The 5 essential faces of Paris

• Experience cultural Paris
• Experience gourmet Paris
• Experience monumental Paris
• Experience Paris By Night
• Experience Paris fashion

There are countless museums in Paris, so depending on your tastes and desires, you'll have to make a choice!

The must-see museums for paintings

• The Louvre is worth a visit for its Egyptian wing, its antique rooms, its treasures, its ancient paintings, including a certain one by Leonardo da Vinci, as well as Poussin's religious paintings, David's Empire paintings, and the furniture from the apartments of the last kings of France.
• The Musée d’Orsay was originally a railway station, so it is interesting to visit just for the building. Inside, fans of the 19th century will be delighted by the collection, featuring Degas, Manet, Gauguin and Toulouse-Lautrec.
• The Pompidou Centre is a museum of modern and contemporary art, with exhibitions changing regularly, but you are sure to see some masterpieces.
• At the Orangerie, immerse yourself in Monet's water lilies.
• The Petit Palais is THE museum for Fine Arts in Paris

Museums on a specific artist

• The Picasso Museum in the Hôtel Salé, in the heart of the Marais district
• The Rodin Museum and its pretty gardens
• The Zadkine Museum, the sculptor's home and studio
• The Bourdelle Museum
• The Home of Balzac
• The Home of Victor Hugo
• The Museum of Romantic Life is in George Sand's home, with a lovely tea room in the garden.

History museums

• The Carnavalet-History of Paris Museum
• The Cluny Museum for the Middle Ages
• The Shoah Memorial on the Holocaust
• The Liberation of Paris Museum - General Leclerc Museum - Jean Moulin Museum
• The Museum of Mankind since prehistory.
• The National Museum of the History of Immigration

Museums to suit every taste

You can visit the wine museum in the cellars of the Louvre or the Museum of Decorative Arts in the same district, the Fragonard Perfume Museum, the Music Museum at La Villette, the Primitive Art Museum at the Quai Branly, the classical world of the Marmottan – Monet Museum, the film museum at the Cinémathèque Française, digital art at the Atelier des Lumières, music exhibitions at the Paris Philharmonic, the list goes on...

Our favourite: a free museum

The City of Paris Museum of Modern Art for its extraordinary, free permanent collection.

The markets

Paris is full of covered and street markets.

• The Marché des Enfants Rouges is said to be the oldest covered market in Paris. It’s ideal for eating on the go.
• The Montorgueil market is set up in the pedestrian street between the restaurant terraces.
• Rungis Market is the "belly of Paris" to the south of Paris.
• The Aligre market is the only covered market that is open every day.
• The Batignolles market specialises in organic produce.

For an afternoon treat!

Those with a sweet tooth can visit the Choco-Story Paris chocolate museum (28 Blvd de Bonne Nouvelle, 75010 Paris). They would also enjoy the hot chocolate at Angelina (226, Rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris). The more sensible and traditional might go for tea at Mariage Frères (30-32 Rue du Bourg-Tibourg, 75004 Paris).

Out-of-the-ordinary restaurants

Out-of-the-ordinary restaurants where you can eat in the dark or in front of an opera singer, romantic restaurants for brunch or a candlelit dinner, organic or fusion food restaurants, restaurants run by top chefs, terraces, ice cream parlours... Everything is possible in Paris!

Our favourite: street food

The falafels on the Rue des Rosiers (75004 Paris), in the heart of the Marais, will leave you speechless.

How can we talk about Paris's most beautiful monuments without starting with the Eiffel Tower, now a national symbol!

Historical monuments

The Conciergerie and the Sainte Chapelle are on the Île de la Cité, the Panthéon is the final resting place of some of the world's most illustrious figures, the universities on the Left Bank, including the Sorbonne, are among the best known in the world, the Opéra Garnier is well worth a visit, as are Buren’s columns at the Palais Royal, the Louvre pyramid and the Centre Pompidou museum... The squares of Paris have featured in countless films: Place Vendôme and its column erected by Napoleon to commemorate the Battle of Austerlitz, the Place des Vosges and its arcades... Paris is an open-air museum!

The Château de Versailles, home to Louis XIV, Louis XV, and Louis XVI, is on the UNESCO World Heritage List and impressive for its beauty and size: 63,154 m2, 2,300 rooms, surrounded by 815 ha of magnificent parklands. The Château de Fontainebleau was the residence of every sovereign from the 12th to the 19th century, and is the most furnished of the French royal châteaux. In its 1,500 rooms, you can see masterpieces of the Renaissance, Marie-Antoinette's interiors, Napoleon I's apartment, and more...

The Basilica of St. Denis is a masterpiece of Gothic art and a royal necropolis, with 70 sculpted tombs for the kings and queens of France.

Along the Seine

From Notre-Dame Cathedral, in the Saint-Michel district, head out to discover the most beautiful monuments in Paris along the banks of the Seine, not forgetting its bridges which feature on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

Modern architecture

Get your trainers ready to go all over Paris, from the François Mitterrand library (Quai François Mauriac, 75706 Paris) and the Simone de Beauvoir footbridge, to Gehry's Louis Vuitton Foundation building (8 Avenue du Mahatma Gandhi, 75116 Paris), via the Paris Philharmonic (Cité, 221 Avenue Jean Jaurès, 75019 Paris) in La Villette designed by Jean Nouvel; the Arab World Institute (1 Rue des Fossés Saint-Bernard, 75005 Paris), and Opéra Bastille (Place de la Bastille, 75012 Paris).

Our favourite: the panoramic views

The view from the Louvre Pyramid and the Tuileries to La Défense, with Place de la Concorde, the Champs-Elysées and the Arc de Triomphe in between. This is the central viewpoint of Paris.

Paris, the City of Lights…

The cabarets

Head to Pigalle to see the Moulin Rouge lit up and feel like you've stepped into a film! Cabarets are a Parisian speciality. Two more examples are the Lido on the Champs-Elysées and the Paradis Latin in the Latin Quarter.

Historic cinemas

If you prefer to go to the cinema, then Paris has some really unique places to watch a film! The Louxor is an Art Deco theatre (170 Blvd Magenta, 75009 Paris), the Grand Rex (1 Boulevard Poissonnière, 75009 Paris) offers sound and light shows with water jets before screenings in the main auditorium at the end of the year, and the Pagode (57 Rue de Babylone, 75007 Paris) presents a programme of Asian films.

Paris in music

When it comes to music, you won't be disappointed. Try La Bellevilloise (19-21 Rue Boyer, 75020 Paris), a unique arts and cultural centre where concerts set the mood for the evening. The Rex Club (5 Boulevard Poissonnière, 75002 Paris) is the benchmark techno club in Paris. Les Trois Baudets (64 Boulevard de Clichy, 75018 Paris) has seen the likes of Brassens, Gainsbourg, and Brel, and continues to promote young French chanson.

Going out dancing in Paris!

For dancing the night away, Carmen (34 Rue Duperré, 75009 Paris) is housed in the former mansion of composer Georges Bizet, while Silencio (142 Rue Montmartre, 75002 Paris) is a private club dreamed up by David Lynch!

Our favourite: small theatres

Chance a visit to Point-Virgule (7 Rue Sainte-Croix de la Bretonnerie, 75004 Paris) to hear the young and not-so-young performers of the One Man Show.

The ‘Grands Magasins’ department stores

The chic Parisian department stores, with their wide range of products, are a sight to behold and a great place for window shopping. They're really worth a look! Go to Galeries Lafayette on Grands Boulevards (40, Blvd Haussmann) and ask a personal shopper for help. Head to Printemps (64 Blvd Haussmann) and the brasserie in its Haussmann-style dome, the largest glass in the world. The Bazar de l'Hôtel de Ville or BHV (52, Rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris) has, among other things, a gourmet workshop, and the Bon Marché (24 Rue de Sèvres, 75007 Paris) is renowned for its ultra chic departments.

Fashion museums

Paris is the capital of fashion, so why not devote a day to it? Start at the City of Fashion and Design (34 Quai d'Austerlitz, 75013 Paris) on the Docks of Paris, where there are exhibition halls near the school. The Palais Galliera (10 Avenue Pierre 1er de Serbie, Rue de Galliera, 75016 Paris) is the fashion museum and right next door is the Yves Saint-Laurent museum. In addition to its textile collection, the Museum of Decorative Arts offers a number of key fashion exhibitions.

Fashion hotel!

You can even find hotels in Paris that focus on fashion, such as L'hôtel du Petit Moulin decorated by Christian Lacroix (29/31 Rue de Poitou - 75003).

Covered passageways

Explore the covered passageways, where you'll find some real treasure troves: the oldest is Passage des Panoramas (11 Boulevard Montmartre, 75002 Paris), and there’s also the very pretty Galerie Vivienne (4 Rue des Petits Champs, 75002 Paris).

Our favourite: flowers!

The little flower market on the Île de la Cité.