A Fresh Perspective on Travel Every Day
Gallopin is a traditional Parisian brasserie renowned for its classic French cuisine and stunning Belle Époque ambiance. This mid-range restaurant offers a delightful experience without straining your budget.
June is a wonderful time to visit New York City—the weather is warm, but not usually terribly hot, and the crowds of summer vacationers have yet to invade the city. Some of the city’s well-known summer events begin in June, allowing visitors to enjoy the benefits of summer without the downsides.
Whether you’ve never been to Paris, are visiting for the first time, or have lived here for a decade, there’s no denying the allure of a well-made French crepe. This extra-thin Gallic-style pancake can be topped with sweet ingredients like Nutella, sugar, or fresh jam. Alternatively, the savory variety, usually made with buckwheat following a traditional Breton recipe, can feature ham, cheese, or egg. The crepe is incredibly versatile; it can be enjoyed in a posh restaurant or eaten casually while strolling down the street.
Paris might be most readily associated with espressos orcafe cremes, but a vibrant tea culture has been gaining ground in recent years. Classy, quirky, and traditional tea houses have sprung up across the city, making tea a more popular option for the sacred French afternoonpause cafe. Despite many people’s association of tea with British culture, there are genuine French tea traditions to explore. Discover these exquisite tea purveyors in Paris for a refreshing morning start, an elegant afternoon tea, or a soothing after-dinner drink.
A tribute to the dramatic emergence and tradition of 18th-19th century French Romanticism, the Musée de la Vie Romantique boasts a free permanent collection. Specifically centered around French Romantic writers, the museum especially highlights the ideas and life of the prolific writer, political thinker, and libertine George Sand. This quaint museum is nestled in a 19th-century residence at the foot of Montmartre, specifically the Hôtel Scheffer-Renan, which once served as an artist’s studio.
Need to get online fast? Since international roaming 3G and 4G can be quite costly, numerous travelers opt out of using their phone data while abroad. Visit Paris to enjoy hundreds of free WiFi hotspots. Cafes, restaurants, and bars increasingly offer WiFi services, while the Paris municipal government has established free WiFi zones in parks, squares, public libraries, city-run museums, and various other locations. This provides an opportunity for visitors to connect, whether for a few minutes or a more extended period.
Many people feel comfortable navigating a new city using only their wits (and maybe their smartphones). However, for other visitors, finding a good tourist information center and seeking advice from local experts is key to feeling informed and relaxed.
This article discusses the recent nocturnal regulations impacting nightlife in Paris, highlighting the pros and cons for both local residents and visitors.
Ah, the traditional Paris cabaret. A show that has little to do with contemporary Parisian culture and everything to do with nostalgia, a good heaping of kitschy fun, and a love for longstanding erotic codes. You won’t, admittedly, find many Parisians lined up to catch a show at one of these places. However, if you’re hankering for French cancans, Vegas-style glitz, and lots of skin, these top traditional Paris cabarets will provide delicious clichés up to your elbows– for a hefty price, of course. There are plenty of more subdued, serious, or arty cabaret-theatres in Paris, too, but the following are all cabaret classics.
Paris boasts some of the world’s largest, most glamorous, and historically rich department stores. These locations provide visitors the opportunity to browse the latest trends in designer fashion and new collections, enjoy meals on dramatic outdoor terraces, explore tempting aisles in gourmet food shops, and even attend free fashion shows. Known as “grands magasins” in French, these cherished institutions attract both locals and tourists and should undoubtedly feature on your itinerary if shopping in Paris is on your agenda.
Best-known for their incomparable, fluffy, “melty”macaronspacked in pastel-green boxes with posh pink ribbons, Ladurée is synonymous with luxury pastries and sweets. First opened in 1862 by miller and baker Louis Ernest Ladurée on Rue Royale near the Opera Garnier, the shop, bakery, and tearoom has several locations around Paris and is a coveted destination for food enthusiasts and tourists alike.
With its first store opened on the Place de la Madeleine in Paris in 1886, the flagship shop still stands there today. Maison Fauchon is one of Paris’s premier gourmet food shops. It offers gourmet grocery items, including chocolates, signature tea and coffee, biscuits, jams, mustards, confits, oils,foie gras, and pâtés. This iconic Parisianépiceriefeatures a separate bakery andtraiteur(gourmet delicatessen) at its Madeleine location, along with a restaurant-tea house and a wine cellar. Consequently, Fauchon becomes especially busy during the Christmas and holiday season as it is a favored spot for stocking up on holiday meal items and gifts for foodies.
One of the oldest streets in Paris, with roots extending to pre-Christian Paris, the mostly pedestrian Rue Mouffetard houses a bustling, permanent street market at its southern end. Some of the city’s finer fruit and vegetable vendors, fish and meat markets,fromageries, and other specialty shops are clustered on Rue Mouffetard and the Square Saint-Médard.
Since the Eiffel Tower has gained such iconic status around the world, becoming an object of endless fascination as well as the cliché of choice for representing Paris, it can be easy to gloss the surface when visiting it and overlook its fascinating (and tumultuous) history. The tower’s remarkable construction is also something that tourists often fail to appreciate, so it is advisable to read up on this marvelous monument before you go up to the top and look out— you’ll no doubt gain a much richer appreciation for it.
The St-Jacques Tower is the only remaining element of a church that once stood in central Paris and served as a significant starting point for Christian pilgrimages southward. Dating back to the 16th century, this stunning tower has recently undergone dramatic restoration.
Created at the end of the 18th century, the Paris Catacombs hold the remains of approximately six million Parisians, whose bones were transferred from overcrowded cemeteries deemed unhygienic. The public area—only a small portion of the vast catacombs complex—consists of about two kilometers (1.2 miles) of narrow corridors carved from limestone quarries deep underground. This hauntingly fascinating site offers visitors a morbid spectacle of millions of human bones and skulls arranged in intricate and symmetrical patterns.
For those interested in the long and complex history of scent-making, the Fragonard Museum in Paris is a true gem. Situated in a rather unassuming but nevertheless regal nineteenth-century building right near the Palais Garnier (old Opera house), this museum only opened in 1983 but takes visitors on an old-world sensory voyage back to the origins of perfumery. It’s one of the
The Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris serves as a vital bridge between the Middle Eastern and Western cultures, showcasing Arabic arts, culture, and history. This article highlights the Institute’s location, contact details, nearby attractions, opening hours, and its unique architectural features.
The Centre Georges Pompidou, established in 1977, has become a cornerstone of Paris’s cultural landscape, embodying accessibility and inclusivity in art.
This humble little museum dedicated to 19th-century French novelist and thinker Honoré de Balzac is located in the writer’s house, nestled in Passy, formerly an independent village west of Paris. The novelist lived and worked here from 1840 to 1847, conceiving his monumental series of interconnected novels and stories,La Comédie humaine(The Human Comedy), as well as many other acclaimed novels.