Bridge in Paris
FreeCosts nothing to visit.
The Pont Alexandre III is the most ornate bridge in Paris, spanning the Seine between the Invalides and the Grand Palais with gilded bronze statues, Art Nouveau lamp posts, and nymphs along the arch. It was built for the 1900 World’s Fair, the same fair that produced the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais at its right-bank end, and named after the Russian tsar Alexander III. The arch was kept deliberately low so it would not block the view between the Invalides and the Champs-Elysees, which means the bridge itself frames the Eiffel Tower, the Invalides dome, and the Grand Palais in a single sweep.
Crossing the bridge is free, and so is standing on it. Budget travelers walk it at dusk, when the lamps switch on and the gold reflects in the river, and see Paris at its most extravagant without spending a cent. It pairs naturally with a slow walk along the Seine Riverbanks and a stop at the Petit Palais, whose permanent collection is one of the city’s free museums, for a full afternoon of grand Paris on no budget.
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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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