Things to Do in Paris: A Current Guide to the Landmarks, the Logistics, and What's Free

By Camille Rousseau, Fortrip contributing editor who has covered French travel logistics for the past eight years. Last updated November 2025 — Notre-Dame and Louvre attendance figures below were checked against the museums' own published statements on that date; RER travel times and park logistics were checked against RATP, Château de Versailles, and Disneyland Paris official pages.

Most lists of things to do in Paris repeat the same six stops — the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Notre-Dame, the Arc de Triomphe, a Seine cruise, and Montmartre — and that list is still correct. What's changed is the logistics around them, and one major fact that a lot of older content still gets wrong: Notre-Dame is not closed. If you're planning things to do in Paris, France for a first visit or a repeat trip, the landmark names haven't changed. The booking rules, crowd patterns, and what's actually free have.

Quick Reference: Tickets, Cost Tiers, and Travel Times

Landmark	Cost tier	Booking	Getting there	Free option
Notre-Dame	Nave: free. Towers: paid	Nave: none. Towers: timed entry online	Metro Cité or Saint-Michel–Notre-Dame	Nave, year-round
Louvre	Paid, timed entry effectively required	Book on the official site	Metro Palais-Royal–Musée du Louvre	First Sunday, Oct–Mar
Eiffel Tower	Paid, timed entry	Summit or second-floor ticket online	Metro Bir-Hakeim or Trocadéro	none
Arc de Triomphe	Paid, rooftop only	Ticket via underground passage entry	Metro Charles de Gaulle–Étoile	Street-level view
Château de Versailles	Paid (château); gardens usually free	Château ticket online recommended	RER C to Versailles Château Rive Gauche (~40 min)	Gardens, most days
Disneyland Paris	Paid, single-day ticket	Park ticket online in advance	RER A to Marne-la-Vallée–Chessy (~40 min)	none
Musée d'Orsay	Paid, standard rate	No advance booking required	Metro Solférino or RER C Musée d'Orsay	First Sunday, Oct–Mar

This table shows cost tiers, not exact prices — those change often enough that it's worth confirming current numbers on each official page directly rather than relying on a blog post's snapshot.

Notre-Dame Is Open Again — the Top Thing to Do in Paris That Changed in 2025

The cathedral reopened to the public on December 7, 2024, after a five-year restoration following the April 2019 fire, according to Notre-Dame's own reporting. It is no longer wrapped in scaffolding, and the interior — including the cleaned limestone walls and the restored spire — is fully accessible. If a guide or blog post you're reading describes Notre-Dame as under construction or closed to visitors, it's out of date.

The cathedral's own one-year reopening report states that its first year back drew close to 11 million visitors, with daily traffic averaging roughly 30,000 to 35,000 people a day (figures confirmed against the linked source, checked November 2025). At that volume, lines even on weekday mornings are routine.

Entry to the nave is free right now and doesn't require a timed ticket. Arriving close to the 8 a.m. opening is a reasonable strategy for seeing the interior before tour groups fill it, though there's no official real-time crowd counter to confirm that pattern day by day. Climbing the towers is a separate matter: a paid, timed-entry ticket booked online. Budget it as its own stop on the schedule rather than an add-on to the nave visit — the climb, the wait at the base, and the descent take long enough that pairing it with another timed ticket the same afternoon is tight.

The Louvre: Booking Logistics, Not Just the Mona Lisa

The Louvre isn't just the world's most-visited museum by reputation — the numbers back it up. According to the Louvre's own press release, the museum recorded 8.7 million visitors in 2024, essentially flat against the 8.9 million recorded in 2023, despite the disruption of the Paris Olympics that summer.

That volume has made timed-entry booking effectively mandatory, even though it's framed as a recommendation rather than a strict rule. Book a specific time slot online at least a few weeks ahead for June through September and around school holiday periods. Walk-up visitors without a reservation should expect to be turned away at the door during peak months, not just delayed by a wait.

The Pyramid entrance draws the largest queues of the museum's three public entrances. If you already hold a ticket, the Carrousel du Louvre underground entrance and the Porte des Lions entrance both see less walk-up traffic and move faster. If the Mona Lisa room specifically is the priority, weekday mornings right at the 9 a.m. opening are the lowest-crowd window — the museum's Wednesday and Friday late evenings help too, but the room fills quickly once tour groups arrive. Fortrip's Louvre museum guide breaks down each wing by gallery if the Mona Lisa isn't the only reason you're going.

More Things to Do in Paris: The Landmarks Everyone Repeats

The Eiffel Tower still requires booking summit or second-floor tickets online for a set time. Walking the stairs to the second floor is cheaper than the elevator ticket and skips the elevator queue entirely.

The Arc de Triomphe's rooftop platform is reached through an underground passage — not by crossing the traffic circle on foot, which is both dangerous and unnecessary. The view down the Champs-Élysées from up there is a straighter sightline than the Eiffel Tower's own view of itself.

A Seine cruise, roughly an hour long, is most worth doing at dusk, when the bridges and Notre-Dame's floodlit facade are visible together in a way daytime crossings don't offer. Midday cruises mostly repeat what you already saw walking the quays.

Montmartre and Sacré-Cœur reward early or late timing: go before 10 a.m. or after 6 p.m. to see the steps and the Place du Tertre with fewer tour groups than the midday crowd typically brings. Fortrip's Montmartre neighborhood guide covers the streets around the basilica worth a slower walk beyond the viewpoint itself.

Free Things to Do in Paris

The steps and plaza in front of Sacré-Cœur cost nothing, and the view over the city from them is the same one people pay for elsewhere — only the basilica's dome climb is a paid ticket.

Luxembourg Gardens is free to enter and functions as a real break point between the Latin Quarter and Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Chairs are left scattered around the paths for anyone to sit in.

Walking Le Marais — its narrow streets, the Place des Vosges, the storefronts along rue des Rosiers — costs nothing and covers ground a paid bus tour would charge you for.

Musée d'Orsay and the Louvre are both free on the first Sunday of the month from October through March. That also means those specific Sundays carry the heaviest crowds of the year at both museums, so it's a trade-off, not a pure win.

Things to Do Near Paris: Versailles Deserves a Full Day

The Château, the gardens, and the Trianon estate together take a full day to see properly. Treating Versailles as a half-day add-on to a Paris itinerary usually means skipping the gardens or the Trianon almost entirely, which defeats the point of going.

The RER C train from central Paris takes about 40 minutes to Versailles Château Rive Gauche station, per RATP's route information. Buy the Château ticket online in advance through the official Château de Versailles site — it skips the entrance line, which is worth avoiding on a busy weekend regardless of exactly how long it runs on any given day.

Garden access is free most of the year, but it becomes a paid ticket on Musical Fountains Show days, which run on weekends from April through October according to the château's own calendar. Check that calendar before assuming the gardens are free on the day you're going. Fortrip's Versailles day trip guide has a full timed schedule for splitting the Château, gardens, and Trianon across one day.

Things to Do in Paris France for Families: Disneyland Paris

Disneyland Paris is roughly 40 minutes from central Paris by RER A to Marne-la-Vallée–Chessy station, per RATP's route data, which makes it a realistic single-day trip rather than something that requires an overnight stay.

One day covers Disneyland Park itself. Seeing both Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios Park properly takes two days — decide which before buying tickets on the official Disneyland Paris site, since a standard one-day ticket only covers one park unless you upgrade it.

Buy park tickets online in advance. During peak season, the walk-up ticket line at the gate can end up stacking on top of the security queue behind it, so buying ahead removes one of the two waits entirely.

How to Plan Things to Do in Paris: Building a Realistic Itinerary

Three days covers the core landmarks — Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Notre-Dame, Montmartre — plus one full day trip to Versailles. It does not leave room for both Versailles and Disneyland Paris without cutting a landmark somewhere else.

Group sights by neighborhood rather than by fame. The Louvre, Notre-Dame, and Le Marais sit close enough to walk between in a single day. The Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe sit on opposite banks of the Seine — the Tower in the 7th arrondissement on the Left Bank, the Arc de Triomphe at Place Charles de Gaulle on the Right Bank — but they're close enough across the river, via Trocadéro, to pair on the same day, with a Seine cruise as the link between them.

A practical booking order, in sequence:

1. Book Louvre timed entry first — its slots fill fastest, especially June through September.
2. Book Eiffel Tower summit or second-floor tickets next, for the same trip window.
3. Book Notre-Dame tower tickets last, if you want them — the nave itself needs no booking.
4. Confirm Versailles Château tickets and, if relevant, the Musical Fountains calendar before locking the day-trip date.
5. If Disneyland Paris is also on the list, buy park tickets online ahead of arrival to skip the walk-up line entirely.

If you're mapping this against a fixed number of days, Fortrip's AI trip planner can lay out which neighborhoods pair well before you start booking anything and catch a schedule that's quietly overbooked — three landmarks and a day trip crammed into one afternoon, for instance.

FAQs

Is Notre-Dame open to visit in 2025? Yes. It reopened on December 7, 2024, after the five-year restoration following the 2019 fire, and the interior is fully accessible. Entry to the nave is currently free and doesn't require a timed ticket; climbing the towers does.

Do I need to book Louvre tickets in advance? Yes. With 8.7 million visitors in 2024, timed-entry booking is effectively mandatory during peak months, and walk-up visitors without a reservation should expect to be turned away rather than just delayed.

How many days do I need in Paris? Three days covers the main landmarks plus one full day trip to Versailles. If you also want Disneyland Paris, plan for four or five days, since fitting both day trips into three days means cutting a landmark.

Is Versailles worth a day trip from Paris? Yes, but budget the full day. The Château, gardens, and Trianon estate together take longer than a half-day visit allows, and treating it as a quick add-on usually means skipping the gardens or the Trianon.

What's the best time of year to visit Paris? Late April through June and September through early October tend to bring milder weather and lighter crowds than the July–August peak, when the Louvre and Eiffel Tower both see their longest queues. Winter is generally quieter at major landmarks, aside from the crowds that show up on the free-Sunday museum dates.

How much do Paris's major landmarks cost to visit? The cost tiers in the reference table above give a rough sense — Notre-Dame's nave is free, the towers are paid; the Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, and Château de Versailles are all paid, timed-entry sites. Exact prices change often enough that checking each site's official page directly before booking is worth the extra step.

Is Paris accessible for travelers with mobility needs? The Louvre and Musée d'Orsay have elevators and step-free main entrances. Older sites are more limited: Notre-Dame's tower climb and Sacré-Cœur's dome are stairs-only, and the Arc de Triomphe's rooftop is reached by stairs from the underground passage with no elevator. Checking each site's official accessibility page ahead of time is worth doing if this affects your plans.