The islands and the Seine, the Marais and Saint-Germain, the Butte of Montmartre – the tables, the hotels and the quartiers, in one guide.
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MICHELIN
121 ✱ tables · 41 Key hotels
Photo: Ekaterina Belova/Adobe Stock
In this guide
Every table and hotel the MICHELIN inspectors have chosen in Paris – 121 starred, 41 Bib Gourmand, 288 more restaurants and 156 hotels – on one map, with our own stories as we write them.
Friday evening to Sunday afternoon, timed – written for late October / November, with the opening days checked.
Photo: rh2010/Adobe Stock
Friday
Photo: CPR Paris IDF / JL Polion – Visit Paris RegionSainte-Chapelle
Start on the Île de la Cité, a few steps from Notre-Dame, in the Rayonnant Gothic chapel built as a reliquary for the crown of thorns, its upper chapel walled in stained glass; open daily 9:00–17:00 from October to March, last entry 40 minutes before closing.
Cross to the Left Bank for the opening of the rooftop bar on rue Danton (daily 17:00–23:00): a 360-degree view from Notre-Dame and the Saint-Germain bell tower to Montmartre and the Eiffel Tower as the lights come on.
Ten minutes' walk to boulevard Saint-Germain and the brasserie opposite the Café de Flore, where Verlaine and Apollinaire ate; order the choucroute. Open daily 9:00–00:45.
Photo: CPR / Hélène Tonnelier – Visit Paris RegionMarché d'Aligre
Breakfast among the stalls of the 12th: a covered market hall of fine grocers plus street stalls spilling into the surrounding streets between Ledru-Rollin and the Faubourg Saint-Antoine; the market runs Tuesday to Sunday.
Walk on to the Gare de Lyon for lunch upstairs at Le Train Bleu, built for the 1900 Exposition Universelle: frescoes from wall to ceiling, gilding, crystal chandeliers and 8-metre ceilings in two rooms listed as historic monuments. Lunch 11:15–14:30.
Into the Marais for the history of Paris in two private mansions, the oldest museum of the City of Paris; the permanent collections are free (reserve a free ticket online). Open Tuesday–Sunday 10:00–18:00.
Take the Métro west for the last light under the lime and chestnut trees of the Palais-Royal garden, round its central pool and Pol Bury's fountains; free, open daily 8:00–22:30.
Up avenue de l'Opéra to the café inaugurated by Empress Eugénie in 1862, its Napoleon III décor newly restored, with the Opéra Garnier straight across the square; open daily 8:30–23:00.
A short walk east to the Grands Boulevards and the bouillon founded in 1896: high ceilings, globe lamps and mirrors, leeks vinaigrette, eggs mayonnaise and snails, with most dishes around €10. Open daily 11:30–midnight.
Behind the Sacré-Cœur, the 17th-century house where artists including Renoir lived, with Suzanne Valadon's studio-apartment recreated and the Renoir gardens; open daily 10:00–19:00, €15 during exhibitions, free under 10.
Down the hill to boulevard de Clichy for a bouillon that opened only in 2017 but looks a century older – bentwood chairs, red benches, white cloths – with dishes from €1.80 to €13.50; open daily noon to midnight.
Photo: CPR / Buchet – Visit Paris RegionMusée d'Orsay
Across the river to the Impressionists in the former railway station on the Left Bank, which marks its 40th anniversary in 2026; open Tuesday–Sunday 9:30–18:00, last access 17:00, free for under-18s and on the first Sunday of the month.
End on place Saint-Germain-des-Prés at the café named after the two Chinese figurines on its pillars, a haunt of Verlaine, Rimbaud, Picasso, Prévert and Hemingway; open daily 7:30–01:00.
✱ MICHELIN star · Bib Gourmand: good cooking at a fair price · ◆ selected in the Guide · € to €€€€: the Guide's own price bands, from «on a budget» to «spare no expense».
04
Sunset and drinks
Where to drink
9 bars, rooftops and a wine cellar, from the Ritz to Ménilmontant
Paris's best-known rooftop: a lift at the back of a courtyard takes you seven floors up to cocktails and a sweeping view over the city, with the church of Notre-Dame-de-la-Croix-de-Ménilmontant close by.
Rooftop cocktail bar · 14th arrondissementSunsetSkybar Paris
Billed as the highest open-air bar in Paris, on the 32nd floor, with the Panthéon dome and the city spread below, and eight signature cocktails, each with an alcohol-free twin.
On the seventh floor of an Art Deco hotel on the slopes of Montmartre, one of the widest views in Paris – zinc roofs, Les Invalides, the Grand Palais and the Eiffel Tower; on winter evenings the rooftop is dressed as a mountain chalet, complete with a gondola cabin.
A 360-degree view over the Left Bank and the Right – Notre-Dame almost next door, the Saint-Germain bell tower, Montmartre and the Eiffel Tower – with reinvented classic cocktails and plates to share.
A plush little bar named after the writer, whose social life centred on it in the 1920s, full of Hemingway memorabilia, with simple but perfectly balanced cocktails at €32.
More than a century behind the same mahogany bar, under the original dark woodwork and tin ceiling, where several classic cocktails were born; the piano bar downstairs keeps the evening going.
Cocktail bar (speakeasy) · 3rd arrondissementLittle Red Door
Behind an unmarked façade and a small red door, one of the world's top-50 cocktail bars: brick walls, candles, velvet sofas and a menu of drinks named after architectural styles, from Art Déco to Baroque.
The Left Bank's great hotel bar, in the 1910 Lutetia where Picasso, Matisse, Beckett and Gainsbourg drank: a very long bar beneath Adrien Karbowsky's vaulted fresco, restored over some 17,000 hours.
A wine shop with a bar at the back on Montmartre's liveliest street: tell the team what you like and they pour from an eclectic list drawn from every French wine region, with cheese, charcuterie and rillettes.
Sources: Visit Paris Region and the bars' and hotels' own pages, read 27 October 2026. Hours are as listed and can change – check before you go.
05
Where to stay
The hotels worth the trip
The MICHELIN Guide's Keys first – its mark for hotels with character, service and a sense of place – then the rest of its selection and the ones we would book ourselves.
The classic Paris walk, west along the river from the restored cathedral to the Trocadéro terrace, with the Eiffel Tower growing ahead of you the whole way.
Past Notre-Dame de Paris and the Pont Saint-Louis, Musée d'Orsay, Pont de Bir-Hakeim
All year. Notre-Dame: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 7:50–19:00, Thursday to 22:00, weekends 8:15–19:30 (regional listing).
No source covers pushchairs or children.
Start: Parvis of Notre-Dame de Paris, Île de la Cité
Up through the old village streets of the Butte to the white domes of the Sacré-Cœur and down again to Abbesses, past the Moulin de la Galette, the Place du Tertre and the Lapin Agile.
Past Rue Lepic and the Moulin de la Galette, Sacré-Cœur basilica, Place du Tertre, rue Norvins and rue Saint-Rustique
All year. Avoid the Butte at weekends after 10:00 (Ryo guide).
Stairs and steep streets make it hard going with a pushchair; no source covers children.
From the arcades of the Place des Vosges through the lanes and mansions of the Marais, rue des Rosiers and the Musée Picasso, to the pipes of the Pompidou.
Past Place des Vosges, Rue de Bretagne, Rue des Rosiers
All year. The Centre Pompidou has closed for about five years of renovation and the Marché des Enfants Rouges is closed after a fire (regional listings) – walk past, don't plan to go in.
A park laid in 1988 on the old Bastille–Varenne railway, closed in 1969: 4.5 km of gardens running from Bastille over viaducts and through tunnels and cuttings towards the Bois de Vincennes.
Past Viaduc des Arts and its craftsmen's workshops in the arches below, Jardin de Reuilly, Tunnels and cuttings of the old Bastille–Varenne line
Open 25 October 2026–28 February 2027 Monday–Friday 8:00–17:45, weekends 9:00–17:45 (paris.fr). Lime trees colour in autumn; bamboo all year (Ryo guide).
Lift access is patchy: the rue Hector-Malot lift works, the lifts at 34 rue de Lyon and by the Leroy Merlin store were out of service when read (paris.fr).
Start: Bastille end, by the Opéra Bastille (avenue Daumesnil / rue de Lyon, access by stairs; lift at rue Hector-Malot)
Paris's 19th-century shopping arcades under glass, strung together across the Grands Boulevards – a walk that works in any weather.
Past Galerie Vivienne, Passage des Panoramas, Passage Jouffroy
All year; ideal on a rainy November day. Galerie Vivienne 8:30–20:00, Passage des Panoramas 6:00–24:00, Passage Jouffroy 7:00–21:30, Passage Verdeau weekdays 7:30–21:00 and weekends 7:30–20:30 (regional listings).
Flat and sheltered; a good pushchair route on a wet day (our assessment).
Start: Galerie Vivienne, 4 rue des Petits-Champs, 2nd arrondissement
The great axis of the city in one straight line: through the formal Tuileries garden, across the Concorde and up the Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe.
Past Jardin des Tuileries and its Maillol and Giacometti statues, Place de la Concorde, Avenue des Champs-Élysées (1.9 km)
Tuileries 7:30–19:30 from 25 September to 26 March. Arc de Triomphe October–March daily 10:00–22:30 (Tuesday from 11:00), last access 45 minutes before closing; closed 1 January, 11 November and 25 December (regional listings).
Children sail toy boats on the Tuileries basins (Ryo guide).
Start: Jardin des Tuileries, by the Louvre (113 rue de Rivoli entrance)
A wooded hill of tombs and chapels where Piaf, Chopin, Proust and Wilde lie – one of the most atmospheric hours you can spend in Paris on a misty autumn morning.
Past Graves of Édith Piaf, Jim Morrison and Frédéric Chopin, Graves of Marcel Proust and Oscar Wilde
Until 5 November: daily 8:00–18:00; from 6 November to 15 March: 8:00–17:30. Opens 8:30 on Saturdays and 9:00 on Sundays and bank holidays (regional listing).
No source covers pushchairs or children; cobbled and sloping paths.
Start: Main entrance, boulevard de Ménilmontant, 20th arrondissement
Sources: the Ville de Paris, Visit Paris Region and the Ryo city guide, read 27 October 2026. Distances and times are the sources' own; check opening hours of parks and passages, which change with the season. Coastal paths close in rough seas – check before you set off.
08
With kids
Paris for children
36 places for children, in Paris and a train ride away
Photo: pfeifferv/Adobe Stock
In Paris
Photo: CPR / Rollinger / OnlyParis.net – Visit Paris Region
The Senate's garden has everything in one place: sandpits, giant chessboards, swings, a carousel, pony rides, the toy sailboats on the Grand Bassin and the LudoJardin, an eco playground with rope bridges, a maze and a zip line.
Open every day; hours follow daylight and change on the 1st and 16th of each month: 8:00–17:15 from the last Sunday of October to 31 October, 8:00–17:00 on 1–15 November, 8:00–16:45 on 16–30 November (Sénat).
Paris's only amusement park inside the city: around 45 rides and attractions, 450 birds and a farm with dwarf goats, alpacas and Ouessant sheep, and a little train from Porte Maillot on weekends and in the holidays.
Open every day of the year; fewer rides run on school weekdays.
Opened in 1794 and one of the oldest zoos in the world, set inside the Jardin des Plantes: small and walkable for little legs, with orangutans, binturongs, Seychelles giant tortoises and Tasmanian devils among listed historic animal houses.
Open every day of the year except 25 December; 10:00–17:00 until 28 February 2027, last tickets one hour before closing.
The Muséum's great hall of stuffed animals marching across the floor under a glass roof is one of the most memorable rooms in Paris for children, and the permanent collection is free for everyone under 25.
Daily except Tuesdays, 10:00–18:00, last tickets one hour before closing; closed 1 January, 1 May and 25 December.
The Muséum's big modern zoo in the Bois de Vincennes, laid out in five biozones – the Sahel-Sudan savannah, Patagonia, European forests, Guyana and Madagascar – with free daily animal talks and paid keeper-for-a-moment sessions with lemurs and manatees.
Daily 10:00–17:00 until 3 January 2027 (gates close and last entry one hour earlier); closed on 3 November 2026 and for the whole of January 2027 (4–31 January).
A science museum with two hands-on children's areas built by age band, 2–6 and 5–10, each visited in 90-minute sessions, plus a baby space and a real submarine, the Argonaute, to climb through.
Cité des sciences: Tuesday–Saturday 9:15–18:00, Sunday 9:15–19:00, closed Mondays, 1 January, 1 May and 25 December; open daily 9:15–19:00 in the Toussaint holidays (19 October–1 November 2026).
Fifty-five hectares of lawns and themed gardens: a dragon whose tongue is a slide, a fenced playground inspired by the Breton seaside with pedal windmills and air-cushion waves, and a free weekend family space with games, books and short films.
Park open 24 hours a day, every day; Jardin des Vents et des Dunes daily 10:00–20:00, may close in rain or extreme heat.
Under the Trocadéro gardens, a short walk from the Eiffel Tower: 20,000 fish and invertebrates, the largest jellyfish display in the world outside Japan, a shark pool and a touch pool with koi carp.
Open every day 9:30–19:00; last entry and tills close before 18:00.
The wax museum on the Grands Boulevards, where children walk among sports stars, singers, cartoon heroes and Marie-Antoinette, and pose for photos with all of them.
Open every day; hours vary by season (regional listing: 9:00–19:00, last admission one hour before closing).
Themed gardens with one of the big playgrounds of eastern Paris – sandpits, swings, ping-pong tables – a Guignol puppet theatre and, run by concessions, mini-golf, tree-top adventure and pedal-car hire.
Open every day; in winter time (from the October clock change to end of February) 9:30–17:00.
Napoleon III's hilly 25-hectare park, opened for the 1867 World's Fair, with a playground, sandpits, swings, a carousel and two puppet theatres – the Guignol de Paris plays all year in a heated hall.
Open every day; 7:00–20:00 from 25 October 2026 to 28 February 2027.
A helium balloon on a cable that lifts up to 30 passengers 150 metres above the Seine, with the whole of Paris and the Eiffel Tower laid out below; the park around it has fountains and a playground.
Every day 9:00–17:00, weather permitting – the site has a live 'can the balloon fly?' check.
Small boats leave from the tip of the Île de la Cité for an hour on the Seine with live commentary; the goûter cruise is designed for children, with entertainment on board and a snack for young and old.
One-hour commented cruises every day from 10:30, by day and by night, all year; boats have an open deck and a heated cabin.
A former 19th-century foundry where paintings and films are projected across every wall and the floor to music; this autumn's ocean show suits children who would never sit still in a gallery.
Open every day; 10:00–20:00 from 16 October to 1 November 2026.
Museum · Ages Family workshops 4–6 and 7–12; stories 4–6; Les Fabricateurs from 6Musée des Arts et Métiers
Early aeroplanes and cars in the former priory church of Saint-Martin-des-Champs, Foucault's pendulum and a theatre of automata: one of the best museums in Paris for children who like to know how things work, and free for everyone under 18.
Tuesday–Sunday 10:00–18:00, late opening Friday until 21:00; closed Mondays, 1 January, 1 May and 25 December.
A music play space where children explore on their own, without a guide: five themed worlds, around thirty installations to touch and play, and an immersive studio, a few steps from the Parc de la Villette playgrounds.
Tuesday–Friday 9:30–12:45 and 13:30–17:00; weekends and zone C school holidays 9:30–12:45 and 13:30–18:00; also open Mondays in zone C holidays.
Down under the Left Bank into real working sewer galleries, with a sewer-cleaning 'wagon-vanne', a 'bateau-vanne' and the story of the egoutiers – a memorable hour for children who love machines, and free for under-18s.
Tuesday–Sunday 10:00–17:00, closed Mondays and 25 December 2026 (last access 16:00 per the regional listing).
A free, thoughtfully designed play and listening space for under-fives and their parents inside the Centquatre, the arts centre built on the site of the city's former undertakers.
Tuesday–Sunday 14:30–18:00, last entry 17:00; closed Mondays.
Collections from Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas, a free family visit guide ('Mon p'tit guide') to follow, and a wild garden at the foot of the Eiffel Tower; free for everyone under 26.
Museum Tuesday–Sunday 10:30–19:00; garden Tuesday–Sunday 9:15–19:30; closed Mondays, 1 May and 25 December.
A new exhibition space for 2–10s built by the Palais de la découverte and the Grand Palais, mixing science experiments and real artworks; the current show plays with light and transparency, ahead of the Palais de la découverte's full reopening in March 2027.
Exhibition 'Transparence' 20 June 2025–29 August 2027.
Nothing beats it for a first trip with children: lifts or stairs to the second floor, the lift to the top, and the Champ-de-Mars lawns below for running off steam afterwards.
Open every day of the year, about 9:00 to midnight; hours may vary with the calendar and the weather (regional listing).
Tropical fish and crocodiles in the Palais de la Porte Dorée, free for everyone under 26 – easy to combine with the Parc zoologique or the Bois de Vincennes nearby.
Tuesday–Friday 10:00–17:30, Saturday–Sunday 10:00–19:00; closed Mondays, 1 January, 1 May and 25 December.
A museum of illusions and conjuring with a live magic show and guides included in the ticket; Wednesday workshops and holiday courses teach children their own tricks.
All year Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday 14:00–19:00; daily in the Toussaint holidays (17 October–1 November 2026), 10:30–19:00 on weekdays and 14:00–19:00 at weekends; last magic show at 18:00.
An interactive audio-guided walk behind the scenes of the Grand Rex, through a projection booth, the director's office and a film set; add a blockbuster in one of its seven screens, or the guided tour of what the cinema calls Europe's largest film auditorium.
All year: Saturday, Sunday and bank holidays, and Tuesday–Thursday, 10:00–12:00 and 13:30–19:00; also Mondays and Fridays in zone C school holidays.
The classic big-boat cruise from the Pont de l'Alma, sailing past the foot of the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame, the Conciergerie, the Louvre and the Musée d'Orsay – a sit-down way for tired children to see the city.
Cruises all year (regional listing); timetable on the company's booking page.
The Muséum's museum of human evolution at the Trocadéro, from prehistoric tools to anatomical waxes, a few steps from the Eiffel Tower across the Seine.
Open every day except Tuesday, 11:00–19:00; closed 1 January, 1 May and 25 December.
While the Palais de la découverte is rebuilt, its famous live science demonstrations carry on here: more than 100 talks and workshops across seven sciences, led by mediators and researchers, plus a planetarium.
Term time: Wednesday 12:45–18:00, Saturday and Sunday 10:00–18:00.
Glasshouses that run from tropical rainforest to desert plants, warm and green on a grey November day, and just across the garden from the Ménagerie and the Grande Galerie de l'Évolution.
Daily except Tuesday, 10:00–17:00 until 28 February 2027; last entry one hour before closing.
995 hectares of woods, lakes and meadows on the eastern edge of the city: rowing boats on the Lac des Minimes, pony rides and playgrounds, and the Ferme de Paris for farm animals, with the zoo and the Parc Floral inside its edges.
Open all year, every day; access may be restricted in bad weather (regional listing).
Sharks, sea turtles and a penguin colony in a shopping-centre aquarium, with turtle feeding and a touch pool – an easy rainy-day add-on to a Disneyland trip.
Open daily; 10:00–19:00 on the day we read the site (last admission one hour before closing).
Serris (Val d'Europe) · about 40 min by Métro or RER
Le Nôtre's fountains, groves and the Grand Canal give children space to run on a scale nothing in Paris can match – and from November to March the gardens are free.
Gardens open every day; until 1 November 7:00–20:30 (last entry 19:00; 1 November closing at 19:00).
One of the world's largest aviation museums: Ariane rockets, two Concordes and a Boeing 747 to walk through, a planetarium, and Planète Pilote, a 1,000 m² play space where 6–12s become pilots and astronauts.
Tuesday–Sunday 10:00–17:00 from October to March, last access 16:30; closed Mondays.
The Gaulish theme park built around the Astérix comics, with big roller coasters for teenagers and a gentle family coaster, Pégase Express, for younger riders; in autumn it dresses up for Halloween.
2026 season tickets valid on opening days from 4 April 2026 to 3 January 2027, following the park's calendar.
The great monuments of France in miniature across a five-hectare landscaped park, open since 1991 – children tower over the Eiffel Tower and Montmartre, and there are rides for small and older children.
2026 season 5 April–2 November, generally 10:00–18:00; Halloween decorations 3 October–1 November.
Sources: Visit Paris Region (Île-de-France tourism), the Ville de Paris, the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, the Sénat and the places' own pages, read 27 October 2026. Times are approximate minutes by Métro or RER from Châtelet–Les Halles. Check seasons, ages and booking rules with the place before you go. Travel times from the centre. Check seasons and ages with the place before you go.
09
The atlas
Paris at a glance
The MICHELIN tables, the hotels and the sights, on one map.
Every restaurant, hotel and sight the MICHELIN Guide lists within 6 km – 612 places, each with its own page. The six nearest the centre of each kind are here; the rest are in the directory, A to Z.