Things to do in Paris

Paris is compact for a capital. Twenty arrondissements spiral clockwise from the first, ten kilometres end to end. The Seine settles every argument about direction.

How the city is laid out

Almost everything famous stands within a short walk of the river.

• Ile de la Cite. Notre-Dame, free to enter on a slot booked online, with the Sainte-Chapelle next door.
• The museum bank. The Orsay in a railway terminus, the Orangerie and its water lilies, the Louvre opposite.
• The Marais. Pre-Haussmann streets that escaped the boulevards, and the Place des Vosges.
• Montmartre. A steep butte under Sacre-Coeur, with a working vineyard on the slope.
• The Latin Quarter and the west end. The Pantheon and the Luxembourg gardens, the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe.
• The river itself. Cruises from a plain hour to dinner aboard; bikes and 2CVs after dark.

Doing the Louvre properly

Some 35,000 works hang here, and the place shuts on Tuesdays. Nobody sees it in one pass.

• The free evening. Free from six on the first Friday of the month, July and August excepted. Closing is nine, rooms clear from half past eight.
• Book a slot anyway. A time is reserved online even when entry is free.
• Pick a wing, not a list. Denon has the Mona Lisa and the Italian paintings, Sully the Venus de Milo, Richelieu the French rooms.
• Leaving is final. Step outside and the ticket is spent.

Wednesday and Friday also run to nine, and the last two hours are the calm ones.

Eating, and how late it runs

Lunch is served from noon to two. Dinner opens about half past seven, and Parisians sit down at nine. A place that feeds you at six is aimed at you.

• Coffee has three prices. One at the counter, more at a table, more again on the terrace. All three are posted by law.
• A demi is not a half. It is 25 centilitres of draught beer; a pinte is fifty, and averages a little under seven euros.
• Nights. Last metros go about half past midnight, an hour later on Friday and Saturday. Noctilien buses cover the rest.

Where the day trips go

• Champagne. Reims and Epernay, two cellars and a tasting, home by evening.
• Giverny. Monet's garden and pond, often with Auvers-sur-Oise.
• The Loire. Three chateaux and a wine tasting in one long day.
• Mont Saint-Michel. The longest run of them all, Calvados on the way back.

Practical

• Weather. Grey rather than harsh, and winter rarely freezes. August empties the city.
• Free entry is a system. The city's museums keep their permanent collections free, the Carnavalet and the Petit Palais among them. National ones go free on the first Sunday, ticket still booked.
• Airports. Taxi fares are fixed: 56 or 65 euros from Charles de Gaulle, 36 or 45 from Orly.
• Getting about. A single ticket of about two and a half euros covers any metro or RER ride, airports excepted.
• Entry prices. The Louvre, Versailles, Chambord, the Sainte-Chapelle and the Opera Garnier charge more to visitors from outside the EEA.
• Tipping and pockets. Service is in the bill by law. Line 1 and the slope below Sacre-Coeur are the worst.