Paris holiday travel guide
City break guide to holidays in Paris
Paris is high on any city break league table. With its museums, art, monuments, fine food, fashion, history and reputation for romance, a Paris city break rarely fails to delight.
The river is key to the city's appeal. Virtually every major building is near the Seine and essentially, life is divided by it. The Right Bank is the home of commerce; the Louvre; Pompidou Centre; historic Le Marais and the Grands Boulevards.
The Left Bank is not only more bohemian and artistic but also offers great monuments like Invalides, the Eiffel Tower and the Musée d'Orsay. In between, the Ile de la Cité, the city's historic core dominated by the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, will be the first place to visit for many Paris city break visitors. Before deciding where to stay you should compare various Paris hotel prices to get the best deal.
The view from the Eiffel Tower shows another side of Paris - this is a planned city. The uniform street plan, standard height of the buildings, uncluttered rooftops are all testimony to inspired forward thinking, notably by Baron Haussman. He demolished much of the old Paris in the 19th century and laid down the glorious boulevards and parks.
Thousands visit Paris every year and staying in Paris apartments for your holidays, sited in some of the city's most captivating areas can be the best way to get to know Paris.
And for getting around, Paris can boast an efficient, cheap public transport system. The 1970s-built Pompidou Centre is one of the city's main tourist draws. The Musée d'Orsay shows what can be achieved if a traditional building, a railway station at that, is converted with panache into a world-class art gallery.
There are few places on earth that can equal Paris for cuisine. The up-scale restaurants serve fabulous food and wine, if at a price. Yet the excellent standards in the Latin Quarter, or in Le Marais' smaller restaurants or, indeed, thousands of the city's brasseries, bistros and cafés, can make any meal memorable and affordable.
Paris is also a thoroughly modern city and so easy to reach for a city break holiday thanks to plenty of cheap flights at any time of the year.
Out of the city, but within easy reach, are the glories of Versailles, an experience that is quite overwhelming in its grandeur, while Disneyland-Paris will be hard to resist for many families.
For all its monuments, Paris is still a wonderful city in which to relax. Strolling by the river; browsing in the bouquaniste stalls for books and prints; walking the Champs-Elysée; exploring Montmartre; or just sipping a coffee on a Montparnasse café terrace and watching the world go by, these are the simple pleasures of a Paris city break that may be imprinted in the memory for ever.
Paris top sights
Paris transport
Paris nightlife
Paris cafe bars
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