Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain

Try to visit the cabinet des Médailles.

Two-level bridge.

A sculpture by Auguste Rodin in memory of the French novelist Honoré Balzac. The artwork is sometimes considered the first truly modern sculpture.

17th century church.

The building has a freely accessible rooftop which allows for a beautiful bird's-eye view of the northern half of Paris.

This charming museum is owned by the French Académie des Beaux-Arts. Its main collection areas, the result of several large donations, include: First Empire art and furnishings; illuminated manuscripts; and Impressionist art, including the largest Monet collection in the world and works by Renoir, Manet, Morisot, Caillebotte and Gauguin.

The burial place of existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, feminist Simone de Beauvoir (both of whom lived nearby); musician Serge Gainsbourg; artist Man Ray; the poets Charles Baudelaire, Guy de Maupassant, Charles Sainte-Beuve, and Marguerite Duras; the founders of the Theatre of the Absurd Samuel Becket and Eugene Ionesco; the sculptors Constantin Brancusi and Ossip Zadkine; the composers Camille de Saint-Saens and César Franck; the actors Maria Montez and Jean Seberg; the French officer Alfred Dreyfus; the founder of the Larousse encyclopedia, Pierre Larousse; the industrialist André Citroen, and many others.

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.

Beautiful round "square" with an equestrian statue of King Louis XIV and matching 17th century buildings.

Considered one of the most colourful Parisian parks, a local favourite, the Parc Montsouris was opened in 1878, having been designed by Alphand for Baron Haussmann. A large man-made lake and waterfalls are surrounded by long stretches of gently sloping lawns. Bronze statues are to be found studding the grounds, amongst the 1,400 trees, including such exotic varieties as the giant sequoia and the ginkgo. The park is featured in the film Cléo de 5 à 7. It is popular among families (there are two playground areas for children) and students.

Built adjoining the now-lost royal palace of the Tuileries, these gardens lying immediately west of the Louvre offer a central open space for Parisians and visitors with semi-formal gardens (an outdoor gallery for modern sculpture), various cafés, ice cream and crépe stalls, and a summer fun fair. The gardens are frequently home to a giant Ferris wheel and enclose the Musée de la Orangerie and the Jeu de Paume.

Reopened after extensive renovations, this small museum near the Louvre houses the Jean Walter and Paul Guillaume Collection, sold to the French Republic on very generous terms and numbering 143 paintings from the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century (15 Cézannes, 24 Renoirs, 10 Matisses, 12 Picassos, 28 Derains, 22 Soutines). The collection joined the eight immense Water Lilies that Monet gave France in 1922 and which have been displayed since 1927 in two huge oval rooms purpose-built on the artist's instructions.

The sleaze of boulevard de Clichy between place Pigalle and place Blanche can provide a moment of distraction. Be warned if you are male it is better to do this in the company of a female fellow traveller, as the clubs often send the girls outside to attempt to physically drag passing men off of the street. These strip clubs are big ripoffs. They tempt you with a free drink for €10 entry; once in the girl who starts dancing orders a couple of drinks (Red Bull) and then before you realise you are presented with a bill ranging from €500-700. They have these big bouncers who threaten/manhandle you till you arrive at some settlement with them. The whole of Pigalle is a rip off, best avoided. The police know about these places but nothing is done.

The Musée Grévin is a waxwork museum with some 500 characters arranged in scenes from the history of France and modern life.

Founded in 1671 by Louis XIV as a hospital for 6,000 wounded soldiers—this function explaining the name of the building—the golden-domed Hôtel des Invalides still functions as an infirmary and now also houses the Musée de l'Armée. The church attached, l'Eglise du Dôme, houses the tomb of Napoleon.

Contained within two historic houses (hotels), the museum explores the history of Paris through objects in over 140 separate rooms.

A museum dedicated to the life and work of the great sculptor. The house contains an extensive collection, which is unusually well presented in a spacious building with big windows that are open in nice weather, which makes this museum double pleasant.

A controversial church serving as de facto headquarters of the arch-traditionalist Society of Saint Pius X, who occupied the church in 1977 and have ignored subsequent eviction orders.

This iconic triumphal arch forms the focus of the main east-west road axis of Paris, running between the Louvre and the Grande Arche de la Défense in the west. The monument was commissioned by Napoleon in 1806 as a tribute to his victories as Emperor of France - it was finally completed in 1836, long after his death. 50 m (150 ft) high and 45 m wide, the Arc de Triomphe is decorated with battle scenes and martial sculptures that includes La Marseillaise by Rude. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was placed beneath the arch in 1920, where an eternal flame burns in tribute to the French dead of both World Wars. The arch is surrounded by a large roundabout, aptly known as l'Etoile - 'the star' - with 12 thoroughfares leading off from it. Visitors can purchase a ticket to climb to the top of the arch, from where magnificent views spread out over western Paris. Admission to a small museum devoted to the history and meaning of the monument is included. The central island and the arch are accessed by an underground passage. Do not attempt to negotiate by foot the busy multi-lane road that rings the Arc de Triomphe, which many Parisian drivers seem to consider their own personal speedway.