Garden in Paris
Also known as Jardins du Chateau de Versailles
Partly free, partly paidSome of it costs nothing, some of it charges.
The gardens of the Palace of Versailles are free to enter on most days, with a fee applying only on fountain-show days, when the Grandes Eaux musical fountains run, typically summer weekends. The grounds are enormous and were laid out by Andre Le Notre for Louis XIV: kilometers of geometric parterres, tree-lined avenues, ornamental basins, and the cruciform Grand Canal Versailles, all arranged on one long axis that runs west from the palace toward the horizon. Le Notre built the whole composition around that single perspective, and standing on it costs nothing on a normal day.
The budget move at Versailles is to take the cheap regional train out from Paris, skip the expensive palace interior and its long queue, and spend the entire day in the gardens for free. Walk out from the crowded parterres near the palace toward the Grand Canal Versailles at the western end, then head north to the quieter Trianon district and Marie Antoinette’s Estate, where most day-trippers never go. The gardens alone justify the trip, and on a non-fountain day the whole outing comes close to the cost of two train fares.
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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