Museum in Paris
Also known as Museum of the History of Paris
Partly free, partly paidSome of it costs nothing, some of it charges.
The Musee Carnavalet is the museum of the history of Paris, housed in two Renaissance mansions in the heart of Le Marais. The permanent collection is free to enter, which puts it on the very short list of indoor Paris sights that cost a budget traveler nothing. Temporary exhibitions are ticketed and can be skipped without missing the point of the place.
The collection runs from prehistoric times to the present, and the standout feature is the set of period rooms saved from buildings that no longer exist. Whole interiors were lifted and rebuilt inside the museum, including Marcel Proust’s bedroom and a cell from a Revolutionary prison. The history of the city is told through the actual rooms, signs, and possessions of the people who lived it, not through wall text alone.
For a budget day in the quarter, the Carnavalet slots straight into a free walking route. Wandering the lanes of Le Marais costs nothing, Place des Vosges a few minutes away is free to enter, and the Carnavalet gives you an air-conditioned, rain-proof stop in between, again for free. Few museums in any major city deliver this much for no admission.
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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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The whole of Paris