Viewpoint in Paris
FreeCosts nothing to visit.
The steps leading up to Sacre-Coeur are one of the great free gathering spots in Paris, a wide tiered staircase climbing the butte of Montmartre where musicians play, artists sketch, and crowds sit watching the city spread out below. Free. The panorama from the terraces covers central Paris from the rooftops of Montmartre across to the Eiffel Tower, which is the budget version of the view people pay to climb for elsewhere in the city. No ticket, no queue, no closing time on the staircase itself.
The smart move is to skip the funicular, which charges a Metro ticket for the short ride up, and walk the stairs instead. The climb is the experience, and it costs nothing. Arrive before sunset, claim a step, and let the light fall over the city. Budget travelers sit and listen to whoever is playing guitar, which makes this the most communal free evening in Paris. Bring something to eat from a nearby bakery rather than buying from the vendors who work the crowd, and the whole evening stays free.
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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