Garden in Paris
Also known as Jardin des Tuileries
FreeCosts nothing to visit.
The Tuileries Garden is the formal French garden stretching from the Louvre Museum to the Place de la Concorde, a straight axis of gravel paths, symmetrical lawns, fountains, and free green chairs. Free. The garden connects two of the most important squares in Paris and is the most central open space in the city. Catherine de Medici laid it out in 1564 on the site of old tile kilns, the tuileries that gave the garden its name, and Andre Le Notre redesigned it a century later in the formal French style he later took to Versailles. Budget travelers sit in the chairs, watch the children sail boats on the round pond, and absorb the geometry of a garden that has not fundamentally changed since the 17th century.
The Tuileries is also the eastern hinge of the great straight line through Paris: the same axis runs west across the Place de la Concorde, up the Champs-Elysees, and on to the Arc de Triomphe, so a single free walk from the Louvre to the arch passes most of the headline sights without a ticket. The chairs cost nothing, there is no minimum spend, and nobody moves visitors on. The Musee de l’Orangerie at the garden’s western corner holds Monet’s Water Lilies for a paid ticket, but the garden wrapped around it is always free to walk. For a no-cost green-space day in central Paris, pair it with the Luxembourg Gardens and the Palais Royal Garden, the other two free parks worth knowing. The most central free afternoon in Paris.
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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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