Historic district in Paris
FreeCosts nothing to visit.
Le Marais is the historic district on the Right Bank, a dense grid of narrow streets, aristocratic mansions now turned into museums, Jewish delis, LGBTQ+ bars, and fashion boutiques. Free to wander. Because Haussmann’s 19th-century demolitions largely skipped this quarter, the Marais keeps the tangle of medieval lanes and grand private mansions that most of central Paris lost. Walking it costs nothing and shows more of the city’s real character per block than any boulevard.
At its heart sits Place des Vosges, the oldest planned square in Paris, free to enter and lined with arcades made for sitting out of the rain. The Musee Carnavalet, the museum of the history of Paris, is also here, and its permanent collection is free to enter, which makes it one of the best-value indoor stops in the city for a budget traveler. The rue des Rosiers, the spine of the old Jewish quarter, is the place to buy a cheap falafel and eat it walking, a full meal for a few euros.
The Marais also works as a free walking route. Budget travelers string it together from the Bastille area through the lanes toward the Pompidou Centre and on west to the Notre-Dame Cathedral and the Ile de la Cite, a short walk further. Nothing on that walk requires a ticket. The shops, the architecture, and the people-watching are the attraction.
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Other places worth the walk, and what each one costs.
The Arc de Triomphe is Napoleon's triumphal arch at the western end of the Champs-Elysees, the largest triumphal arch in the world at nearly 50 meters tall. Napoleon commissioned it in 1806 to honor the Grande Armee, and it was finished in 1836, long after his fall.
Canal Saint-Martin is a tree-lined waterway in the 10th arrondissement, threaded with arched iron footbridges and a chain of locks that still raise and lower passing boats. Napoleon ordered it dug to bring clean water into the city, and it opened in 1825.
The Avenue des Champs-Elysees runs from the Place de la Concorde to the Arc de Triomphe, the most famous boulevard in the world. It forms the central stretch of the historic axis that lines up with the Tuileries Garden and the Louvre Museum to the east. Free to walk.
The Eiffel Tower is the most recognized structure in the world, built for the 1889 World's Fair by Gustave Eiffel's engineering company and never taken down. It was meant to be temporary, a 20-year exhibit, but its usefulness as a radio and telegraph mast saved it and it has stood in the 7th arrondissement ever since.
The Grand Canal is a cruciform artificial lake at the western end of the Palace of Versailles Gardens, roughly 1.6 kilometers along its long arm. Andre Le Notre designed it as the vanishing point of the garden's central axis and as a mirror for the sky, so the whole layout pulls the eye toward the water.
Ile de la Cite is the island in the Seine where Paris began, the spot where the Gallic Parisii and then Roman Lutetia first took root before the city spread to both banks. It is the historic heart of Paris, and almost everything on it can be seen for free.
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