer arrondissements; the metro is fast but you lose the strolling that makes Paris. 🍷 Ask your hotel for its nearest boulangerie and fromagerie — a rotating croissant-and-cheese habit is the correct way to do Paris.

Ease in on foot: the Seine islands, Notre-Dame (reopened Dec 2024 after the fire restoration — free entry, but book a timed slot online to skip the queue), Shakespeare & Company bookshop, and the tangled Latin Quarter lanes. Sainte-Chapelle's stained glass nearby (€13/$14) is breathtaking. 💡 Notre-Dame reopened in December 2024 after its restoration — entry is free but reserve a timed slot on the official app/site to avoid long queues. Sainte-Chapelle, two minutes away, has arguably the finest stained glass in Europe. 🍷 Latin Quarter café stop: order 'un café' (espresso) standing at the bar — it's cheaper than sitting on the terrace, and it's how Parisians actually drink it.

Walk the Seine's UNESCO-listed quays as the light softens, then take the metro to Trocadéro for the classic first, full-frontal view of the Eiffel Tower across the river. FREE. The tower sparkles for 5 minutes on the hour after dark. 💡 Trocadéro gives the best full view of the Eiffel Tower — arrive before sunset and stay for the hourly sparkle (every hour on the hour after dusk, for 5 minutes). Beware pickpockets and bracelet scammers on the esplanade. 🍷 Grab a bottle of crémant (France's excellent-value sparkling wine, a fraction of Champagne's price) and picnic on the Champ de Mars — a Parisian institution.

Budget: a neighbourhood bistro prix-fixe or crêperie (€18–30/$20–33). Mid: Bouillon Chartier or Le Comptoir du Relais (€30–55/$33–60). Luxury: Septime, Le Clarence, or an Épicure-level table (€150–400/$164–436, book weeks ahead). Order the classics: steak-frites, confit de canard, soupe à l'oignon. 💡 Bouillon Chartier (and the Bouillon chain) serves classic French dishes in a gorgeous belle-époque room for under €15 a main — one of the best-value meals in Paris. Expect a queue; it moves fast. 🍷 Order the house wine ('un pichet de rouge') — in a good bistro it's cheap, honest, and exactly right with steak-frites. A Côtes du Rhône or Beaujolais is the safe, delicious pick.

€22/$24, free for under-18s and EU under-26s. Book a TIMED slot online — walk-ups are painful. Enter via the Carrousel du Louvre or Porte des Lions to skip the Pyramid queue. Don't try to 'do' it all: pick 2–3 wings (Denon for Mona Lisa/Venus de Milo, Sully for Egypt, Richelieu for Northern painting). ⚠️ The Louvre requires a timed online ticket — turning up without one can mean a 1–2 hr queue or no entry. Book the 09:00 opening slot, go straight to the Mona Lisa first (it's mobbed by 10:30), then work backwards. 🍷 Skip the museum cafés. Walk out into the Tuileries or across to Rue Saint-Honoré for a proper café crème and a pain au chocolat instead.

The grand axis on foot: the Tuileries, the obelisk at Concorde, up the Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe. FREE to walk. Arc rooftop terrace €16/$17 — one of Paris's best views (and better than the Eiffel, because the Eiffel is in it). 💡 Use the underground passage to reach the Arc de Triomphe — never cross the traffic circle on foot (12 avenues, no lane markings, legendary chaos). The rooftop terrace view down the axis is superb at dusk. 🍷 Lunch stop: a Tuileries kiosk crêpe, or go a street back from the Champs-Élysées where prices halve and quality doubles. Anything directly on the avenue is a tourist markup.

Budget: boulangerie sandwich + éclair, eaten in a park (€8–14/$9–15) — genuinely excellent. Mid: a café 'formule' (starter+main or main+dessert, €18–28/$20–31). Luxury: Le Cinq or a Ladurée long lunch. The formule midi is France's great-value lunch tradition. 💡 The weekday 'formule midi' (set lunch) at a good bistro gets you two courses for €18–25 — the same food that costs €45+ at dinner. It's the single best value in French dining. 🍷 A 'demi' (half-pint) or a glass of Sancerre with lunch is entirely normal and not remotely frowned upon. Tap water is free — ask for 'une carafe d'eau'.

€16/$17, in a magnificent converted Beaux-Arts railway station. The world's greatest Impressionist collection: Monet, Renoir, Degas, Van Gogh, Cézanne. Far more manageable than the Louvre — 2 hrs is enough. The giant station clock on the 5th floor is the famous photo. 💡 Many visitors prefer the Orsay to the Louvre — it's beautiful, walkable in 2 hours, and the top-floor Impressionist galleries are extraordinary. Go straight to level 5 first, then work down. 🍷 The Orsay's Café Campana (behind the clock face) is a lovely spot for a coffee or a glass of wine surrounded by Art Nouveau — worth it for the setting alone.

The best-value orientation in Paris: a 1-hr Seine cruise gliding past Notre-Dame, the Louvre, Musée d'Orsay and under the bridges. Budget: Batobus hop-on pass €19/$21 or Vedettes du Pont Neuf €15/$16. Premium: Bateaux Parisiens with commentary €18–25. Luxury: a private or dinner cruise €90–180/$98–196. 💡 Take the last daylight cruise — you'll see the monuments in golden light and then lit up as dusk falls. Sit at the back, outside. Cheaper than the dinner cruises and the food on those is rarely worth it. 🍷 Bring a small bottle of crémant aboard on the budget boats (allowed on most) — a Parisian move that beats the €12 onboard glass.

Budget: stairs to the 2nd floor €11.80/$13 (the best-value option, and the queue is shorter). Mid: lift to the 2nd floor €22/$24. Luxury: summit lift €35/$38, or dinner at Le Jules Verne (€250+/$273+). Book online weeks ahead. The tower sparkles 5 min every hour after dark. ⚠️ Eiffel Tower tickets sell out weeks ahead in season — book online the moment your dates are fixed. The stairs to level 2 are cheaper AND have a far shorter queue, with a better sense of the ironwork. 🍷 After descending, walk to Rue Cler (a food street two blocks away) for a late glass of wine and charcuterie — infinitely better than anything at the tower's base.