Paris in 2 Days — A Ruthless Weekend, Two Anchors a Day

Free, and the best free thing in Paris since the December 2024 reopening — the scrubbed stone is genuinely startling if you knew it before. Entry is free but managed: book a timed slot at notredamedeparis.fr, released about two days ahead, or queue in the walk-up line, which runs 1–3 hours April–October and is explicitly lowest priority. Mon–Fri 07:50–19:00, Sat–Sun 08:15–19:30, Thursdays to 22:00. The towers reopened 22 September 2025 and cost €16 separately — declined here: you get a dome view tomorrow from Sacré-Cœur for €8, and the tower climb needs its own booking and an hour you'd take from Orsay.

Walk the length of the island to its western tip, where the Pont Neuf — Paris's oldest bridge despite the name — straddles the point and a small triangular park drops to water level. Free, benches, and the least crowded good view in the centre. On declining Sainte-Chapelle, five minutes away: it is €22 for non-EEA visitors and €16 for EEA residents, and it is only 30–45 minutes inside, but it is a third anchor on a two-anchor day. If stained glass beats Impressionists for you, swap it for Orsay this afternoon rather than adding it — that trade is even on time and saves you money.

Twenty-five minutes along the Left Bank quais from the island and three minutes from Orsay's door, which is the whole reason it sits here. Loft-style bistro doing refined traditional French — 4.3 on Tripadvisor over ~620 reviews, 4.4 on Restaurant Guru over ~1,800. Service is 12:30–15:00 Saturday and Sunday, 12:00–14:30 on weekdays — this itinerary is timed to the weekend opening, so if you're here midweek you can come at 12:00 and take a slower hour on the island first. Book ahead; it is small and well known. About €35 for two courses and a glass.

The anchor of the day and the itinerary's most deliberate choice. €16 booked online (€14 at the door, but the on-site queue runs past 45 minutes in season); CLOSED MONDAYS, so a Sunday-Monday weekend must flip this to day 2 or swap in Sainte-Chapelle. Why not the Louvre: since January 2026 the Louvre charges €22 for EEA residents and €32 for everyone else, the slot is mandatory, walk-up queues run 60–90 minutes April–October, and doing it properly costs three to four hours. That is a sixth of your waking time in Paris and double the money, for a building most first-timers leave defeated. Orsay is one converted railway station, two hours, and holds the Van Goghs, Monets, Degas and Renoirs that people actually came to see. Free on the first Sunday of the month, but the slot must still be booked and goes fast.

Fifteen minutes upriver from Orsay: the most extravagant bridge in the city, gilded nymphs and Art Nouveau lamps built for the 1900 Exposition, with the Grand Palais on one bank and the Invalides dome lined up on the other. Free, and it is where the low sun goes in the late afternoon. Walk the esplanade, then cut back east through the 7th toward Saint-Germain for dinner — about 25 minutes on foot, and today needs no metro at all.

A proper old-guard Saint-Germain bistro at 9 rue Christine, off rue Dauphine — beef bourguignon, roasted bone marrow, the comfort end of the repertoire done seriously, plus a wine list running past 2,000 references, in a small room that fills. Open daily 12:30–14:30 and 19:30–23:00. When you look it up, Tripadvisor carries two listings for the same address, 'Chez Fernand' and 'Chez Fernand Christine' — the reviews are split across both. Reserve: it is tiny and the neighbourhood is busy on weekend nights. About €45 with wine. If it's full, rue Christine and rue des Grands-Augustins around it are dense with alternatives, which is the other reason to end the day here rather than in the 7th.

Basilica free; the dome and crypt are €8 for 16 and over, €5 for children, and this is the day's cheap view — 300 steps to the second-highest point in Paris, and unlike the Eiffel you are looking at a skyline with the Eiffel in it. Go at opening: by 11:00 the forecourt steps are shoulder to shoulder and the dome queue is real. Cash and card both fine. Skip the funicular queue at the bottom unless you need it — the stairs beside it take four minutes.

Deliberately routed away from Place du Tertre and its portrait painters, which is where the crowd goes and the worst-value coffee in Paris lives. Instead: down through Square Jehan Rictus for the wall of 'I love you' in 250 languages, then the windmills and market stalls of rue Lépic, and up rue des Saules past the Clos Montmartre, the working vineyard the hill kept — 1,500 vines, harvested every October. All free, all street-level, and it is the half of Montmartre that still belongs to Montmartre.

On the residential back side of the butte, ten minutes from the vineyard and far enough from the basilica that the room is mostly local. Chef André Le Letty came through La Tour d'Argent and Le Taillevent and cooks a short, classical, generous menu. Ratings split by platform — 4.6 on Google and 4.8 on the restaurant's own page against 3.9 on Restaurant Guru over ~910 reviews — so treat it as very good rather than flawless; the low scores cluster on service pace, not food. Open daily 12:00–14:30 and 19:00–22:00. Book for lunch on a weekend. About €38.

Line 12 two stops south to Pigalle, line 2 west to Charles de Gaulle–Étoile, then line 6 five stops to Bir-Hakeim–Tour Eiffel — two changes, about 30 minutes. (Don't try to change at Concorde: line 6 doesn't go there, it starts at Étoile.) A single Metro/RER ticket is €2.55 (bus/tram €2.05, and there is no free transfer between the two networks). Buy a Navigo Easy card for €2 and load singles onto it rather than fumbling paper. Skip the €12.30 Navigo Jour day pass: yesterday needed no metro at all and today needs three rides at most, so singles cost about €7.65 against €12.30. The pass only pays from five rides a day. Ignore Paris Visite at €30.60 for one day entirely — it is priced for airport transfers.

The two-tier steel bridge with the metro running overhead on iron columns, and the reason to come out here rather than to Trocadéro: it frames the tower down the length of the Seine with the Île aux Cygnes below, and it is free of the selfie-stick market that has taken Trocadéro's terrace. Walk the lower deck, drop onto the island footpath, then follow the river fifteen minutes upstream to the Champ de Mars and approach the tower from underneath, which is the angle that actually conveys the size of the thing.

Climb the stairs to the second floor: €14.80, against €23.50 for the same floor by lift and €36.70 for the summit. The stairs are the better ticket twice over — the queue is a fraction of the lift queue, and 674 steps through the ironwork is the only way to experience the structure rather than just the view. Note a 2026 change: the stairs ticket now stops at the second floor, and the old stairs-to-summit option is gone; the €28 combo is stairs up plus lift to the summit. On declining the summit at 276 m: it is a sealed cage, the extra €21.90 buys haze more often than clarity, and Paris is a low, flat city whose plan reads better from the second floor at 115 m. Book online up to 60 days ahead — sunset slots go first. Security screening at the base; no large bags.

Twelve minutes' walk from the tower on the 7th's best eating street. Chef Alexandre Linsolas keeps it to eight starters, eight mains, eight desserts, seasonal and tightly sourced; 9.3 on TheFork. The decisive detail for a last night with a train or plane in the morning: open every day in continuous service 12:00–23:00, so a delayed descent from the tower costs you nothing. About €42. Reserve if you can, but walk-ins work at the edges of service in a way they don't at its neighbours.