48 HOURS IN PARIS

Paris is a big place, with tons of restaurants with little chairs that spill onto the sidewalk, the smell of butter wafting into the air that leads you to bakeries, and incredibly crafted architecture. Everyone has their own personal favorite museums, best boulangeries, and places they think tourists should go. If you have never been to Paris and you find yourself in this magical city for 48 hours, here are my personal suggestions for you. There are also additional sights that I love that you can find here if you want to substitute out anything, and that article is also where you will find more specific information about the sights I will mention in this article!

If you have the option of having these 48 hours occur during the week, I would strongly recommend it. Paris gets extremely crowded, and it is tough on the weekend to see all these sights without people surrounding you! Also whatever is most important to you, go see that first. As the day goes on, places get more and more crowded. Use this schedule as a guide for what works best for you. My favorite time to visit Paris is in May, because it is just warming up, there aren’t a lot of families travelling yet with kids, and the sun doesn’t set until 9:30pm/10pm, so you are able to make the most of your day.

Start your day off bright and early at 8am by getting breakfast at Carette in Place des Vosges. Ask to sit outside so you are able to look out and marvel at the gorgeous square. Public squares and parks get full in Paris, so it is very peaceful to visit before the city really starts to wake up. After you eat breakfast (and take some macarons to go, the salted caramel ones from Carette are my absolute favorite), grab a 30-minute metro ride to the Arc de Triomphe. (Your best mode of transportation in Paris is by foot or by metro, as Paris is always PACKED with cars.) Purchase your Arc de Triomphe tickets in advance for the first timeslot, around 10am.

Then take the metro to Carpe Diem for lunch. Twelve minutes away by foot is the Jardin du Palais Royal (and if you need a pick me up, there is a café within Palais Royal called Café Kitsuné to grab a quick coffee!) Sit in the garden or take a photo with Les colonnes de Buren, also known as Les Deux Plateaux, a public art installation. Fifteen minutes away by foot is the Palais Garnier, a gorgeous opera house. You don’t have to like opera to marvel at the inside of this stunning building! Once inside, take time to walk around and head onto the balconies for a nice view overlooking the surrounding area. (If you DO like opera, concerts, or recitals, check out their season to purchase tickets.)

For dinner, grab food at Hébé. Then head to Sacré Coeur to watch the sunset at a great vantage point! Take the metro, as this sight is further out from the other must see places of the day. You can sit on the steps in front of the basilica or walk up the spiral steps to get an even better view.

Begin your second day at 8am at the Luxembourg Gardens. After you have sat in the little green chairs and walked around, head to Musée Rodin at 10am when it opens, to allow for empty rooms and no people around you as you walk through the rose garden. I chose this museum because it is not nearly as crowded as let’s say the Louvre, but if you don’t love Rodin, my next suggestion would be Musée d’Orsay, and my third choice would be the Louvre.

Enjoy lunch at Le Choupinet (CJ and I shared the whole rotisserie chicken and it was divine. We also loved the fries and the mayonnaise is delicious!) To kick off the afternoon, head to Sainte-Chapelle. The beauty of this chapel is the very tall stained glass windows, so if there are in fact people around you, you won’t notice once you look up! Once you’re done at Sainte-Chapelle, Notre Dame is only a seven-minute walk away. At the time of writing this (June 2022), the cathedral is still being worked on due to the fire, so you are unable to climb up the spiral staircase to see the views from the top. However, it is still nice to see it up close as you pass by. (If the spiral staircase is open by the time you visit Paris, I would then go to Notre Dame first thing in the morning. The cathedral only allows a certain number of people to climb the staircase at a time, and though you have an advance ticket, there will still be a huge line.)

For a sweet treat, walk 11 minutes to Berthillon Glacier for some ice cream and sorbet. Eat your ice cream down by the Seine. Then don’t be late for your timed entry to Les Catacombes! (I strongly advise getting tickets in advance, as I stress with everything in Paris.) Have dinner at Le P’tit Troquet. If you still have some energy left, walk to the Tuileries Garden and watch the sunset (and observe the swarms of people at the Louvre!)

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