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The world’s largest museum unsurprisingly also contains one of the world’s most important collections of art and antiquities. To complete the superlatives, the building was once France’s largest royal palace.

This remarkable conversion has turned a former railway station into one of the world’s leading art galleries and is, for many, reason alone to visit Paris.

Some six million visitors a year ascend to the top of this most famous Paris landmark for the spectacular views. It was erected for the Universal Exhibition of 1889.

This great Gothic cathedral, founded on the site of a Roman temple, was completed in 1334 and is a repository of French art and history. It also represents the geographical heart of France.

The terrace in front of this monumental white-domed basilica in Montmartre affords one of the finest free views over Paris.

Napoleon’s triumphal arch, celebrating battle victories, stands proudly at the top of the Champs-Elysées and, along with the Eiffel Tower, is one of the city’s most enduring images.

Home to the Paris Museum of Modern Art, the design of the Pompidou Centre makes it a distinctive exhibition in itself. The Centre also has extensive research facilities.

The great and the good of France are buried in the Panthéon, including Voltaire and Victor Hugo.

Called “a gateway to heaven”, this splendid medieval church was built to house the relics collected by St Louis on his many Crusades.

The glowing golden dome of the Hôtel des Invalides church is unmistakable across the rooftops of Paris.

A grand Parisian café with prices to match, but it’s worth a visit to enjoy the frescoed walls and sumptuous surroundings, designed by Charles Garnier, architect of the Opera House across the square (see Tuileries and Opéra Quarters). This is another Paris landmark with a string of famous past patrons, and arguably the best millefeuille cakes in town.

A tea room loved by locals and visitors alike. Regulars swoon over the hot chocolate and the delicious patisseries.

L’AmbroisieThe finest service matching the finest of food. Renowned wine list, and the chocolate tart is out of this world. Reserve in advance.

Superchef Alain Ducasse’s flagship restaurant. Langoustines with caviar is just one mouth-watering bite (see Alain Ducasse).

Long-time Les Halles favourite. If your taste is not for offal, there are options such as oysters and steak.

Superbly situated in the Richelieu wing of the Louvre (see Musée du Louvre), the café offers simple but expertly prepared brasserie fare (steaks, salads, salmon tartare, sandwiches) as well as delicious cakes and pastries. The dining room has plush decor and velvet armchairs, but the best spot is under the arcade overlooking the glass pyramid and the cour Napoléon.

Fabulous Italian-styled fare (and its plentiful) is on offer at this relaxed and friendly venue.

Alain Ducasse’s affordable offshoot. Choose your main dish and a sauce to go with it.

Book a window table for the wonderful views. The menus roam the world – try sea bass tagine . Reserve in advance.

An impressive collection of works by the sculptor and artist Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) is housed in a splendid 18th-century mansion, the Hôtel Biron, where he spent the last nine years of his life. The rooms display his works roughly chronologically, including his sketches and watercolours. Masterpieces such as The Kiss and Eve are displayed in the airy rotundas. One room is devoted to works by his talented model and muse, Camille Claudel, and Rodin’s personal collection of paintings by Van Gogh, Monet and other masters hang on the walls. The museum’s other highlight is the gardens, the third-largest private gardens in Paris, where famous works such as The Thinker and The Gates of Hell stand among the lime trees and rose bushes.

This fine display of art and furniture, once belonging to avid art collectors Edouard André and his wife Nélie Jacquemart, is housed in a beautiful late 19th-century mansion. It is best known for its Italian Renaissance art, including frescoes by Tiepolo and Paolo Uccello’s St George and the Dragon (c.1435). The reception rooms feature works from the 18th-century “Ecole française”, with paintings by François Boucher and Jean-Honoré Fragonard. Flemish masters are in the library.

Paul Marmottan was an art historian and his 19th-century mansion now houses the world’s largest collection of works by Claude Monet (see Blue Waterlilies), including his Impression Soleil Levant which gave the Impressionist movement its name. The collection was donated by the artist’s son in 1971, and includes the artist’s collection of works by Renoir and Gauguin.

When the Spanish-born artist Pablo Picasso died in 1973, his family donated thousands of his works to the French state in lieu of estate taxes. Thus Paris enjoys the largest collection of Picassos in the world. Housed in the Hôtel Aubert de Fontenay, the museum displays the range of his artistic development, from his Blue and Pink Periods to Cubism, and reveals his proficiency in an astonishing range of techniques and materials.

French author Victor Hugo (1802–85) lived on the second floor of the Hôtel de Rohan-Guéménée, the largest house on the place des Vosges, from 1832 to 1848. He wrote most of Les Misérables here (see Les Misérables) and many other works. In 1903 the house became a museum of his life, with portraits and memorabilia.

This immense belle époque exhibition hall was built for the Universal Exhibition in 1900. Its splendid glass roof, visible from all over Paris, is a landmark of the Champs-Elysées. The façade, the work of three architects, is an eclectic mix of Art Nouveau ironwork, Classical stone columns and a mosaic frieze, with bronze horses and chariots at the four corners of the roof. The Galleries du Grand Palais host temporary art exhibitions.

Designed by Charles Garnier for Napoleon III, Paris’ opulent opera house resembles a giant wedding cake. Begun in 1862, it took 13 years to complete and comprises a range of styles from Classical to Baroque, incorporating stone friezes and columns, statues, multicoloured marbles and a green, copper cupola. The ornate interior has a Grand Staircase, mosaic domed ceiling over the Grand Foyer and an auditorium with a ceiling by Marc Chagall. There’s even an underground lake beneath the building – the inspiration for Gaston Leroux’s Phantom of the Opera (see Entertainment Venues).

One of the most famous avenues in the world came into being when the royal gardener André Le Nôtre planted an arbour of trees beyond the border of the Jardin des Tuileries in 1667. First called the Grand Cours (Great Way), it was later renamed the Champs-Elysées (Elysian Fields). In the mid-19th century the avenue acquired pedestrian paths, fountains, gas lights and cafés, and became the fashionable place for socializing and entertainment. Since the funeral of Napoleon in 1840, this wide thoroughfare has also been the route for state processions, victory parades and other city events. The Rond Point des Champs-Elysées is the prettiest part, with chestnut trees and flower beds, but the upper end, near the Arc de Triomphe, has sadly lost its glamour with the influx of fast-food chains and tourist services. Yet a walk along the avenue is still an obligatory part of any visit to Paris.

Running roughly parallel to the Champs-Elysées, the Paris equivalent of Fifth Avenue, Bond Street or Rodeo Drive is this high street of international glamour. From Christian La Croix and Versace to Gucci and Hermès, the shopfronts read like a Who’s Who of fashion. Even if the prices may be out of reach, window-shopping is fun. There are also elegant antiques and art galleries, such as La Cour aux Antiquaires at No. 54.

This famous Left Bank boulevard runs for more than 3 km (2 miles) anchored by the bridges of the Seine at either end. At its heart is the church of St-Germain-des-Prés, established in 542, although the present church dates from the 11th century. Beyond the famous cafés, Flore and Les Deux Magots (see Café de Flore, Les Deux Magots), the boulevard runs west past art galleries, bookshops and designer boutiques to the Pont de la Concorde. To the east, it cuts across the Latin Quarter through the pleasant street market in the place Maubert, to join the Pont de Sully which connects to the Ile St-Louis (see Ile de la Cité and Ile St-Louis).

The main drag of the Latin Quarter was created in the late 1860s as part of Baron Haussmann’s city-wide makeover (see The Second Empire), and named after a chapel that once stood near its northern end. It’s now lined with a lively mix of cafés, clothes shops and cheap restaurants. Branching off to the east are rues de la Harpe and de la Huchette, which date back to medieval times. The latter is an enclave of the city’s Greek community, with many souvlaki stands and Greek restaurants. In the place St-Michel is a huge bronze fountain that depicts St Michael killing a dragon.

These long formal gardens, stretching between the Eiffel Tower and the Ecole Militaire, were laid out in 1765–7 as a parade ground for the military school, but the “Field of Mars” was opened to the public in 1780. Three years later crowds gathered for the launch of the first hydrogen-filled balloon. On 14 July 1790, a sullen Louis XVI watched as 300,000 citizens celebrated the first anniversary of the storming of the Bastille, an event which is commemorated here annually (see Marais and the Bastille). Five world exhibitions were held here between 1867 and 1937; the 1889 event gave Paris the Eiffel Tower.

These gardens were first laid out as part of the old Tuileries Palace, adjacent to the Louvre, which was built for Catherine de Médici in 1564 but burned down in the Paris Commune of 1871. André Le Nôtre redesigned them into formal French gardens in 1664, and they were opened to the public. At the Louvre end is the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, erected by Napoleon in 1808. Here is also the entrance to the underground shopping centre, the Carrousel du Louvre. Nearby, sensuous nude sculptures by Aristide Maillol (1861–1944) adorn the ornamental pools and walkways. At the far end is the hexagonal pool, the Jeu de Paume gallery and the Musée de l’Orangerie, famous for its giant canvases of Monet waterlilies.

This 25-ha (60-acre) park is a swathe of green paradise on the very urban Left Bank. The formal gardens are set around the Palais du Luxembourg, with broad terraces circling the central octagonal pool. A highlight of the garden is the beautiful Fontaine de Médicis (see Molière Fountain). Many of the garden’s statues were erected during the 19th century, among them the monument to the painter Eugène Delacroix and the statue of Ste Geneviève, patron saint of Paris. There is also a children’s playground, open-air café, a bandstand, tennis courts, a puppet theatre and even a bee-keeping school.

This historic octagonal square, covering more than 8 ha (20 acres), is bounded by the Tuileries Gardens on one side and marks the starting point of the Champs-Elysées on the other. It was built between 1755–75 to designs by architect Jacques-Ange Gabriel as the grand setting for a statue of Louis XV, but by 1792 it had become the place de la Révolution and its central monument was the guillotine. Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette and more than 1,000 others were executed here (see Ile de la Cité and Ile St-Louis). In 1795, in the spirit of reconciliation, it received its present name. The central obelisk, 23 m (75 ft) tall and covered in hieroglyphics, is from a 3,300-year-old Luxor temple, and was a gift from Egypt, erected in 1833. Two fountains and eight statues representing French cities were also added. On the north side of the square are the mansions Hôtel de la Marine and Hôtel Crillon, also by Gabriel.

Surrounded by 52 Corinthian columns, the huge Classical-style La Madeleine church (see La Madeleine) commands this elegant square. On the east side a colourful flower market is held Tuesday to Saturday. The square is surrounded by some of the most up-market épiceries (food stores) and speciality shops in the city (see Fauchon).

Paris’s oldest square also has the honour of being one of the most beautiful in the world. Once the site of jousting tournaments, the square was commissioned by Henri IV. Its 36 houses with red-gold brick and stone façades, slate roofs and dormer windows were laid out with striking symmetry in 1612. Although they were originally built for silk workers, the likes of Cardinal Richelieu (1585–1642) and the playwright Molière (1622–73) quickly moved in and it remains an upper-class residential address. But everyone can enjoy a stroll around the area and the art galleries under the arcades.

Jules Hardouin-Mansart, the architect of Versailles, designed the façades of this elegant royal square for Louis XIV in 1698. The square was intended to house foreign embassies but bankers soon moved in and built lavish dwellings. It remains home to jewellers and financiers today. The world-famous Ritz hotel was established here at the turn of the 20th century (see Ritz Hotel). The central column, topped by a statue of Napoleon, is a replica of the one destroyed by the Commune in 1871.

Built for the 1900 Universal Exhibition to carry visitors over the Seine to the Grand and Petit Palais, this bridge is a superb example of the steel architecture and ornate Art Nouveau style popular at the time. Named after Alexander III of Russia, who laid the foundation stone, its decoration displays both Russian and French heraldry. The bridge creates a splendid thoroughfare from the Champs-Elysées to the Invalides.