🏛️ Culture in Paris

The most controversial building in Paris when it opened in 1977 — the inside-out industrial cathedral of pipes, escalators, and coloured ducts that houses Europe's largest modern art museum. The free public plaza is always buzzing; the rooftop panorama of Paris is extraordinary and often overlooked.

📍Place Georges-Pompidou, 75004 Paris

The most visited paid monument on Earth — Gustave Eiffel's 1889 iron lattice tower that was supposed to be temporary and became eternal. The view from the second floor is arguably better than the summit. Book tickets online months ahead for summer; the area around the tower (Champ de Mars) is free and lovely.

📍Champ de Mars, 5 Av. Anatole France, 75007 Paris

The world's largest art museum and a former royal palace — 35,000 works across three wings that would take weeks to properly see. The Winged Victory, Venus de Milo, and Mona Lisa are here; so is an overwhelming amount of art that tourists walk past to reach those three. Book timed entry online.

📍Rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris

The world's greatest Impressionist collection inside a magnificent 1900 railway station — Monet, Renoir, Degas, Cézanne, Van Gogh, and Seurat in a soaring glass-and-iron hall. More manageable than the Louvre and infinitely more beautiful as a space. The rooftop café has Seine views.

📍1 Rue de la Légion d'Honneur, 75007 Paris

The world's most famous cemetery — 110 acres of tree-lined avenues and elaborate funerary art where Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison, Édith Piaf, Marcel Proust, and Chopin are all buried. Père Lachaise is one of the most atmospheric walks in Paris; a free map at the entrance guides you to 70+ famous graves.

📍16 Rue du Repos, 75020 Paris

The most spectacular Gothic interior in the world — a royal chapel on the Île de la Cité with 15 floor-to-ceiling stained glass windows that bathe the upper chapel in an otherworldly blue and gold light. Built in 1248 to house Christ's crown of thorns, it is the single most beautiful room in Paris.

📍8 Bd du Palais, 75001 Paris