Secret Paris: A 3-Day Itinerary off the Main Map

Paris has two maps. The first is the one everyone follows, from the Eiffel Tower to Notre-Dame. The second is a network of glass-roofed passages, cobbled villages, private lanes, gardens on old railway lines and streets painted in every color, most of them a few minutes from the first map and almost empty. This route follows the second one, for travelers who have seen the monuments and want the city behind them.

Day 1 is the covered passages of the Right Bank, the shopping malls of the early nineteenth century, with mosaic floors, glass roofs, old bookshops and a wax museum in the middle of one of them. Day 2 goes underground into the Catacombs and comes up into the 13th arrondissement, where the Cité Florale is a hamlet of lanes named after flowers and the Butte-aux-Cailles is a village on a hill. Day 3 is a day of small wonders in the east: the painted houses of the rue Crémieux, the Coulée verte on its old viaduct and the market of Aligre.

The arrival day is for a first wander. The three days can go in any order, apart from the Catacombs, which close on Mondays, and the Aligre market, which closes on Mondays and in the afternoon.

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This route at a glance

Tickets to book before you fly

Two tickets; the passages, villages, gardens and streets are free. Prices start at the figures shown, per person.

Arrival evening: the tip of the island

Start at the Pont Neuf. Halfway across, steps lead down behind the statue of Henri IV to the Square du Vert-Galant, a garden at water level where the island ends in a point of grass and willows. In the evening it is one of the quietest places in central Paris, with the Seine flowing past on both sides and the Louvre lit across the water.

From there, walk along the quays of the Left Bank, where the green boxes of the bouquinistes close at dusk and the city goes quiet.

• The Square du Vert-Galant is reached by steps from the middle of the Pont Neuf.
• Behind the statue of Henri IV, the Place Dauphine is one of the most secret squares in Paris.
• Day 1 starts at 10:00 in the passages, when the shops open.

Day 1: The covered passages and a wax museum

Before the department stores, Parisians shopped in covered passages, glass-roofed arcades that let them browse dry and away from the mud and traffic of the streets. Around twenty survive, most of them between the Louvre and the Grands Boulevards. Start at the Galerie Véro-Dodat near the Louvre, with its black-and-white floor and painted ceilings, and walk to the Galerie Vivienne, the most beautiful, with its mosaics and a wine shop that has been there since the nineteenth century.

Continue north to the Passage des Panoramas, the oldest of them all, opened in 1799, a maze of stamp dealers, engravers and small restaurants. Across the boulevard Montmartre, the Passage Jouffroy and the Passage Verdeau continue the same line with old bookshops, toy shops, a hotel and a cane shop.

In the middle of the Passage Jouffroy is the entrance to the Musée Grévin, the wax museum founded in 1882. Its figures of French and world celebrities are fun, but the real surprise is the building: a baroque theater and the Palace of Mirages, a hall of mirrors and light from the 1900 Exposition that is one of the strangest rooms in Paris.

Stops in order

1. 10:00 · Galerie Véro-Dodat: painted ceilings and the checkerboard floor
   19 Rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 75001, Paris
2. 10:45 · Galerie Vivienne: mosaics and the old wine shop
   Rue des Petits Champs, 75001, Paris
3. 12:00 · Passage des Panoramas: the oldest passage, lunch
   Passage des Panoramas, 75002, Paris
4. 14:00 · Passage Jouffroy: bookshops and the cane shop
   10-12 Boulevard Montmartre, 75009, Paris
5. 15:00 · Musée Grévin: wax museum and the Palace of Mirages
   10 Boulevard Montmartre, 75009, Paris

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Look at the floors as much as the windows

Each passage has its own floor: checkerboard marble at Véro-Dodat, mosaics at Vivienne, worn tiles at Panoramas. The floors are the best way to tell them apart in your photos, and the least photographed part of them.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: This is the best rainy day in Paris: every stop is under glass.

Day 2: The Catacombs, the Cité Florale and the Butte-aux-Cailles

Start underground in the Catacombs, twenty meters below the Place Denfert-Rochereau. The old limestone quarries became an ossuary in the late eighteenth century, when the overflowing cemeteries of Paris were emptied, and the bones of some six million people line a kilometer and a half of tunnels. The visit takes about an hour.

Ride two stops to the Parc Montsouris, a romantic English park with a lake and old trees on the southern edge of the city, and walk to the Cité Florale, a triangle of cobbled lanes named after flowers, the rue des Glycines, the rue des Orchidées, the rue des Liserons, lined with small houses and gardens. It feels like a village and is one of the best-kept secrets of the 13th.

Walk on to the Butte-aux-Cailles, a hill of cobbled streets, small houses and street art that escaped Haussmann's rebuilding. It has a lively evening scene of bars and cheap restaurants, and an Art Nouveau swimming pool fed by a natural spring.

Stops in order

1. 9:45 · Catacombs of Paris: about an hour underground
   1 Avenue du Colonel Henri Rol Tanguy, 75014, Paris
2. 12:00 · Parc Montsouris: lake and lawns, picnic
   Avenue de la Tunisie, 75014, Paris
3. 13:30 · Cité Florale: lanes named after flowers
   Rue des Glycines, 75013, Paris
4. 15:00 · Butte-aux-Cailles: village on a hill, evening bars
   Rue de la Butte-aux-Cailles, 75013, Paris

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Walk the Cité Florale in silence

The lanes are private homes, and residents are tolerant of visitors who are quiet. Keep voices low and do not photograph windows; you will be welcome back.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: The Catacombs are unaffected; in rain, swap the park and the lanes for the cafés of the Butte-aux-Cailles.

Day 3: A painted street, a viaduct garden and the Aligre market

Begin early at the rue Crémieux near the Gare de Lyon, a short, cobbled street of small houses painted in pastel colors, with trompe-l'oeil cats and climbing plants. It became so popular on social media that residents asked visitors to respect their homes, so go before 9:00, be quiet and take a few photos only.

Walk five minutes to the Coulée verte René-Dumont, the first park in the world built on a raised railway, built on an abandoned railway viaduct in the 1990s, long before New York's High Line. The planted walkway runs above the streets for nearly five kilometers; under its arches, the Viaduc des Arts houses workshops of furniture makers, glass blowers and violin makers.

Come down for the Marché d'Aligre, the most local of Paris markets, with fruit and vegetable stalls in the street and a covered hall of cheesemongers and butchers. End at the Square du Vert-Galant at the tip of the Île de la Cité if you did not go on the first evening, or in one of the wine bars around the market.

Stops in order

1. 8:45 · Rue Crémieux: go early, keep quiet
   Rue Crémieux, 75012, Paris
2. 10:00 · Coulée verte René-Dumont: garden on the old viaduct
   Coulée Verte René-Dumont, 75012, Paris
3. 11:30 · Marché d'Aligre: market and covered hall, closed Mondays
   Rue Théophile Roussel, 75012, Paris
4. 16:00 · Square du Vert-Galant: the tip of the island
   Square du Vert-Galant, 75001, Paris

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Walk the Coulée verte from west to east

Start near the Bastille end and walk east; the viaduct is narrowest and most planted at the beginning and opens out over the 12th. You can drop down to the street at almost every crossing.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: The viaduct is open to the sky; in rain, spend more time in the covered Marché Beauvau and the workshops under the arches.

Departure morning: one more secret

Use the last morning for a hidden corner close to your station. Near the Gare du Nord, the Square du Temple and the rue de Bretagne are quiet and pretty; near Montparnasse, the Villa Adrienne and the small lanes behind the cemetery.

Hidden Paris is mostly free, so the last morning costs nothing but time.

• Most passages open from 8:00 or 9:00 and close in the evening.
• Private lanes and villas ask visitors to stay quiet; respect it.
• Allow plenty of time for an international flight.

Which day goes where

The three days can run in any order. Use this table to keep every sight off its closing day.

The best covered passages in Paris

The covered passages are the most complete hidden world in Paris. The table lists the best of them, in the order of the Day 1 walk.

💡 Pro Tip

Go on a weekday morning

The passages are busiest on Saturday afternoons. On a weekday at 10:00, as the shops open, you have them almost to yourself, and the light through the glass roofs is at its softest.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

More hidden places if you have time

• Villa Léandre in Montmartre: an Art Deco lane of brick houses that looks like London.
• The Place Dauphine on the Île de la Cité: a triangular square behind the Pont Neuf, almost always quiet.
• The Square du Temple in the Marais: a garden with a pond and a bandstand.
• The Musée de la Vie romantique at the foot of Montmartre: a free museum with a garden tea room.
• The Cour de Rohan off the Cour du Commerce Saint-André in Saint-Germain: three linked courtyards that look as they did before the Revolutionary years, with one of the last mounting blocks for horses in the city.

More 3-day routes

• Montmartre and beyond: the hill's quiet lanes and the flea market.
• Paris for photographers: the rue Crémieux and the best light.
• The Marais and east Paris: hidden courtyards and free museums.
• Rainy days in Paris: more covered passages for wet weather.
• Paris on a budget: the free side of the city.
• 5 days in Paris: add the monuments to the hidden city.
• All the 3-day routes, by theme