Tour · 6 stops · ~90 min walking
Marais & Bastille
Right-bank heritage, slowly.
A short loop through the oldest planned square in Paris, the city hall, and the courtyards of the Marais. About 3 km. Pairs well with a drink at one of the cafés on Place du Marché Sainte-Catherine.
Through the4e · Le Marais & Île Saint-Louis12e · Bastille, Bercy & Aligre1er · Louvre & Les Halles
1Place des Vosges
Inaugurated 1612 as Place Royale — the oldest planned square in Paris. Victor Hugo lived at no. 6 from 1832 to 1848; his apartment is now a museum.
Walk under the arcades on the south side rather than across the lawn — that's where the small galleries and bookshops are. The Hugo museum at no. 6 is free and rarely crowded; thirty minutes is enough.
From Wikipedia›
The Place des Vosges, originally the Place Royale, is the oldest planned square in Paris, just before the Place Dauphine. It is located in the Marais district, and it straddles the dividing-line between the 3rd and 4th arrondissements. It is an enclosed square, accessible via a main street on one of its four sides and two streets running beneath pavilions. It was a fashionable and expensive square to live in during the 17th and 18th centuries, and one of the main reasons for the chic nature of the Marais among the Parisian nobility. Along with the Place des Victoires, the Place Dauphine, the Place Vendôme and the Place de la Concorde, it is one of the five royal squares in Paris.
Read more on Wikipedia →Verified nearby ·Pasta Linea3 min
48.85540, 2.36550
2Hôtel de Sully
1625 mansion at the corner of the rue Saint-Antoine. Pass through the inner courtyard — there's a hidden gate at the back that opens directly into Place des Vosges.
Enter at 62 Rue Saint-Antoine. The first courtyard is photographic; through the smaller arch is a second, smaller courtyard with the back gate. The bookshop in the entrance vestibule is run by the Centre des Monuments Nationaux and has the best architecture-history selection in the Marais.
From Wikipedia›
The Hôtel de Sully is a Louis XIII style hôtel particulier, or private mansion, located at 62 Rue Saint-Antoine in the Marais, 4th arrondissement, Paris, France. Built at the beginning of the 17th century, it is nowadays the seat of the Centre des monuments nationaux, the French national organization responsible for national heritage sites. It has been listed since 1862 as a monument historique by the Ministry of Culture.
Read more on Wikipedia →Verified nearby ·Pasta Linea3 minLe Temps des Cerises4 min
48.85460, 2.36500
3Place de la Bastille
The fortress was demolished in 1789; the marks on the pavement around the Colonne de Juillet trace where its walls stood. The column itself commemorates the 1830 revolution, not 1789.
The cobble outline of the fortress walls is on the western side of the square — easy to miss in traffic. Take Rue Saint-Antoine back west; the fastest way to Hôtel de Ville is along Rue de Rivoli, on the south side of the street under the arcades.
From Wikipedia›
The Place de la Bastille is a square in Paris where the Bastille Prison once stood, until the storming of the Bastille and its subsequent physical destruction between 14 July 1789 and 14 July 1790 during the French Revolution. No vestige of the prison remains.
Read more on Wikipedia →Verified nearby ·Coulée verte René-Dumont2 minLe Balajo4 min
48.85310, 2.36920
- 4
Hôtel de Ville
Paris city hall. The current building is an 1882 reconstruction — the original was burned down by the Commune in 1871 — but it's an exact replica of the Renaissance original.
Walk around to the south side — the Seine-facing facade is the prettier one. Free temporary exhibitions inside the Salle Saint-Jean (entrance on the south); always worth a glance even if you've never heard of the artist.
Verified nearby ·Maison Aleph4 minLe Trumilou4 min
48.85660, 2.35220
5Tour Saint-Jacques
All that remains of the 16th-century church Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie, demolished after the Revolution. Pascal repeated his barometer experiments here in 1648.
Climbable only on summer-weekend tours, sold by the city — book online weeks ahead. Otherwise, the small park around it is the right place to sit on a bench and look up. Look for the statue of Pascal at the base, often missed.
From Wikipedia›
Tour Saint-Jacques is a monument located in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, France, on the Rive Droite. This 52-metre (171 ft) Flamboyant Gothic tower at the intersection of the Rue de Rivoli with Rue Nicolas-Flamel is all that remains of the former medieval Church of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie, which was partially rebuilt in the 16th-century and demolished in 1797, during the French Revolution, leaving only the tower. The stones of the old church were treated as if it were a quarry.
Read more on Wikipedia →Verified nearby ·Le Duc des Lombards4 minHôtel Britannique4 min
48.85800, 2.34930
6Centre Pompidou
Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers's 1977 'inside-out' museum: pipes and ducts on the outside, exhibition floors uncluttered by them. Closed for renovation 2025–2030.
While it's closed, walk around the back to the Stravinsky Fountain (Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely, 1983) — sixteen kinetic sculptures in a shallow pool. The square in front of the Pompidou usually has buskers; the cobbles slope so a coffee at the corner cafés gives you a slight downhill view of it all.
From Wikipedia›
The Centre Pompidou, more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou, also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of Richard Rogers, Su Rogers and Renzo Piano, along with Gianfranco Franchini. It is named after Georges Pompidou, the President of France from 1969 to 1974 who commissioned the building, and was officially opened on 31 January 1977 by President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.
Read more on Wikipedia →Verified nearby ·Lafayette Anticipations5 min
48.86060, 2.35220