16 Best Sights in Around the Eiffel Tower, Paris

The Eiffel Tower is to Paris what the Statue of Liberty is to New York and what Big Ben is to London: the ultimate civic emblem. French engineer Gustave Eiffel spent two years working to erect this iconic monument for the World Exhibition of 1889. Because its colossal bulk exudes such a feeling of permanence, it's hard to believe that the tower nearly became 7,000 tons of scrap when the concession expired in 1909. Only its potential use as a radio antenna saved the day. Though many prominent Parisians derided it at first, the tower gradually became part of the city's topography. It's most breathtaking at night, when every girder is highlighted in a glittering show of 20,000 golden lights for five minutes every hour on the hour from nightfall until midnight (until 1 am in summer).

More recent enhancements include a renovation of the first level that added a vertigo-inducing "transparent" floor 187 feet above the esplanade as well as a miniturbine plant, four vertical turbine windmills, and eco-friendly solar panels to minimize the tower's carbon footprint over time. You can stride up 704 steps as far as the second level, but only the elevator goes to the top. The view of the flat sweep of Paris at 1,000 feet is sublime—especially if you come in the late evening, after the crowds have dispersed. Beat the crushing lines by reserving your ticket online, or book a skip-the-line guided tour offered by many companies (from €47). Better yet, ride up the private elevator to chef Frédérick Anton's Jules Verne restaurant—with its Michelin star—on the tower's second floor. It's about as dramatic a lunch or dinner spot as you'll find, apart from Madame Brasserie, a chic sit-down bistro helmed by Michelin-starred chef Thierry Marx on the first floor (online reservations for both restaurants are a must). Or you can watch the glimmering lights from the top of the tower over a glass of bubbly or a nonalcoholic drink at the Bar à Champagne. There are also small "buffet" snack shops on the esplanade and the first and second floors. 

At the tower's tippy top is Gustave Eiffel's "secret apartment," which he used as his office, including wax mannequins of Eiffel in conversation with Thomas Edison; the blonde woman in the background represents Claire, Eiffel's oldest daughter, with whom he was very close. You'll also hear actual recordings of Eiffel's voice.

The baroque complex known as Les Invalides (pronounced lehz-ahn-vah-leed) is the eternal home of Napoléon Bonaparte (1769–1821) or, more precisely, his remains, which lie entombed under the golden dome. Louis XIV ordered the facility to be built in 1670 to house disabled soldiers (hence the name), and, at one time, 4,000 military men lived here. Today, a portion still serves as a veterans' residence and hospital. The Musée de l'Armée, containing an exhaustive collection of military artifacts from antique armor to weapons, is also here.

If you see only a single sight, make it the Église du Dome (one of the two churches here) at the back of the complex. Napoléon's tomb was moved here in 1840 from the island of St-Helena, where he died in forced exile. The emperor's body is protected by no fewer than six coffins—one set inside the next, sort of like a Russian nesting doll—which are then encased in a sarcophagus of red quartzite. The bombastic tribute is ringed by statues symbolizing Napoléon's campaigns of conquest. To see more Napoléoniana, check out the collection in the Musée de l'Armée featuring his trademark gray frock coat and huge bicorne hat. Look for the figurines reenacting the famous coronation scene when Napoléon crowns his empress, Josephine. You can see a grander version of this scene by the painter David hanging in the Louvre.

The best entrance is at the southern end, on Place Vauban (Avenue de Tourville); the ticket office is here, as is Napoléon's tomb. There are automatic ticket machines at the main entrance on Place des Invalides.

Located in the west wing of the Palais de Chaillot and one of five national museums dedicated to all things nautical (other locations are in Brest, Port-Louis, Rochefort, and Toulon), the Paris branch is the country’s foremost treasure trove of art and artifacts documenting maritime development pertinent to France over the centuries. The sparkling new design includes impressive special effects, interactive features, and games for adults and kids. Exhibits highlight a notable collection of models of vessels, from 17th-century flagships to modern warships. Kids can climb a step to get a closer look at a model aircraft carrier or a nuclear submarine cut in half to expose their decks. The main gallery displays several figureheads recovered from sunken ships, including a giant Henry IV, miraculously saved from a shipwreck in 1854 during the Crimean War. An enormous representation of Napoléon, in his favored guise as a Roman emperor, was taken from the prow of the frigate Iéna in 1846. There is also a sinister-looking metal diving suit from 1882 and the menu from a 1935 voyage of the SS Normandie cruise ship. The café-restaurant offers snacks and warm meals along with views of the Eiffel Tower, and the shop stocks original sea-themed artworks, chic clothing, and toys. Free English audioguides are available.

Sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) briefly made his home and studio in the Hôtel Biron, a magnificent 18th-century mansion that now houses this museum dedicated to his work. He died rich and famous, but many of the works that earned him a place in art history were originally greeted with contempt by the general public, which was unprepared for his powerful brand of sexuality and raw physicality.

Most of Rodin's best-known sculptures are in the gardens. The front one is dominated by The Gates of Hell (circa 1880), which illustrates stories from Dante's Divine Comedy. Rodin worked on the sculpture for more than 30 years, and it served as a "sketch pad" for many of his later works: you can see miniature versions of The Kiss (bottom right), The Thinker (top center), and The Three Shades (top center). The museum also showcases long-neglected models, plasters, and paintings, which offer insight into Rodin’s creative process. Pieces by other artists from his personal collection are on display as well—including paintings by van Gogh, Renoir, and Monet. A room is devoted to works by Camille Claudel (1864–1943), his student and longtime lover, herself a widely acclaimed sculptor. An English audio guide (€6.50) is available for the permanent collection and for temporary exhibitions.  Tickets can be purchased online for priority access. If you wish to linger, L'Augustine café serves meals and snacks indoors or outdoors under the garden's linden trees. The fine museum boutique sells quality gifts and objects d'art, such as reproductions of some of the master's most famous sculptures made from the original molds.

Home to four major cultural centers, this honey-colored Art Deco structure on Place du Trocadéro was built in the 1930s to replace a Moorish-style building constructed for the 1878 World's Fair. Its esplanade is also a top draw for camera-toting visitors intent on snapping the perfect shot of the Eiffel Tower. Facing the building from the Place du Trocadéro, to the left are the Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine—billed as the world's largest architectural museum—and the Theâtre National de Chaillot, one of the city's major dance and performance venues, which occasionally stages plays in English. The twin building to the right contains the Musée de l’Homme, a thoroughly modern anthropology museum, and the marvelous Musée National de la Marine, reopened in 2023 after a six-year restoration. Sculptures and fountains adorn the garden leading to the Seine.

Visiting graveyards in Paris can become addictive. Less well known than Montparnasse or Père Lachaise, Passy Cemetery, which dates from 1821, is raised high above Place du Trocadéro behind towering walls so that passersby hardly know it's there. Here under the chestnut trees are the tombstones of famous aristocrats and artists, such as composer Claude Debussy, Impressionist painters Édouard Manet and Berthe Morisot, and fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy, all with superb, and eternal, views of the Eiffel Tower.

Not to be confused with the American Cathedral across the river at 23 avenue George V, this pretty, neo-Gothic, Protestant church was built between 1927 and 1931. It features a pair of Tiffany stained glass windows—a rare find in Europe. Besides ecumenical services, the church hosts architectural tours, free classical and acoustic concerts, and lectures and workshops on well-being and topics of current interest. You can check event listings and download a self-guided PDF tour at the church website.

Along with 10,000 fish and a giant tank of small sharks, this attractive space beneath the Trocadéro gardens promises nature documentaries in its cinema space, puppet and magic shows, and workshops for children in animation, art, and dance (these are offered in French, but the staff speaks English). Book tickets online to save money and avoid lines.

At first glance, the blazing, silvery onion domes of this Russian Orthodox cathedral, an easy walk from the Eiffel Tower and Quai Branly, appear like a mirage of Moscow on the Seine. The ultramodern edifice, designed by French architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte, is worth a quick peek for its graceful icons, mosaics, and colorful frescoes against pristine marble walls.

Landscaped at the start of the 20th century and restored in the two years leading up to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, the park is a centerpiece of current mayor Anne Hildago's plan to reduce pollution and increase the city's pedestrian and green spaces. The park's grassy lawns and gardens have already been expanded to 4 acres and dozens of new trees have been planted (many more are to come). Parts of the ambitious project—which extends across the Seine to the gardens, fountains, and green spaces leading to the Trocadéro esplanade—are on hold until city officials, environmentalists, and Parisians can agree on a plan.

The greatest gems of French architecture are represented at the City of Architecture and Heritage, which occupies the east wing of the Palais de Chaillot. The former French Monuments Museum covers French architecture from the Middle Ages to the present and contains some 350 plaster-cast reproductions spread out over 86,000 square feet. Although this is a collection comprised entirely of copies, these are no ordinary ones: they include partial facades from some of the most important Gothic churches, a gallery of frescoes and windows (among them a stained-glass stunner from the famous Chartres cathedral), plus an assembly of gargoyles practically leaping off the back wall of the soaring first-floor gallery. Video monitors allow a 360-degree view of some of the grandest cathedrals. The upper-floor gallery has been devoted to architecture since 1851, with a life-size replica of a postwar apartment in Marseille designed by the urban-planning pioneer Le Corbusier. The newest exhibit takes you on an immersive 3D tour of the restoration of Notre-Dame Cathedral, accompanied by a lecturer-guide. It's well worth picking up the free English audiovisual guide. When you're ready for a break, the museum's small café offers a great view of the Eiffel Tower.

Located at the foot of the Pont des Invalides, this floating museum is well placed to bring art and culture “closer to Parisians,” one of its stated missions as part of the Reinventing the Seine project, launched in 2018. The barge’s 26 massive glass panels, designed to mirror the river, render it almost transparent, and its surprisingly spacious interiors exhibit a permanent collection of works from the pioneers of street art. Temporary shows in the barge’s hold and on the main floor showcase emerging talents. There’s also a café, bar, and bookstore on the first floor and the chic rooftop bar is a popular spot in summer when the barge features outdoor concerts and art openings.

Found behind a wall and through a nondescript entrance on the Rue de Babylone, this former convent kitchen garden, founded in 1625, takes its name from a young nun who’s said to have seen apparitions of the Virgin Mary. Among the prettiest of Paris’s hidden parks and gardens, you'll feel like you're in another time sitting among its orchard, vines, arbors, flowerbeds, and tended paths. In nice weather, it’s a favorite refuge for local families (there’s a small playground for kids), friends, and lovers to repose on the lawn, read on a bench, or peacefully stroll the garden’s many nooks, so close and yet so far from the surrounding buzz of this fashionable shopping area.

Leave it to the French to make even sewers seem romantic. Part exhibit but mostly, well, sewer, the 1,640-foot stretch of tunnels provides a fascinating—and not too smelly—look at the underbelly of Paris. You can stroll the so-called galleries of this city beneath the city, which comes complete with street signs mirroring those aboveground. Walkways flank tunnels of whooshing wastewater wide enough to allow narrow barges to dredge sand and sediment. Lighted panels, photos, and explanations in English detail the workings of the system. Immortalized as the escape routes of the Phantom of the Opera and Jean Valjean in Les Misérables, the 19th-century sewers have a florid real-life history. Since Napoléon ordered the underground network built to clean up the squalid streets, they have played a role in every war, secreting revolutionaries and spies and their stockpiles of weapons. Grenades from World War II were recovered not far from where the gift shop now sits. The display cases of stuffed toy rats and "Eau de Paris" glass carafes fold into the walls when the water rises after heavy rains. Buy your ticket at the kiosk on the Left Bank side of the Pont de l'Alma. Guided one-hour tours by friendly égoutiers (sewer workers) are available in French only; call or email ahead for details.

When President Jacques Chirac’s legacy project (the Musée du Quai Branly, dedicated to the world’s indigenous arts and cultures) pilfered half of this museum's pieces, few thought the rest of Paris’s storied anthropology museum would survive, but it has come roaring back to life. Focused on “science and human societies,” the Musée de l’Homme has 33,368 square feet of sparkling exhibition space in the west wing of the Palais de Chaillot, where it displays more than 700,000 prehistoric artifacts and art objects. It now uses the most modern museum tricks—including interactive displays, 3D projections, and educational games—to help visitors understand the history of the human species. While you’re admiring the 25,000-year-old Venus of Lespugue or comparing the skull of Cro-Magnon man with that of René Descartes, don’t forget to look out the window: the view from the upper floors across to the Eiffel Tower and southern Paris is spectacular.

This eye-catching museum overlooking the Seine was designed by architect Jean Nouvel to house the state-owned collection of "non-Western" art, culled from the Musée National des Arts d'Afrique et d'Océanie and the Musée de l'Homme. Exhibits mix artifacts from antiquity to the modern age, such as funeral masks from Melanesia, Siberian shaman drums, Indonesian textiles, and African statuary. A corkscrew ramp leads from the lobby to a cavernous exhibition space, which is color-coded to designate sections from Asia, Africa, and Oceania. The lighting is dim—sometimes too dim to read the information panels (which makes investing in the €5 audioguide a good idea). The museum really shines for the quality and imagination of its temporary exhibitions, whose topics range from the art of Japanese bamboo to the historic role of gold thread in textiles. 

Renowned for his bold modern designs, Nouvel has said he wanted the museum to follow no rules; however, many critics gave his vision a thumbs-down when the museum opened in 2006. The exterior resembles a massive, rust-color rectangle suspended on stilts, with geometric shapes cantilevered to the facade facing the Seine and louvered panels on the opposite side. The colors (dark reds, oranges, and yellows) are meant to evoke the tribal art within. A "living wall" composed of some 150 species of exotic plants grows on the exterior, which is surrounded by a wild jungle garden with swampy patches—an impressive sight after dark when scores of cylindrical colored lights are illuminated. The trendy Les Ombres restaurant on the museum's fifth floor (separate entrance) has prime views of the Eiffel Tower—and prices to match. The budget-conscious can enjoy the garden at Le Café Branly on the ground floor.