To Do List For Paris – Things To Do And See In Paris

Over all our trips to France, we have now spent 35 nights in Paris. So I’m not all surprised when people suggest that there could be nothing left for us to see.

But Paris is such an amazing city, I have a funny feeling that we will never get our entire ‘Paris To Do List’ ticked off. There are just so many things to do and see in Paris!

Despite the fact that we are spending another week in Paris on our upcoming trip, we never like to overbook our days in Paris (you’ve just got to allow sufficient time for wandering and people watching) and I am actually a little concerned that we won’t fit in all the highlights we are hoping to see. This is especially true as two of our six full days in Paris are already gone – we’ve booked a trip to Champagne and are spending another day with our favourite photographer Carla Coulson.

Given the amount of time we’ve spent in Paris, we’ve obviously managed to tick off all the mainstream highlights – many more than once. So what’s on the to-do list for our next trip?

• Heading to the top of the Tour Montparnasse. While many people hate the sight of this much maligned office building from ground level, it apparently affords one of the best views of Paris and for that reason, we’re very keen to check it out.
• We had been kind of toying with the idea of heading out to Giverny on this trip to experience Monet’s Garden, however we just don’t think we will be able to fit it in. So instead, we will head to the Musée de l’Orangerie in the Tuileries Gardens and take in Claude Monet’s large format depictions of the water lilies in his garden.
• A visit to La Defense and the modern Parisian business district (no, I can’t believe we haven’t been out there either).
• The modern art contained in the Centre Pompidou is something else we probably should have seen by now…so it’s on the list too.
• We’d like to explore Paris’ fifth largest park – the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont in the 19th arrondissement. From what I’ve read I’m expecting it to be just lovely.
• Regular readers of Distant Francophile are probably aware that while we have been up the Eiffel Tower many times, have dined at Le Jules Verne and have even done a tour beneath the tower, we’ve never actually been to the very top level. Nor have we climbed the tower at night. This trip we have dared ourselves to do one or the other…or maybe both!
• A trip out to the Basilica of Saint Denis, again in the north of Paris. The necropolis of the Basilica holds the remains of French royalty and we’ve been meaning to get out there for ages.

What’s still on your Paris to-do list? I’d love for you to share in the comments below.

Until next time – au revoir.