Day 1 — The Eiffel Tower & the Left Bank
Start at the Eiffel Tower itself. Book a timed entry online well in advance — the second floor gives the best photos of the city, and you don't need the summit unless the weather is perfectly clear. Arriving right at opening (9:30am) avoids the worst of the queue.
From the Champ de Mars, walk east along the Seine into Saint-Germain-des-Prés. This is literary Paris: Café de Flore and Les Deux Magots (both overpriced but worth one coffee each for the history), the bookshops on Rue de Seine, and the small commercial art galleries that still cluster around the Rue de l'Université.
Lunch: a bistro formule (two courses, €14–18) somewhere off the main drag — Rue de Buci has good options.
Afternoon: the Musée d'Orsay, housed in a former railway station on the river. The Impressionist and Post-Impressionist collection — Monet, Degas, Van Gogh, Renoir — is arguably a more rewarding two hours than the Louvre for most visitors. Evening: dinner in Saint-Germain, then a walk along the Seine past the bouquinistes as the light drops.
Day 2 — The Louvre, Île de la Cité & the Marais
Book your Louvre entry for 9am, before the tour groups arrive. Focus: the Denon wing for the Mona Lisa, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, and Italian Renaissance painting. Two hours is plenty unless you're a specialist — the building itself, a former royal palace, is half the point.
Walk through the Tuileries Garden to Place de la Concorde, then double back to Île de la Cité. Sainte-Chapelle, a 13th-century royal chapel with wall-to-wall stained glass, is one of the most underrated sights in the city — go when the sun is out. Notre-Dame's plaza and flying buttresses are worth the short walk even while restoration continues inside.
Lunch on Île Saint-Louis, then ice cream at Berthillon regardless of the season.
Afternoon: cross into Le Marais (3rd–4th arrondissements). Place des Vosges is the oldest planned square in Paris and one of the calmest spots in the city centre. Wander Rue des Rosiers for falafel and the Musée Carnavalet (free) for the history of the city itself.
Evening: dinner in the Marais, then a natural wine bar — Le Mary Celeste or Le Barav are both reliable — for the neighbourhood's after-dark side.
Day 3 — Montmartre, Canal Saint-Martin & a Slow Finish
Morning: Montmartre before the crowds. Climb (or take the funicular) to Sacré-Cœur for a panorama over the whole city. Walk the quieter streets away from Place du Tertre — Rue Lepic, past the Moulin de la Galette, to the small Montmartre vineyard, one of the last working vineyards inside Paris.
Lunch: a café on Rue des Abbesses, well away from the tourist strip.
Afternoon: head down to Canal Saint-Martin, the cooler, younger side of the city — iron footbridges, tree-lined quays, secondhand bookshops, and natural wine bars. It's an easy, unhurried few hours, especially on a warm afternoon when Parisians picnic along the water.
Evening: pick a neighbourhood bistro for a proper final dinner — steak frites at Le Relais de l'Entrecôte if you haven't had it yet — and finish with a walk back along the river to see the bridges and monuments lit for the night. Paris rewards this kind of aimless final evening more than any last-minute sightseeing dash.