Things to do in Paris, splurging
Palais Garnier, Bar Hemingway, the Clown Bar, and dinners at Vaisseau and Mallory Gabsi.
This is Paris for people who have done the sightseeing and now want the meal, the bar, the shop, and the room to match. Three days move through the Palais-Royal, the Marais, and the 8th, anchored by long dinners and some of the best cocktail bars in the city. It suits anyone who would rather eat at one exceptional place than tick off five average ones.
Day 1: Palais-Royal and Place Vendôme
Coffee under the Louvre colonnade, Garnier's gilded interiors, and the evening split between Nodaïwa's lacquered eel and the Ritz's Bar Hemingway set the tone for the days ahead.
- 9:30 AM
Le Café Marly
Iconic covered terrace overlooking the Louvre pyramid, the most cinematic coffee start in Paris.
Map - 10:30 AM
Palais Garnier
Napoleon III's opera house, marble grand staircase and Chagall ceiling are unmissable; daytime visit skips the evening crowd.
Map - 12:30 PM
Brasserie l'Émil
The brasserie of the Château Voltaire hotel on Rue Saint-Roch; classic French plates in a polished, busy room.
Map - 2:30 PM
Galerie Vivienne
Beautiful 19th-century covered gallery packed with design boutiques and curio shops, perfect unhurried browse.
Map - 7:30 PM
Nodaïwa
Paris branch of a Tokyo eel house near Palais-Royal; order the unaju, grilled eel over rice.
Map - 9:30 PM
Bar Hemingway
Bar Hemingway at the Ritz, legendary cocktail bar, white-glove service, the best place to end a splurge day in Paris.
Map
Day 2: Marais, Bastille, and a tasting menu
A morning at the July Column gives way to Clown Bar's Belle Époque tiles and veal brain, Atelier des Lumières in the afternoon, and VAISSEAU's creative tasting menu followed by late cocktails at ROJO.
- 9:30 AM
Café des Phares
The corner café on Place de la Bastille that started the Sunday philosophy debates; coffee on the terrace.
Map - 10:30 AM
Place de la Bastille
Stroll the grand Place de la Bastille and the July Column, the architectural fixture of this whole neighbourhood.
Map - 12:30 PM
Le Clown Bar - Restaurant
Belle Époque tiled room, inventive small plates, the veal brain with dashi is the dish friends swear by.
Map - 2:30 PM
Atelier des Lumières
Atelier des Lumières: immersive large-scale digital art projections in a 19th-century foundry, a genuinely stunning hour.
Map - 7:30 PM
VAISSEAU d’Adrien Cachot
Adrien Cachot's tasting menu in the 11th: offal, smoke and odd pairings that somehow always land.
Map - 9:30 PM
Day 3: The 8th: Arc to Mallory Gabsi
Plaza Athénée coffee, the Triomphe rooftop, a polished lunch at Substance, and Mallory Gabsi's tasting menu in the evening make this the most uncompromising day of the three.
- 9:30 AM
Le Relais-Plaza
Iconic Art Deco café inside the Plaza Athénée, the most elegant morning coffee stop in the neighbourhood.
Map - 10:30 AM
Arc de Triomphe
Climb the 284 steps to the roof for the twelve avenues fanning out from the Étoile, before the afternoon queue.
Map - 12:30 PM
Substance
Matthias Marc's modern French lunch on Rue de Chaillot, with one of the sharper wine lists in the 16th.
Map - 2:30 PM
Palais de Chaillot
Walk out onto the Trocadéro terrace between the two curved wings for the straight-on view of the Eiffel Tower.
Map - 7:30 PM
Mallory Gabsi
Mallory Gabsi's tasting menu a few streets from the Étoile; let the kitchen run the whole evening.
Map
Where to stay
Grand Hôtel du Palais Royal
Directly on the Palais-Royal garden, so the first morning's coffee and the opera house are both a short walk from the door.
Château Voltaire
Château Voltaire sits just off the Palais-Royal and pitches itself squarely at the design-conscious, high-spend traveller this itinerary is built for.
Make Paris your trip
Swearby drafts the days from places people swear by. Swap any stop, then invite the crew by text, even friends without the app. Vote on dates, track costs as you go, and everyone gets one number at the end.
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Book ahead
- Musée d'Orsay: a few days ahead
- Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris: a few days ahead
- Sainte-Chapelle: a few days ahead
- Musée de l'Orangerie: a few days ahead
- Musée du Louvre: weeks ahead
- Eiffel Tower: weeks ahead
Skip these
- Restaurants within sight of a major sight, with touts, photo menus in six languages or frozen food at triple prices. Walk two streets away.
- Moulin Rouge dinner show packages are overcrowded and overpriced, and the dinner is the worst part.
- Seine dinner cruises: take the cruise, skip the dinner, and eat properly before or after.
- Champs-Élysées as a destination: walk it once, buy nothing, eat nothing.
The full Paris travel guide: when to go, safety, getting around