Tourist attractions in Paris

The C.I.U.P. is a student quarter established in 1925, providing homes for about 10,000 students, scientists, and artists from 120 countries. It has 40 houses attributed to individual nations. The individual houses organise top quality cultural and political events. Among the most remarkable buildings are the Fondation Deutsch de la Meurthe, the Heinrich Heine House (Maison Heinrich Heine - Fondation de l'Allemagne), the Swedish Student House (Maison des Etudiants Suédois), and the Swiss Pavilion (Pavillon Suisse) which was built in 1933 on plans of Le Corbusier.

Guimard's own home, built in 1909-12. It is less decorated than Castel Béranger, but still beautifully shaped. Privately owned and not open to the public.

If the queues at the Eiffel Tower are just too much for you and your time is limited, consider a trip up the Montparnasse Tower. This is an office building with an observation and shopping area on the 56th floor, where the elevators stop, and an open viewing area on the roof. Arguably the view is better than from the Eiffel Tower: you are not so high up so things are more visible, and you can see the Eiffel Tower!

The Pasteur Museum is housed in the apartment where the great scientist spent the last 7 years of his life. Hardly touched since that time, the museum is full of personal memorabilia and scientific instruments. Pasteur is buried on the grounds in a flamboyant mosaic-decorated mausoleum. The museum was closed to individual visitors for security reasons after the 13th November 2015 Paris terrorist attacks.

Soaring stained glass windows beaming ample light onto the rich primary colours of the tile mosaics on the floor, this photogenic church was built by the French kings to house the relics of the Crown of Thorns. Make sure you go on a sunny day, as the highlight of this small chapel in Rayonnante Gothic style are the large stained-glass windows which soar up to near the vaulted ceiling. Also of interest is the extremely ornate lower level. If it happens to be rainy or cloudy, give Sainte-Chapelle a miss, as the play of coloured lights on the floor is well worth the wait for a sunnier day. As the chapelle is inside the Courts of Justice, there will thus be a security check.

A Gothic church tower in a square 150m to the west of the Hôtel de Ville was restored by Ballu, is all that remains of Eglise Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie, which was the meeting place in Paris for pilgrims heading to Santiago de Compestela. As such it is included on the UNESCO World Heritage List as part of the Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France.

An 8-storey block of flats, built in 1932–1934.

The foundation opened its doors in May 2003. It preserves Henri Cartier-Bresson and Martine Franck’s archives. Exhibition of photographs, paintings, sculptings, and illustrations.

The centrepiece of a magnificent 8-sided square first laid out in 1699 to show off an equestrian statue of the Sun King, Louis XIV. The statue was removed amid revolutionary fervor in 1792 and replaced in 1806 with the Colonne de la Grande Armée. This was modelled on Trajan's column in Rome and decorated with Napoleon's military exploits. The present column is a replica, however, as the original was pulled down during the 1871 Paris Commune. Place Vendôme represents the best of well-heeled Paris, being home to an abundance of exclusive boutiques, jewellers and fashion labels—Cartier, Boucheron, Trussardi, van Cleef & Arpels—several banks, the French Ministry of Justice, and the Hôtel Ritz.

Part gallery - part restaurant - part nightclub, La Cite (Les Docks) is a modern building that is instantly recognisable due to being draped on one side with a large neon green shell covering the stairwells and roof the building. Roughly translated in English as The City of Fashion and Design, this is a trendy spot at the weekends and is used for event like Paris Design Week. The restaurant in the building is open all year round.

Mainly used as a concert hall and venue for fashion shows today, the Cirque d'Hiver was built in 1852, as the name would suggest, as a winter venue for circuses.

Swedish cultural institute and museum

The house of the symbolist painter has now become a museum to his life and work.

Home and studio of the great Romantic painter from 1857 until his death in 1863, features works by the artist and exhibitions of his contemporaries' work

The observatory was erected by Claude Perrault from 1667 to 1672 by order of Colbert. The building is oriented to the four cardinal directions. It is crossed in the centre by the Paris meridian (2° 20′ 14″ east of Greenwich). The observatory is not open to the public.

The two pavilions were built in 1784 to 1787 by the French architect Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, who erected many similar toll houses at the entrances to the city.

A museum of contemporary art. It was founded in 1984 by the well-known jewel and watch manufacturer, Cartier. In 1994 it moved to the new building erected on plans of the architect Jean Nouvel.

One of the best-known and most beautiful churches in Paris, in the guise of a Corinthian order classical temple. Construction started in 1764, although the church was not finally consecrated until 1845. The Madeleine has a lavish interior of marble and gold.

a Roman Catholic church on the east side of the Place Saint-Sulpice within the rue Bonaparte, in the Luxembourg Quarter of the VIe arrondissement. At 113 metres long, 58 metres in width and 34 metres tall, it is only slightly smaller than Notre-Dame and thus the second largest church in the city. It is dedicated to Sulpitius the Pious. During the 18th century, an elaborate gnomon, the Gnomon of Saint-Sulpice, was constructed in the church. In front of the church itself is the magnificent Place Saint-Sulpice which contains the 'Fountain of the Four Bishops'. The church has a long-standing tradition of talented organists that dates back to the eighteenth century. In 1862, Aristide Cavaillé-Coll reconstructed and improved the existing organ built by François-Henri Clicquot. Though using many materials from Clicquot's French Classical organ, it is considered to be Cavaillé-Coll's magnum opus, featuring 102 speaking stops, and is perhaps the most impressive instrument of the romantic French symphonic-organ era. Its organists have also been renowned, starting with Nicolas Séjan in the 18th century, and continuing with Charles-Marie Widor (organist 1870-1933) and Marcel Dupré (organist 1934-1971), both great organists and composers of organ music. The current organists are 'titulaire' Daniel Roth (since 1985) and 'assistant titulaire' Sophie-Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin. In Saint-Sulpice Sunday organ recitals are held on a regular basis (Auditions du Dimanche, following the High Mass, usually from 11:30am till 12:05pm, during the subsequent mass, a visit of the organ loft is possible).

This wedding cake-white church rises visibly above the north part of Paris. The striking building, with its towers and white onion dome (83 m high), was built between 1875-1914 on the birthplace of La Commune, officially as an act of penitence for the sins committed during the civil war in which thousands of Communards were executed, as well as for the previous bloodshed of the 1870 Franco-Prussian war. A number of prominent businessmen put up the money, and a dizzying combination of architects worked to put together the mock Romano-Byzantine extravaganza. Consecration followed in 1919. The view over Paris from the dome and from the square before it (200 m above sea level) is unsurpassed, apart from that enjoyed at the Eiffel Tower (50 km on a clear day). For the athletic traveller there are stairs from several directions to the top of the hill; otherwise there is also a funicular which runs every few minutes during the daytime from Place St. Pierre. Follow the signs that say "Funiculaire De Montmartre". Beware that the guards don't like it if they catch you taking pictures inside and will even yell "No photo!" and chase you down if they see you with a camera. Be warned: along the lower steps leading up to church, groups of mostly young African men gather and reach toward you with a small string, offering to loop it round your finger. In case it happens, pull back your hand, brush them off and move on. They might claim that "This is for the church." In case your feel that things go sideways, raise your voice to get people's attention and ask them call the police.

The City of Architecture and Heritage, accommodated in the Palais du Chaillot, is a museum and gallery of French architecture. The centrepiece is the spectacular Hall of Casts, a collection of full-size plaster casts of facades, towers, doorways and windows of great buildings from all over France. Architecture of the late 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries is represented by additional galleries of models and images.