The Louvre no longer lets you rock up and join a queue. That's the biggest practical change for anyone visiting Paris this year: entry runs on a strict timed reservation system, booked online for a specific 30-minute window. Once booked, it can't be changed or refunded, and as of January 2026 tickets are two-tiered — €22 for EU residents, €32 for everyone else. Summer visitors should book well ahead because reservations are mandatory for all, regardless of passes or memberships. The museum holds some 35,000 works on display, so a timed slot is only half the battle; plan which wings you actually want to see.
Beyond the Louvre, the city's classics remain reliable. The Eiffel Tower looks best, arguably, from a quiet street called Avenue de Camoëns in the 16th arrondissement — a local secret rather than the Montparnasse observation deck. Climb the 284 steps of the Arc de Triomphe for another angle, or watch blue hour from the gilded Pont Alexandre III, which looks like a film set once the lamps come on (it has doubled for one, repeatedly).
Food still justifies the trip on its own. Ladurée invented the macaron trade and remains an institution, though Pierre Hermé wins on technique and flavour — just skip the tourist-thick Champs-Élysées branch. For ice cream, Berthillon on Rue Saint-Louis en l'Île is the flagship of the city's best glacier. Angelina's thick hot chocolate, served in a silver jug, is practically a dessert course. Serious bakers can go further: the Ritz runs a four-hour pastry class in its basement (mostly in French, with an English-speaking assistant chef), while La Cuisine teaches both French and Italian macaron methods at friendlier prices.
Warm-weather visits have their own rituals. Grab bread, cheese and wine for a picnic on the grass by the Eiffel Tower, order Berthillon sorbet, and drift through the Tuileries, where spring and summer bring ice cream stalls and painters. The Medici Fountain in the Luxembourg Gardens is at its prettiest in the shade of summer.
If the big sights are done, Paris rewards wandering. Canal-Saint-Martin still feels like old Paris — stop at Du Pain et Idées for what many call the city's best pastries. Le Marais buzzes on Sundays, Montmartre keeps its artist-quarter charm, and the covered passages like Galerie Vivienne offer a glimpse of 19th-century opulence away from the crowds. Merci, one of the few surviving concept stores from the 2000s wave, is worth an hour for French design and homewares. Shakespeare and Company remains the obligatory literary pitstop, and the Moulin Rouge — running since 1889 — still fills its tightly packed seats several times a night (Crazy Horse and the Lido are the alternatives).
Versailles makes an easy half-day, just 30 minutes by train from central Paris. Book tickets online in advance; summer queues are brutal. The palace served as the royal residence until the Revolution in 1789, and the queues are the modern tribute to its popularity.
The through-line: Paris rewards the early riser (a sunrise on the Seine is often yours alone), the advance booker, and anyone willing to get lost between arrondissements rather than tick monuments. Update your Louvre plans, then let the rest unfold.
