Medieval and Gothic Paris in 3 Days

Most of Paris looks nineteenth century, because Baron Haussmann rebuilt it in twenty years. Underneath and between his boulevards, though, the medieval city survives: a cathedral rebuilt after the fire, a royal chapel made of glass, half-timbered houses in the Marais, a section of the city wall built around 1200 and the basilica where Gothic architecture was invented. This route finds all of them in three days.

Day 1 is the Île de la Cité, the island where Paris began: Notre-Dame, the Roman and medieval foundations in the archaeological crypt beneath its square, the Sainte-Chapelle and the Conciergerie, the great hall of the medieval palace. Day 2 is the old Left Bank and the Marais: the churches of Saint-Séverin and Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre, the Musée de Cluny with its unicorn tapestries, and the wall of Philippe Auguste hidden behind a school playground. Day 3 goes north to the Basilica of Saint-Denis, where the kings of France are buried and where the first Gothic choir was built, and back to the last medieval towers of the Right Bank.

The arrival day is not a church day. Use the first evening for a walk around the islands, when Notre-Dame is lit, and begin the three days the next morning. The Musée de Cluny and the archaeological crypt close on Mondays.

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This route at a glance

Tickets to book before you fly

Two tickets cover the great monuments of the route; the churches and the old streets are free. The prices shown are where each ticket starts, per person.

Arrival evening: the islands after dark

Walk around the Île de la Cité and the Île Saint-Louis after dinner. Notre-Dame is lit at night, and from the bridges behind it, the Pont de l'Archevêché and the Pont de la Tournelle, you see the flying buttresses of the apse and the new spire rising above them.

The quays are quiet late in the evening and give you a first sense of how small medieval Paris was: the whole city of 1200 would fit inside a modern arrondissement.

• The best view of the apse is from the square Jean-XXIII behind the cathedral.
• The bronze star on the parvis in front of Notre-Dame marks point zero of French roads.
• Turn in early: Notre-Dame is quietest at opening.

Day 1: Notre-Dame, the crypt, the Sainte-Chapelle and the Conciergerie

Notre-Dame has reopened after the fire, and the restored cathedral is lighter and cleaner than anyone alive had seen it. Go at opening, before 8:00 on weekdays, and walk slowly: the nave and its thirteenth-century rose windows, the new spire, the choir screen with its painted scenes of the life of Christ and the treasury. Entry is free.

Under the square in front of the cathedral, the Crypte archéologique shows the layers of Paris: the Gallo-Roman quay of Lutetia, the medieval cellars and the foundations of the streets demolished in the nineteenth century. It closes on Mondays.

Walk five minutes to the Sainte-Chapelle, built by Saint Louis in the 1240s to house the Crown of Thorns. Its upper chapel is almost all glass, fifteen windows telling the Bible in more than a thousand scenes, and it is the high point of Gothic art in Paris. The ticket includes the Conciergerie next door, whose Hall of the Men-at-Arms is the largest surviving medieval hall in Europe.

Stops in order

1. 8:00 · Notre-Dame Cathedral: free entry, quietest at opening
   6 Parvis Notre-Dame - Place Jean-Paul II, 75004, Paris
2. 9:45 · Archaeological Crypt: Roman and medieval foundations, closed Mondays
   7 Parvis Notre-Dame, 75004 Paris
3. 11:00 · Sainte-Chapelle: upper chapel, best in sunshine
   8 Boulevard du Palais, 75001, Paris
4. 12:00 · Conciergerie: Hall of the Men-at-Arms, same ticket
   2 Boulevard du Palais, 75001, Paris
5. 15:00 · Mémorial des Martyrs de la Déportation: at the island's eastern tip
   Square de l'Île-de-France, 75004, Paris

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Read the Sainte-Chapelle windows from left to right

The windows tell the Bible story from Genesis, starting from the left of the entrance and end with the story of the relics of the Passion. Start at the first window on the left and follow them round; it is a book written in glass.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: Every visit on this day is indoors. The Sainte-Chapelle is most dazzling in sunshine, so swap Day 1 with Day 2 if the morning is grey.

Day 2: The old Left Bank, the Musée de Cluny and the Marais wall

Cross to the Left Bank by the Petit Pont. Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre, one of the oldest churches in Paris, stands in a small garden with a view of Notre-Dame, and a few steps away Saint-Séverin has the most beautiful Flamboyant Gothic interior in the city, with a double ambulatory and a twisted central pillar like a palm tree.

Walk to the Musée de Cluny, the national museum of the Middle Ages, in a fifteenth-century abbots' residence built on the ruins of Roman baths. Its masterpiece is The Lady and the Unicorn, six tapestries of mysterious beauty, in a round room of their own; the Gallo-Roman frigidarium and the heads of the kings of Judah from Notre-Dame's facade are just as memorable. It closes on Mondays. Climb the hill to Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, whose stone rood screen is the only one left in Paris.

In the afternoon, cross the river to the Marais. On the rue des Jardins-Saint-Paul, the longest surviving section of the wall Philippe Auguste built around Paris around 1200 runs along a school sports ground, with two towers. A few minutes away, the Hôtel de Sens is one of the last great medieval town houses in Paris, with turrets and a Gothic gateway.

Stops in order

1. 9:30 · Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre: one of the oldest churches in Paris
   79 Rue Galande, 75005, Paris
2. 10:00 · Saint-Séverin: Flamboyant Gothic, the palm-tree pillar
   3 Rue des Prêtres Saint-Séverin, 75005, Paris
3. 11:00 · Musée de Cluny: The Lady and the Unicorn, closed Mondays
   6 Place Paul Painlevé, 75005, Paris
4. 13:30 · Saint-Étienne-du-Mont: the last rood screen in Paris
   Place Sainte-Geneviève, 75005, Paris
5. 15:30 · Wall of Philippe Auguste: the wall of Philippe Auguste
   Rue des Jardins-Saint-Paul, 75004, Paris
6. 16:15 · Hôtel de Sens: medieval town house
   1 Rue du Figuier, 75004, Paris

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Find the palm-tree pillar in Saint-Séverin

Walk round the choir to the back of the church. The central pillar of the double ambulatory twists as it rises and branches into the vault like a palm; it is the most photographed detail of medieval Paris that most visitors never find.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: The churches and the museum are indoors; the walk to the Marais is the only long stretch outside.

Day 3: The royal basilica of Saint-Denis and the last medieval towers

Take line 13 to Saint-Denis, north of Paris. In the 1140s Abbot Suger rebuilt the choir of his abbey church with pointed arches, ribbed vaults and huge windows, and in doing so invented Gothic architecture. The basilica later became the necropolis of the kings and queens of France: more than forty royal tombs, from the recumbent figures of the Middle Ages to the Renaissance monuments of Louis XII and François I, fill the transept and the crypt. On Sunday mornings it is closed for services.

Back in Paris, walk to the Tour Saint-Jacques, the Flamboyant Gothic bell tower that is all that remains of a church on the pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela, standing alone in a small garden near Châtelet. Then visit Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois, the parish church of the kings when they lived at the Louvre, with a Gothic porch and a fine nave.

End in the north of the Marais at 51 rue de Montmorency, the house built by the alchemist Nicolas Flamel in 1407, often called the oldest stone house in Paris. Its facade still carries the inscriptions Flamel had carved for the poor who lodged there.

Stops in order

1. 10:00 · Basilica of Saint-Denis: royal tombs and the first Gothic choir
   Place Victor Hugo, 93200, Saint-Denis
2. 14:00 · Tour Saint-Jacques: Flamboyant bell tower
   Square de la Tour Saint-Jacques, 75004, Paris
3. 14:45 · Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois: the kings' parish church
   2 Place du Louvre, 75001, Paris
4. 16:00 · House of Nicolas Flamel: Nicolas Flamel's house
   51 Rue de Montmorency, 75003, Paris

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Visit the Panthéon on the same ticket on Day 2 or Day 3

The combined ticket covers the Panthéon too. It is two minutes from Saint-Étienne-du-Mont on Day 2, so use it there and keep Day 3 for Saint-Denis alone.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: The basilica and the churches are indoors; skip the walk to the Tour Saint-Jacques in heavy rain.

Departure morning: one last church

If you have a free hour before you leave, return to the islands for a last look at Notre-Dame from the Pont de la Tournelle, or step into Saint-Gervais-Saint-Protais behind the Hôtel de Ville, a Gothic church with some of the finest stained glass of the sixteenth century.

The bouquinistes on the quays sell old engravings of Notre-Dame and the Sainte-Chapelle, a good souvenir of a medieval trip.

• Churches open early, often from 8:00, and close during services.
• Prints from the quays pack flat in a suitcase.
• 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.

Gothic Paris: the buildings on this route

Gothic architecture was born at Saint-Denis and perfected in Paris over two centuries. The table lists the buildings on this route in the order they were built, so you can follow the style as it developed.

💡 Pro Tip

Bring binoculars

The best details of Gothic buildings are high up: the gargoyles of Notre-Dame, the top panels of the Sainte-Chapelle windows, the carved capitals of Saint-Denis. A small pair of binoculars turns every church into a new visit.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

Medieval traces in modern Paris

• The wall of Philippe Auguste survives in sections in the Marais and the Latin Quarter; plaques on the pavement mark its route.
• The rue François-Miron in the Marais has two half-timbered houses from the fourteenth or fifteenth century.
• The Cour du Commerce Saint-André in Saint-Germain hides a tower of the medieval wall inside a café.
• The street plan of the Île de la Cité and the Latin Quarter still follows medieval lanes, such as the rue de la Huchette.

More 3-day routes

• From the Bastille to the Liberation: the city from 1789 to its liberation in 1944.
• Paris for art lovers: the Louvre and the great museums.
• The Left Bank: the Latin Quarter and Saint-Germain at a slower pace.
• Hidden Paris: secret courtyards and the Catacombs.
• Rainy days in Paris: churches and museums for wet weather.
• One week in Paris: time for Chartres as well.
• All the 3-day routes, by theme