3 Days in the Marais and East Paris

The Marais is the old aristocratic quarter of Paris, a district of seventeenth-century mansions that the rest of the city forgot for two centuries and rediscovered in the 1960s. Today it is the most stylish neighborhood on the Right Bank, with free museums in its mansions, the heart of the old Jewish quarter and the center of gay Paris. East of it, the 11th, the 20th and the 19th are where young Parisians actually live: Père Lachaise, the canal, the hills of Belleville and the most dramatic park in the city.

Day 1 is the Marais of the mansions: the Place des Vosges, Victor Hugo's apartment, the Hôtel de Sully, the free Musée Cognacq-Jay and the Musée Picasso in the Hôtel Salé. Day 2 goes east to Père Lachaise, the most visited cemetery in the world, and to the Atelier des Lumières, a nineteenth-century foundry where paintings are projected on every wall, before an evening on the rue Oberkampf. Day 3 climbs the cliffs of the Buttes-Chaumont and the hill of Belleville and ends back in the Marais for its bars.

The arrival day is for a stroll and a drink in the Marais. The three days can go in any order; the Musée Picasso and the Musée Cognacq-Jay close on Mondays.

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This route at a glance

Tickets to book before you fly

Two tickets; Père Lachaise, the parks, Victor Hugo's house and the Cognacq-Jay are free. Prices start at the figures shown, per person.

Arrival evening: a drink in the Marais

The Marais is at its best in the early evening, when the shops are still open and the terraces fill up. Walk the rue Vieille-du-Temple and the rue des Francs-Bourgeois, the two main streets of the district, and stop for a glass of wine wherever there is a free table.

If you arrive on a Sunday, the Marais is one of the few areas of Paris where most shops are open, which makes it a lively first evening even at the end of the week.

• The rue des Rosiers is busiest at lunchtime; in the evening it is quieter.
• The streets around the Hôtel de Ville metro are the liveliest part of the Marais after dark.
• Day 1 starts at 9:30 in the Place des Vosges.

Day 1: Mansions and free museums: the Place des Vosges to Picasso

Start in the Place des Vosges, the oldest planned square in Paris, completed in 1612 for the court of Henri IV, with thirty-six red-brick pavilions on arcades around a garden. In the corner at number 6, Victor Hugo lived from 1832 to 1848; his apartment, with the Chinese drawing room he designed himself, is a free museum. From the south-west corner, a small door leads through the garden of the Hôtel de Sully, a mansion of the 1620s, to the rue Saint-Antoine.

Walk north through the rue des Francs-Bourgeois to the Musée Cognacq-Jay, a mansion full of eighteenth-century paintings, furniture and porcelain collected by the founder of La Samaritaine department store. It is free, intimate and almost empty on weekday mornings. For lunch, the Jardin des Rosiers, a hidden garden behind the rue des Rosiers, is the place to eat a falafel from the shops nearby.

In the afternoon, visit the Musée Picasso in the Hôtel Salé, the grandest mansion of the Marais, built for a collector of the salt tax. It holds the largest public collection of Picasso's work, from the Blue Period to the last paintings, and the works by other artists he kept for himself. End with a walk along the rue Vieille-du-Temple and the shops of the northern Marais.

Stops in order

1. 9:30 · Place des Vosges: arcades and garden
   Place des Vosges, 75004, Paris
2. 10:00 · Maison de Victor Hugo: Victor Hugo's apartment, free
   6 Place des Vosges, 75004, Paris
3. 11:00 · Hôtel de Sully: garden passage to the rue Saint-Antoine
   Rue Saint-Antoine, 75004, Paris
4. 11:45 · Musée Cognacq-Jay: 18th-century collection, free, closed Mondays
   8 Rue Elzévir, 75003, Paris
5. 13:00 · Jardin des Rosiers - Joseph-Migneret: hidden garden for a falafel lunch
   10 Rue des Rosiers, 75004, Paris
6. 14:30 · Musée Picasso: the Hôtel Salé, closed Mondays
   5 Rue de Thorigny, 75003, Paris

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Walk the Marais with your head up

The best details of the Marais are above eye level: carved doorways, turrets on street corners, painted signs from the nineteenth century and courtyards behind every heavy door. Push any open door marked "cour" and look in.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: Three museums and the arcades of the Place des Vosges keep you dry; skip the hidden garden in heavy rain.

Day 2: Père Lachaise, the Atelier des Lumières and the rue Oberkampf

The Père Lachaise cemetery is a city of the dead on a hillside, with cobbled avenues, chapels and more than seventy thousand tombs under old trees. It is free and you will need its map: Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Édith Piaf, Chopin, Molière, Proust, Modigliani, Colette and Gertrude Stein are all here, and the Mur des Fédérés in the south-east corner is where the last fighters of the Paris Commune were shot in 1871. Allow two hours.

Walk down through the 11th arrondissement to the Atelier des Lumières on the rue Saint-Maur. In a former iron foundry, digital shows on the work of great painters, Van Gogh, Klimt and others in turn, are projected across every wall and the floor to music; the shows change with the seasons. It is a striking contrast to the stillness of the morning.

In the evening, the rue Oberkampf and the streets around it are the liveliest bar district on the Right Bank, full of young Parisians from early evening. Have dinner in a neighborhood bistro and stay out late.

Stops in order

1. 10:00 · Père Lachaise Cemetery: free, about two hours
   8 Boulevard de Ménilmontant, 75020, Paris
2. 15:30 · Atelier des Lumières: immersive show, about an hour
   38 Rue Saint-Maur, 75011, Paris
3. 18:30 · Rue Oberkampf: bars and bistros
   Rue Oberkampf, 75011, Paris
4. 21:00 · Canal Saint-Martin: a late walk along the water
   Paris

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Enter Père Lachaise from the top

Take line 3 to Gambetta and enter by the upper gate. You walk downhill all morning, past Oscar Wilde and Édith Piaf, and leave by the main gate on the boulevard de Ménilmontant near Jim Morrison.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: The cemetery is best on a dry morning; in rain, go to the Atelier des Lumières first and keep Père Lachaise for the afternoon if it clears.

Day 3: The Buttes-Chaumont, Belleville and an evening in the Marais

The Parc des Buttes-Chaumont is the most dramatic park in Paris, built in the 1860s on an old quarry: a lake, a waterfall in a cave, a suspension bridge and a cliff crowned with a little Roman temple. Climb to the temple for the view over the north-east of the city, and walk the winding paths down to the lake.

Walk south to Belleville, the hilly district where Édith Piaf was born, now home to Chinese, North African and artists' communities. The Parc de Belleville, terraced into the slope, has the best view of the Paris skyline from the east, with the Eiffel Tower on the horizon. Have lunch in one of the cheap Chinese or Vietnamese restaurants of the boulevard de Belleville.

Return to the Marais for the evening. The rue des Archives and the rue Sainte-Croix-de-la-Bretonnerie are the center of gay Paris, with bars that spill onto the pavement on warm evenings, and the district's restaurants serve until late. It is a good place for the last dinner of the trip.

Stops in order

1. 10:00 · Parc des Buttes-Chaumont: temple, cliff and lake
   Paris
2. 12:30 · Parc de Belleville: the skyline from the east, lunch
   75020, Paris
3. 17:00 · Le Marais: shops of the rue des Francs-Bourgeois
   Rue des Francs Bourgeois, 75003, Paris
4. 19:30 · Rue des Archives: bars and late dinner
   Rue des Archives, 75004, Paris

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Picnic in the Buttes-Chaumont on a weekday

On weekends, the lawns fill with Parisian families. On a weekday, buy lunch at a bakery near the park and take the lawn below the temple; it is one of the best picnic spots in Paris.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: The parks are best on a dry day; in rain, swap the morning for the Musée Carnavalet in the Marais, which is free.

Departure morning: the Marais market and the canal

Spend the last morning at the Marché des Enfants Rouges, the oldest covered market in Paris, for breakfast, or along the Canal Saint-Martin, a short walk from the Gare de l'Est and the Gare du Nord.

The Marais is a few minutes from Châtelet, where the RER B to Charles de Gaulle and Orly stops.

• Most Marais shops open around 11:00.
• Line 4 and the RER B from Châtelet serve the Gare du Nord and the airports.
• 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.

Free museums in the Marais

The Marais has the highest concentration of free museums in Paris, most of them in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century mansions run by the city. The table lists the ones on or near this route.

💡 Pro Tip

Leave the bag at the hotel on Day 1

The free museums of the Marais ask visitors to leave large bags at the entrance, and some have no cloakroom. With only a small bag, you walk straight in.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

Where to stay in the Marais and the east

• The southern Marais (4th), around Saint-Paul: historic, central, close to the islands.
• The northern Marais (3rd), around the Enfants Rouges: quieter, design shops and galleries.
• Oberkampf and the 11th: younger, cheaper, the best bar district.
• The Canal Saint-Martin (10th): relaxed, close to the Gare du Nord and the Eurostar.

More 3-day routes

• Paris for art lovers: six museums in three days, Picasso included.
• Modern and street art: Belleville's walls and the 13th.
• Paris after dark: late bars and jazz cellars.
• 3 days in Paris for foodies: the Marais markets and falafel.
• Hidden Paris: secret courtyards in the Marais and beyond.
• 2 days in Paris: a shorter stay based in the Marais.
• All the 3-day routes, by theme