A fresh 50-item Paris bucket list has landed, updated for 2026 — and buried among the classics is one genuinely important change. The Louvre no longer sells walk-up tickets. You now need a timed-entry reservation booked online for a specific 30-minute window, and that booking is non-changeable and non-refundable. Pricing has also split: as of January 2026, EU residents pay €22 while everyone else pays €32. In summer, reservations are compulsory for all visitors, regardless of passes or memberships. In short: book early or risk missing the Mona Lisa (and the 35,000-odd other works on display).
The rest of the list is reassuringly familiar, with a few sharper tips than the usual tourist script. For Eiffel Tower photos, skip the postcard angles and head to Avenue de Camoëns in the 16th arrondissement — a short street that frames the tower like a stage set. Montparnasse Tower gets an honourable mention too, while the Arc de Triomphe offers its own panorama at the top of 284 steps.
Food remains the real through-line. The guide settles the eternal macaron debate pragmatically: Pierre Hermé wins on technique and flavour, but Ladurée — the original — is still worth a pilgrimage, just not at its Champs-Élysées branch. For ice cream, Berthillon on Rue Saint-Louis en l'Île is the flagship to beat. Angelina's famously thick hot chocolate, served in a silver jug, gets its own endorsement, and pastry hunters are pointed toward Du Pain et des Idées along Canal-Saint-Martin. Ambitious travellers can go further: macaron classes at La Cuisine teach both French and Italian methods, and the Ritz Escoffier runs a four-hour chocolate gâteau class in the hotel's basement — pricey and mostly in French, but with an English-speaking assistant chef on hand.
Beyond eating, the suggestions lean toward slowing down. Sunrise on the Seine, before the crowds arrive. A picnic on the grass beside the Eiffel Tower stocked with local cheese, wine and macarons. The shaded Medici Fountain in the Luxembourg Gardens. The covered shopping arcades of old Paris, with Galerie Vivienne flagged as the pick. Even the café ritual gets a strategy: the famous Café de Flore and Les Deux Magots draw well-dressed visitors, while the Marais and Canal-Saint-Martin offer more authentic tables for watching the afternoon drift by.
Practical additions include the Vélib bike-share for covering ground cheaply, the striped columns of Les Deux Plateaux at the Palais Royal for a quick art fix, and Moulin Rouge — running since 1889 and still packing houses daily — with Crazy Horse and the Lido as alternatives. A half-hour train ride takes you to Versailles, where summer queues make advance tickets essential.
For anyone planning a first trip, the strongest takeaway is simple: Paris rewards people who walk between the landmarks rather than rushing between them, with Canal-Saint-Martin, Le Marais and Montmartre named as the best neighbourhoods to get lost in. And in 2026, it also rewards people who book their Louvre slot months ahead. — World of Wanderlust