Paris: where to stay, when to go, and how to get around

Overview

Paris is a dense, low-rise city built tight around the Seine, and its logic is the river and the spiral of arrondissements that wind out clockwise from the centre. The 1st sits on the Right Bank around the Louvre; the numbers climb as you spiral out, so a “high” arrondissement (the 18th, the 20th) means the edge, not necessarily far in walking terms. The river splits the city into the Rive Droite (Right Bank, north — commerce, grand boulevards, most of the museums) and the Rive Gauche (Left Bank, south — the old university quarter, publishing, a quieter grain). Two islands, the Île de la Cité and the smaller Île Saint-Louis, sit in the middle and hold Notre-Dame and the oldest streets.

It is a walkable city for its size, but it is genuinely large — you will not cross it on foot the way you might a smaller capital — so the métro is how you actually move, and where you sleep matters more than in a compact town. Paris is also expensive, crowded at its famous points, and can be brusque with visitors who expect it to perform for them. It rewards people who settle into a quarter and use it like a resident.

Where to stay

The decision is which bank and which quarter, because each has a distinct character and the métro flattens distance anyway. Central arrondissements (the 1st through the 8th) put you among the sights but cost the most; the ring from the 10th round to the 20th is where Parisians actually live and eat, cheaper and more local, at the price of a métro ride to the monuments. Below are the bases worth naming.

Le Marais (3rd & 4th)

The best-preserved slice of pre-Haussmann Paris: narrow medieval streets, hôtels particuliers, the Place des Vosges, and a dense run of shops, galleries, falafel counters on the rue des Rosiers and the city’s main gay quarter around the rue Sainte-Croix-de-la- Bretonnerie. Stay here if you want to be central, on foot to Notre-Dame and the Place des Vosges, and in a neighbourhood that is lively day and night. The trade-off is that the Marais has become one of the busiest quarters in Paris — pricey, packed on weekends, and the ground-floor streets are increasingly chain boutiques. Rooms are small and dear.

Saint-Germain-des-Prés & the Latin Quarter (5th & 6th)

The Left Bank classic: the Sorbonne and the 5th’s student streets around the rue Mouffetard, sliding west into the polished 6th of Saint-Germain, with the Luxembourg gardens in the middle. Stay here for bookshops, cafés with a literary past, and an elegant, calmer feel than the Right Bank. The 5th is cheaper and younger; the 6th is expensive and refined. The trade-off is that the 6th in particular has priced out most of its old bohemia and can feel like a wealthy shopping district, and the Mouffetard end draws tourist crowds. Good for a first visit that wants beauty over buzz.

Montmartre (18th)

The hill in the north, crowned by Sacré-Cœur, with steep stepped streets, the last surviving windmills, and — away from the summit — genuinely residential, villagey blocks around the Abbesses. Stay here for the views, the atmosphere, and lower prices than the centre. The trade-offs are real: the streets immediately around Sacré-Cœur and Place du Tertre are a tourist scrum with aggressive touts, the hill is a hard climb with luggage, and the lower slopes toward Barbès and Pigalle are grittier — fine, but not the postcard. Pick a street uphill of the boulevard, not below it.

Canal Saint-Martin & the 10th–11th

East-central Paris, running from the Gare du Nord and Gare de l’Est down along the canal into the 11th around Oberkampf and Bastille. This is where younger Parisians drink and eat — natural-wine bars, the canal banks on a warm evening, the covered market halls. Stay here for a local, unpolished, food-and-drink-led stay at better value. The trade-off is that the area right around the two stations is scruffy and can feel edgy late at night, and this is nightlife territory, so a street off Oberkampf will be loud at weekends. You are also a métro ride from the major monuments.

The 7th — Eiffel Tower & Invalides

The grand, quiet, moneyed Left Bank around the Eiffel Tower, the Invalides and the Musée d’Orsay. Stay here if you want space, calm, handsome streets and the tower on your doorstep. The trade-off is that it is expensive, residential to the point of being sleepy after dark, and thin on the casual restaurants and bars that make other quarters fun in the evening — you will travel to eat well.

When to go

Late spring (May–June) and September are the best windows: mild, long days, gardens and café terraces at their best, and the museums manageable. August is the one to plan around — many Parisians leave for the whole month and a real share of restaurants, bakeries and small shops shut for two or three weeks; the city is quieter and hotter, and the Seine banks turn into the Paris Plages beaches. July is peak tourist season and hot. Winter is grey, damp and cold rather than snowy, but it is low season for crowds, and the museums and covered passages are at their most pleasant. If you come for a specific event — the tennis at Roland-Garros in late May, the July fireworks — book accommodation well ahead.

Getting there & around

Paris has two commercial airports, and both are on the card. The big long-haul hub is Charles de Gaulle (CDG), northeast of the city: the RER B train runs from its terminals into Gare du Nord and Châtelet in roughly 35 minutes and is the sensible choice in normal traffic, though the line is dated and a magnet for pickpockets, so watch your bags. Orly, to the south, connects via the automated Orlyval shuttle to the RER B, or by tram and dedicated bus; an express métro line also now serves it. Taxis from either airport charge a fixed flat fare to central Paris — worth it with luggage or late at night, and always take the official rank, not a tout in the hall.

In the city, don’t drive — parking is punishing, the traffic is worse, and you don’t need it. The métro is dense, fast and the default; the RER is the faster regional express layer that also reaches Versailles and Disneyland. Buses are good for staying above ground and seeing the city. Vélib’ bike-share docks are everywhere and the flat riverside routes are pleasant, though Parisian traffic is not for the timid. Paris is a strong rail hub: separate mainline stations serve different directions — the Gare du Nord for the north and the Eurostar to London, the Gare de Lyon for the south and southeast — so check which one your train leaves from, as they are across the city from each other.

Practicalities

Paris is safe in the sense that violent crime is rare against visitors, but pickpocketing is endemic on the métro, the RER to the airport, and at the crowded monuments — keep phones and wallets out of back pockets and open bags. The transit system runs on the Navigo card, and paper tickets are being phased out in favour of loading fares onto the Navigo or a phone; a single ticket covers the métro and bus, and day and week passes exist. Cards are accepted almost everywhere, including for tiny purchases.

On eating: a service charge is included by law, so tipping is optional and modest — rounding up or leaving a euro or two is plenty. Lunch is roughly noon to 2pm and dinner starts late, from about 8pm, with many kitchens closed in between. A café is cheaper standing at the bar than seated on the terrace, and that price difference is printed on the menu. The everyday thing worth knowing is the boulangerie: a good neighbourhood bakery, bought fresh in the morning, is the reliable cheap pleasure of the city, and a proper baguette de tradition is a different object from the soft supermarket loaf. A basic bonjour on entering a shop is not a nicety but the expected opening move, and skipping it is what reads as rude.