How do I get to Paris?

Paris-Charles de Gaulle (CDG) is the principal international airport, 25 km north of the city centre, with RER B rail connection to Gare du Nord, taxi, and Roissybus services. Paris-Orly (ORY) handles short-haul European and domestic flights. Le Bourget (LBG) is the private-jet hub. Eurostar from London-St Pancras to Paris-Gare du Nord runs in 2 hours 15 minutes; TGV connections from Brussels, Amsterdam, Marseille, Lyon, and Geneva run from the major Paris terminals.

Which arrondissement is best to stay in?

The 1st arrondissement holds the Louvre, the Tuileries, and the Palais Royal — the densest concentration of central monuments and luxury hotels. The 6th (Saint-Germain) carries the postwar intellectual register and the Left Bank café tradition. The 4th (the Marais) holds Place des Vosges and the major Marais museums. The 7th holds the Eiffel Tower and the Musée d'Orsay. Stays in the 1st through 8th arrondissements remain within walking or Metro distance of one another; arrondissements outside the central core require Metro or taxi for most circuits.

How many days do you need in Paris?

A three-night minimum handles the central monuments (Louvre, Musée d'Orsay, Notre-Dame exterior, Sainte-Chapelle, Versailles day-trip). Five to seven nights handles the wider arrondissement circuit, the smaller museums (Picasso, Rodin, Cognacq-Jay, Carnavalet), and the city's dining scene with proper booking depth. Visitors building Paris as the cultural anchor of a wider France trip typically budget two to four nights as the urban portion of the longer itinerary.

What is the Palais Royal?

The Palais Royal is a 17th-century palace and formal garden in the 1st arrondissement. Built originally for Cardinal Richelieu in the 1630s as the Palais-Cardinal, then bequeathed to the royal family on his death in 1642 (after which it became the Palais Royal), the property served as a royal residence, an aristocratic salon centre, a Revolutionary-era political meeting ground, and the home of the Comédie-Française from 1799. Today, the palace houses France's Ministry of Culture and the Comédie-Française; the colonnaded galleries surround the formal garden with luxury boutiques, restaurants, and small theatres. Daniel Buren's Les Deux Plateaux (1986) sits in the main courtyard. The garden is open to the public free of charge.

Boutique Hotels in Paris, France

The Palais Royal and the 1st arrondissement

The Palais Royal quarter is the quietest address in central Paris: the palace's arcaded garden sits a block from the Louvre yet carries a fraction of its foot traffic, and the streets around it — Rue de Valois, Rue des Petits Champs, the covered passages running north — still belong to dealers, tailors and lunchtime regulars. Grand Hôtel du Palais Royal occupies an 18th-century building at 4 Rue de Valois, directly beside the garden, with a rooftop that looks clean across the city to the Eiffel Tower. From the door: the Louvre in five minutes, the Comédie-Française across the square, Galerie Vivienne a short walk north, and the Tuileries before breakfast. For a first Paris stay with the big museums on the list, nothing is better placed.

The wider city

Each bank keeps its own pace. On the Right, the Marais fills Renaissance townhouses with small museums (Picasso, Carnavalet) and the city's best Sunday streets; Montmartre, further out, is a hill village that rewards an early start and an aimless hour. On the Left, Saint-Germain holds the café tables of the book trade and the Luxembourg Gardens, and the Latin Quarter beside it is at its best in the side streets off the Seine. The métro crosses the city in twenty minutes, but Paris is a walking city first: pick one quarter per half-day and connect them on foot along the river. Dinner bookings matter, the rooms are small everywhere, and Sunday still shapes the week — markets in the morning, museums in the afternoon, the Marais open when much else is not.

When to visit

April through June handles the spring blossom across the city's parks and the Seine without the summer crush. September and October carry the post-rentrée cultural calendar — the new season at the Opéra, the major museum exhibitions, the Paris Fashion Week's September dates. July and August empty out as Parisians take holidays, leaving the city to the tourists and the Paris Plages installations along the Seine. December delivers the Christmas markets, the Louvre and the Musée d'Orsay's quieter end-of-year hours, and the year-end Réveillon dinners. February is the quietest month for cultural-circuit travel without crowds. The Paris Fashion Week dates (early March, late September) carry premium prices across the city's hotels.