Five Fun Ways You Can Spend 2 Days In Paris

Paris is the famous city of love, lights, fashion and passion, and it’s one of our favorite places in the world to visit. There’s an enormous amount of fun things to do in France’s capital city, which means you have tough decisions to make when it comes to planning your two days.

In this guide we’re going to walk you through the various ways you can plan a weekend or 2 days in Paris itinerary, based on our own extensive experiences.

Our Paris Experience

What do we know about visiting Paris and how can we help you plan your itinerary?

Well, we’ve been to Paris half a dozen times, and during our most recent trip in November 2023 we spent 8 full days exploring the city from dawn to dusk. We’ve stayed at hotels in 4 different arrondissements (1st, 3rd, 7th and 18th), and we really have done all there is to do as tourists. So you can trust that our itinerary ideas below are crafted from first hand experience! Read more about us.

Let’s take a look at 5 different ways you can spend 2 days or a weekend in Paris.

1. First Time In Paris

If it’s your very first time in Paris, you’ll likely be prioritizing top attractions like the Eiffel Tower, The Louvre and a Seine River Cruise. They’re exactly the things we did the first time we visited Paris ourselves because they’re the iconic and unmissable things to do. But we’re also going to show you how to squeeze in a few more top attractions into your 2 days so you can make the most of your time. The route below is efficient and walkable (as long as you don’t mind clocking up a few thousands steps on your smartwatch!):

Day 1:

• Start at the Eiffel Tower (book the first time slot 9:30am in advance)
• Walk to Trocadero for the best Eiffel Tower views
• Head over to the Arc de Triomphe and go up to the observation deck
• Walk the Champs-Elysees and grab a quick lunch on a side street
• Visit the Musee d’Orsay (book in advance)
• Visit The Louvre at around 3:00pm when it’s quieter (book in advance)
• Finish with a Seine Cruise and dinner

Day 2:

• Start with a morning stroll through Luxembourg Gardens
• Go inside Pantheon
• Walk through the Latin Quarter and Saint Germain
• Grab lunch in either of the two trendy arrondissements
• Next go to see Notre-Dame (reopen in late 2024)
• Visit both Sainte-Chapelle and Conciergerie on Ile de la Cite
• Finish with dinner in Le Marais

If you follow this exact route in order, your Paris bucket list will have lots of boxes ticked in just two short but action packed days. You can of course add or remove attractions if you prefer to explore faster or slower. And if you have a third day in Paris, you can add a day trip to Versailles. That way you’ll have covered all the top Paris attractions in three days.

2. Museum Lover

Paris is overflowing with world-class museums, especially when it comes to art. You could easily fill a full week in museums and still not get through them all. So with just 2 days, you’ll need to carefully consider your priorities. Here’s how we would do it:

Day 1:

• Start with the Musee de l’Orangerie
• Next go to the Musee d’Orsay
• And finish with The Louvre

*You could do this route in reverse to go in chronological order of time periods, but The Louvre is quieter in the afternoon which is why we suggest this order.

Day 2:

• Start in the east with Maison de Victor Hugo
• Next visit the underrated Musee Carnavalet
• Either Picasso Museum or Centre Pompidou
• After lunch head west to Musee Rodin
• Next door go to the Army Museum and Napoleon’s Tomb
• If you have time finish with the Sewer Museum

That’s a lot of museum action! Feel free to cut one or two from the itinerary if it sounds like too much. We’ve ordered the museums for maximum efficiency, so be sure to follow along in order.

3. Arrondissements

One of our favorite ways to explore major cities is to ignore the busy tourist areas and instead spend our time walking through vibrant neighborhoods, or arrondissements in Paris. Le Marais, St Germain and the Latin Quarter are our top recommendations if you’re into food and atmosphere. Here’s how you can enjoy the best neighborhoods without paying for any attractions or museums:

Day 1:

• Start with breakfast in the 11th arr. (Popincourt)
• Continue into the 3rd arr. (Le Marais)
• Explore the 1st arr. (Louvre)
• Then head north through the 2nd arr. (Bourse)
• Keep going north through the 9th arr. (Opera)
• Finish in the lovely 18th arr. (Montmartre)

Day 2:

• Start in the 5th arr. (Latin Quarter)
• Head west into the 6th arr. (Saint Germain)
• Finish in the 7th arr. (Palais-Bourbon)

We recommend ending day 1 in Montmartre because it’s amazing in the evening, and the Basilica de Sacre-Coeur is open until 10:30pm. On day 2 you could reverse the route if you’d prefer to explore Saint Germain and the Latin Quarter in the evening when they’re lively and have excellent nightlife options.

4. Add A Day Trip

Are you planning to see the Palace of Versailles when you visit Paris? There’s no doubt it’s worth seeing, but it’s going to eat up at least 6 hours of your time. And that’s a big chunk of your overall 2 day itinerary accounted for. If you simply can’t miss Versailles, here’s how you could do it and still see the other famous attractions if it’s your first visit:

Day 1:

• Book your Palace of Versailles tickets in advance (ideally the earliest time slot 9:00am)
• Get the RER C train to Versailles Château Rive Gauche
• It’s a 10-15 minute walk to the palace entrance
• Explore the entire grounds and have lunch on site
• Take the RER C train back into Paris around 3:00pm
• Get off at Champ de Mars and climb the Eiffel Tower for sunset (book in advance)

Day 2:

• Option 1: Visit museums like The Louvre and Musee d’Orsay
• Option 2: Walk around Latin Quarter, Saint Germain, Le Marais and Montmartre

Other popular day trip options from Paris include Fontainebleau, Chantilly and Giverny, but Versailles is by far most heavily trafficked. Trains work well, so you shouldn’t have to hire a car to reach any of the day trip spots.

5. Return Visitor

Paris is one of few cities we’re happy to keep going back to because there’s so much to see and do. The other great thing about being a return visitor is that you’ve already done most of the famous attractions, so you can craft a hidden gem itinerary and get off the beaten path. Here’s what you can do as a return visitor to escape the crowds:

Day 1:

• Spend the morning walking around Montmartre
• Head down to Le Marais
• Visit Musee Carnavalet or Museum of the Art and History of Judaism
• See the Conciergerie and Sainte-Chapelle
• Go down to the Crypte Archeologique de l’Ile de la Cite
• Metro to or walk to the Champs-Elysees
• Go up the Arc de Triomphe for sunset

Day 2:

• Grab breakfast at Kozy Notre Dame in Latin Quarter
• Visit Shakespeare and Company book store
• Explore the Musee de Cluny
• Walk down to see Pantheon
• Visit the Curie Museum (Weds-Sat 1-5pm)
• Walk through Luxembourg Gardens
• Go down to see the Catacombs of Paris (book in advance)
• Finish with sunset at Montparnasse Tower observation deck

This itinerary is great if you want to avoid the most overcrowded spots in Paris but still feel like you’ve seen a lot. By skipping the Eiffel Tower, Louvre and Palace of Versailles you’ll avoid the worst of the crowds.

Tips

1. With just two days, we recommend booking a hotel in the 1st, 2nd or 3rd arrondissement so you’re close to the majority of top attractions. You’ll also have easy access to metro links and links to the airports. We love Montmartre (18th arr), but you’d lose time you don’t have sat in taxis, ride shares or metros.

2. Walk as much as you can. This is always our top tip for visiting major cities like London, Rome, New York City or Tokyo because it’s the best way to see a place, especially when you only have two days available. We carefully plan our days so we can walk an efficient route to attractions and arrondissements, avoiding metros unless absolutely essential.

3. Attractions and museums are open on weekends, but be aware that lots of popular places like The Louvre, Musee d’Orsay and Palace of Versailles close on Mondays or Tuesdays. If you don’t visit Paris at the weekend, we recommend visiting between Wednesday and Friday to avoid attractions being closed.

4. The Louvre is always busy, but a great tip we have is to visit later in the day rather than in the morning. We’ve been to The Louvre twice, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. And the afternoon time slot was so much quieter.

5. If you want to save money when visiting famous attractions like the Eiffel Tower, Louvre and Palace of Versailles, a Tiqets Attraction Bundle is a great choice. We used the Paris & Versailles Bundle to visit top attractions and it saved us a few euros in the process. Read our guide below to learn more about the different pass options available in Paris.

More Paris Guides

• Our Paris attraction pass comparison
• How to visit Versailles from Paris
• Eiffel Tower first time visitor guide

Want more France content? Head over to our France Travel Guides to explore Paris and beyond.

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We hope our Paris itinerary ideas help with planning your trip to France!

Please let us know if you have any questions in the comments below.

Happy Travels,

Mark and Kristen

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