One Week in Paris: The 7-Day Itinerary

A week in Paris changes the trip completely. You stop counting sights and start having favorites: the café where the waiter recognises you on the third morning, the bakery whose croissants you compare with all the others, the bridge you cross every evening on the way back. A week also gives you time for the two great châteaux outside the city, Versailles and Fontainebleau, without sacrificing Paris itself.

The route runs like this. Day 1 is the islands and the Latin Quarter. Day 2 is the Louvre and the Tuileries, with Monet's Water Lilies at the Orangerie. Day 3 is the Eiffel Tower, Napoleon's tomb and the Arc de Triomphe. Day 4 is Versailles. Day 5 is the Marais, Père Lachaise and the Canal Saint-Martin. Day 6 is the Orsay, the Opéra and Montmartre. Day 7 is the Château de Fontainebleau, the palace of eight centuries of French kings, in its forest south of Paris.

The arrival day does not count, and on a week-long trip it should be gentle. The seven days can be swapped around, with the Louvre and Fontainebleau kept off Tuesdays and the Orsay, the Picasso and Versailles off Mondays.

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This route at a glance

Tickets to book before you fly

Eleven tickets across seven days, never more than three in one day. Prices start at the figures shown, per person.

Arrival evening: find your neighborhood

On a week-long trip, the first evening is for getting to know the streets around your hotel: the nearest bakery, the café you will come back to, the metro entrance and the way to the river. These are the places you will use every day.

Have a simple dinner nearby and go to bed early. The first full day starts on the Île de la Cité.

• Load a Navigo Easy card with single tickets; you will use around twenty-five over the week.
• Check the forecast and keep Versailles and Fontainebleau for dry days.
• Day 1 starts at Notre-Dame at 9:00.

Day 1: Notre-Dame, the Sainte-Chapelle and the Latin Quarter

Start the week at Notre-Dame, free to enter, and then the Sainte-Chapelle at 10:00, whose fifteen windows of thirteenth-century glass rise almost to the roof. The ticket includes the Conciergerie, the medieval royal palace beside it.

In the afternoon, wander the Latin Quarter: the medieval church of Saint-Séverin, the rue de la Huchette, the Sorbonne and the rue Mouffetard with its market at the bottom. There is no ticket and no rush; you have six more days.

Stops in order

1. 9:00 · Notre-Dame Cathedral: free entry
   6 Parvis Notre-Dame - Place Jean-Paul II, 75004, Paris
2. 10:00 · Sainte-Chapelle: glass and the Conciergerie
   8 Boulevard du Palais, 75001, Paris
3. 13:30 · Saint-Séverin: Flamboyant Gothic
   3 Rue des Prêtres Saint-Séverin, 75005, Paris
4. 14:30 · Sorbonne: the old university
   75005, Paris
5. 16:00 · Rue Mouffetard: market street
   Rue Mouffetard, 75005, Paris

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Make Day 1 the slowest

Jet lag and a new city make the first day the hardest. This one has a single ticket in the morning and a free afternoon of walking; stop for coffee whenever you like.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: The morning visits are indoors; swap the afternoon walk for the Musée de Cluny, the museum of the Middle Ages.

Day 2: The Louvre, the Tuileries and the Water Lilies

Give the Louvre a whole morning. After two guided hours with the masterpieces, stay on in the wing that interests you most and have lunch in one of the museum's cafés.

In the afternoon, walk through the Tuileries, sit by the round pond and visit the Orangerie at the far end, where Monet's eight Water Lilies panels fill two oval rooms. Finish at the Place de la Concorde, looking up the Champs-Élysées to the Arc.

Stops in order

1. 9:30 · Louvre Museum: a guided start and a long morning
   Pont du Carrousel, 75001, Paris
2. 14:30 · Tuileries Garden: the round pond
   113, 75001, Paris
3. 16:00 · Musée de l'Orangerie: the Water Lilies
   Quai des Tuileries, 75001, Paris
4. 17:30 · Place de la Concorde: the view up the avenue
   Place de la Concorde, 75008, Paris

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Come back to the Louvre on Wednesday or Friday evening

With a week, you can return for the late opening on Wednesday or Friday, when the museum is calmer. Use it for whatever you missed on Day 2.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: Both museums are indoors; take line 1 from the Louvre to the Concorde.

Day 3: The Eiffel Tower, Napoleon's tomb and the Arc de Triomphe

Go up the Eiffel Tower at the first slot of the morning, then walk along the Champ de Mars to Les Invalides. Under the golden dome lies Napoleon in a red quartzite sarcophagus, and the Musée de l'Armée around the courtyard covers French military history from medieval armour to 1945.

Cross the Pont Alexandre III and walk up the Champs-Élysées in the late afternoon to the Arc de Triomphe. Climb to the roof for sunset, when the Eiffel Tower lights up to the south.

Stops in order

1. 9:30 · Eiffel Tower: second floor
   5 Avenue Anatole France, 75007, Paris
2. 11:30 · Champ de Mars: the lawns
   Avenue Bosquet, 75007, Paris
3. 12:30 · Les Invalides: Napoleon's tomb and the army museum
   129 Rue de Grenelle, 75007, Paris
4. 16:00 · Pont Alexandre III: the gilded bridge
   Promenade des Berges de la Seine - Port des Invalides, 75007, Paris
5. 18:00 · Arc de Triomphe: sunset from the roof
   Tunnel de l'Étoile, 75008, Paris

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

See the flame at 18:30

A short ceremony under the arch each evening relights the flame of the Unknown Soldier. Be standing at the foot of the Arc when it starts, and climb to the roof straight after.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: Les Invalides is indoors; keep the tower and the Arc for clear weather if you can swap the day.

Day 4: Versailles

Take the RER early for a 9:00 palace slot and see the State Apartments and the Hall of Mirrors first. Then walk the gardens of Le Nôtre down to the Grand Canal for a picnic or a rowing boat.

In the afternoon, visit the estate of Trianon and Marie-Antoinette's Hamlet, and take the RER back to Paris in the early evening. The palace is closed on Mondays.

Stops in order

1. 9:00 · Palace of Versailles: palace at opening
   Rue de la Chancellerie, 78000, Versailles
2. 11:30 · Gardens of Versailles: gardens and groves
   Place d'Armes, 78000 Versailles
3. 13:00 · Grand Canal, Versailles: picnic
   Allée du Grand Canal, 78000 Versailles
4. 14:30 · Estate of Trianon: Grand and Petit Trianon
   Esplanade du Grand Trianon, 78000, Versailles
5. 16:00 · Queen's Hamlet: the Hamlet
   78000, Versailles

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Keep the evening after Versailles free

You will walk more at Versailles than on any other day of the week. Plan a simple dinner near the hotel and nothing else; Day 5 starts in the Marais.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: Rain makes the gardens muddy but the palace rooms calmer; ride between the buildings rather than walking.

Day 5: The Marais, Père Lachaise and the Canal Saint-Martin

Start at the Musée Picasso in the Hôtel Salé, then walk to the Place des Vosges and its arcades. Have lunch in the Marais and take the metro to Père Lachaise, the city of the dead on its hillside, with the graves of Chopin, Oscar Wilde, Édith Piaf and Jim Morrison.

In the late afternoon, walk down to the Canal Saint-Martin and its iron footbridges, and stay for a drink by the water, where young Parisians gather in the evening.

Stops in order

1. 10:00 · Musée Picasso: closed Mondays
   5 Rue de Thorigny, 75003, Paris
2. 12:30 · Place des Vosges: arcades and lunch
   Place des Vosges, 75004, Paris
3. 14:30 · Père Lachaise Cemetery: free, about two hours
   8 Boulevard de Ménilmontant, 75020, Paris
4. 17:30 · Canal Saint-Martin: drinks by the water
   Paris

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Leave this afternoon open

Day 5 is the natural rest afternoon of the week. If you are tired, skip Père Lachaise and spend the time on a terrace in the Marais; nothing on the rest of the route depends on it.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: The museum is indoors; in rain, swap Père Lachaise for the free Musée Carnavalet in the Marais.

Day 6: The Orsay, the Palais Garnier and Montmartre

Begin the day at the Musée d'Orsay at opening and give it until lunch. Then cross the river to the Palais Garnier for its grand staircase, foyer and, if open, the auditorium under Chagall's ceiling.

Take line 12 up to Abbesses and spend the late afternoon in Montmartre: the Wall of Love, the windmills of the rue Lepic and the Sacré-Cœur, whose steps are the best place in Paris to watch the sun go down.

Stops in order

1. 9:30 · Musée d'Orsay: at opening
   1 Rue de la Légion d'Honneur, 75007, Paris
2. 13:30 · Palais Garnier: staircase and foyer
   Place Jacques Rouché, 75009, Paris
3. 16:00 · Place des Abbesses: the Art Nouveau metro entrance
   Place des Abbesses, 75018, Paris
4. 16:45 · Moulin de la Galette: the windmill on the rue Lepic
   83 Rue Lepic, 75018, Paris
5. 18:30 · Sacré-Cœur: sunset on the steps
   Rue du Chevalier de la Barre, 75018, Paris

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Eat on the north side of the hill

The restaurants around the Place du Tertre are the most expensive in Montmartre. Walk five minutes to the rue Caulaincourt or the rue Lamarck for neighborhood bistros at normal prices.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: The Orsay and the Garnier are indoors; take the funicular up to the Sacré-Cœur.

Day 7: The Château de Fontainebleau and its forest

Fontainebleau is the château the kings of France lived in for eight centuries, from the Middle Ages to Napoleon III, and it shows every style in between. François I's Renaissance gallery, the ballroom of Henri II, Marie-Antoinette's apartments and Napoleon's throne room are all in one building, with far fewer visitors than Versailles. The château is closed on Tuesdays.

Napoleon said goodbye to his guard in the Cour des Adieux, at the foot of the horseshoe staircase, before his first exile. Behind the château, the gardens lead to the Forest of Fontainebleau, one of the largest in France, famous for its sandstone rocks and the painters of Barbizon. Take the train back to the Gare de Lyon in the early evening.

Stops in order

1. 10:30 · Château de Fontainebleau: royal apartments, closed Tuesdays
   Escalier en fer a cheval, 77300, Fontainebleau

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Take the train, not a tour

The Transilien R from the Gare de Lyon is quick and cheap, and with a timed château ticket you can spend as long as you like in the gardens and the forest, unlike a coach tour.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: The château is indoors; leave the forest for another trip.

Departure morning: one last croissant

After a week, the last morning is about the routines you have built: the bakery, the café, a last walk to the river. Leave plenty of time for the trip to the airport or the station.

If you have bought wine, cheese or books during the week, pack them the night before and weigh your suitcase.

• Most hotels keep bags after check-out.
• The RER B serves both airports.
• Allow plenty of time for an international flight.

Which day goes where

The 7 days can be swapped around. Use this table to keep every sight off its closing day.

One week in Paris: alternative day trips

The two day trips on this route, Versailles and Fontainebleau, are châteaux. If you would rather see something different, these alternatives fit into the same days.

💡 Pro Tip

Never put two day trips back to back

Two days out of the city in a row leave you tired and feeling you have not seen Paris. Separate them with at least two city days, as this route does with Day 4 and Day 7.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

Living like a Parisian for a week

• Rent an apartment rather than a hotel for a week; you will shop at the markets and eat in sometimes.
• Shop at the markets on their market days; most neighborhoods have one twice a week.
• Learn the bakery order: "une baguette tradition" is the better baguette, and every Parisian buys one daily.
• Take Sunday slowly: many shops close, and the city spends the day in its parks.

More Paris routes

• 5 days in Paris: the shorter version with Versailles.
• London and Paris: splitting a week between two capitals.
• Paris with Giverny: Monet's garden as an alternative day trip.
• The Marais and east Paris: three more days on the east side.
• Hidden Paris: for the second week, or the second trip.
• The best time to visit Paris: when a long stay works best.
• All the 3-day routes, by theme