Paris past the postcards: the Arc on Wednesdays, free views

Paris has too many famous addresses for anyone to reach the ones nobody photographs — and those are often free, empty and better. Below are addresses, days and prices for ten of them, from a rooftop terrace above the boulevards to a canal that rises in front of a crowd.

The order is geographic as far as it can be: the viewpoints and arcades go together on the Right Bank, Père-Lachaise and Belleville in one morning, the Canal Saint-Martin in the evening when the lights come on over the water.

The Arc de Triomphe on a Wednesday, and why it beats the Eiffel Tower

From the roof of the Arc you see twelve avenues fanning out and, at the end of one of them, the whole Eiffel Tower — which is the one thing you cannot see from the tower itself. From 1 April to 30 September the ticket is €22, but €16 on Wednesdays; from 1 October to 31 March it is €16 every day. It is open until 23:00 (from 11:00 on Tuesdays), last entry 45 minutes before closing, and you go up 284 steps, because the lift is out of service until further notice. Most important: do not cross the roundabout — there is no crossing on it, and that is not a joke. Access is by the Passage du Souvenir underpass, from the top of the Champs-Élysées or from the Avenue de la Grande-Armée.

3 daysFirst time in Paris and this is too much?Paris in 3 days →

Three viewpoints that charge nothing

The Galeries Lafayette terrace, 40 boulevard Haussmann: lift to the eighth floor, out onto the roof, the whole of Paris from the Opéra to Montmartre, free and unbooked; on your way look up at the Art Nouveau dome over the central hall. The Institut du Monde Arabe, 1 rue des Fossés Saint-Bernard in the 5th: the ninth floor and a terrace over the apse of Notre-Dame and the whole river, Tue–Fri 10–18, Saturdays and Sundays 10–19, closed Mondays. The Parc de Belleville, entered from Rue Piat in the 20th: the highest park in the city, with a terrace at the top and benches occupied mostly by neighbours. None of them has a cash desk, and all three have a better angle than the paid terraces.

The city museums don't charge

Museums run by the city of Paris have free permanent collections, always and for everyone. The Petit Palais (Avenue Winston-Churchill, Tue–Sun 10–18, last entry 17:15) is the handsomest: Courbet, Cézanne, Art Nouveau furniture, and an interior garden with a café you walk into without a ticket. There is also the Musée Carnavalet for the history of the city, the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris across from the Eiffel Tower, the Maison de Victor Hugo on the Place des Vosges and the Musée de la Vie Romantique with its garden in the 9th. Only the temporary exhibitions are ticketed — and the Catacombs, which are an exception in this and every other sense.

The Louvre on the first Friday of the month, after 18:00

The Louvre is free on the first Friday of the month after 18:00 (except in July and August) and on 14 July. On Fridays the museum runs to 21:00 anyway, so those are three ticketless hours at exactly the point when the day groups have left. The same applies to any Wednesday or Friday: the museum is open to 21:00, last entry at 20:00, and after six you can walk the Denon wing without a shoulder in front of you. And one hack worth more than the price: don't go in at the Pyramid. The Carrousel du Louvre is the underground entrance off Rue de Rivoli and the Porte des Lions is on the river side; both have the same security and a tenth of the queue.

The passages — nineteenth-century shopping malls

Before department stores were invented, Paris had a hundred or so glass-roofed arcades; about twenty survive and all of them are free. Galerie Vivienne (4 rue des Petits-Champs, 2nd arrondissement) is the finest: a mosaic floor, a rotunda, an antiquarian bookshop and a wine merchant, and almost never a crowd. Two minutes away is Galerie Colbert with its glass dome, and across the boulevard the Passage des Panoramas of 1799, the oldest in the city, now a street of twenty small restaurants. They are generally open from morning to eight in the evening, shorter on Sundays. For a rainy day in Paris there is no better plan.

Where to stayWhich quarter puts all this within walking distance?Where to stay in Paris →

The Canal Saint-Martin and its locks

A canal from Napoleon's time runs through the 10th, partly underground, with nine locks and iron footbridges that swing on a pivot. When a boat comes through, the bridge turns, the water rises two metres and the whole quarter stops to watch — it takes fifteen minutes and costs nothing. The Quai de Valmy and Quai de Jemmapes are closed to cars on Sundays and public holidays, when the quarter belongs to walkers, bikes and people sitting on the edge with a bottle. Metro Jacques Bonsergent or République. In the evening there are more Parisians here than tourists, which in central Paris is rare.

The Tour Saint-Jacques, in the middle of everything and almost always empty

A Gothic bell tower of 1523 on the Place du Châtelet, the only surviving piece of a church the Revolution pulled down — it stands alone in a small park, with a statue of Pascal at its foot, because he measured atmospheric pressure here. You can climb it only in summer, at weekends, with a guide and in small groups: about €12, roughly three hundred steps up a narrow spiral, booking compulsory and a minimum age of ten. At the top you are fifty metres above Châtelet, between Notre-Dame and the Louvre, and you finally see how the city is put together. If it is closed, the park at its foot is open all year and free.

Père-Lachaise, but in the morning

The largest cemetery in the city, seventy hectares on a hill in the 20th, with cobbled avenues under old chestnut trees. Entry is free, the main gate is on Boulevard de Ménilmontant, and it opens at 8 (9 on Sundays) until 18, shorter in winter. Take a map at the gate or download one, because without it you wander — Chopin, Oscar Wilde behind a glass wall, Édith Piaf, Jim Morrison with a barrier and a guard, and the Communards' Wall on the eastern side. Come at nine, while the mist still hangs between the tombs; at midday this is a promenade, at nine it is something else. From there it is twenty minutes uphill to the Parc de Belleville.

Lunch at the price Parisians pay

The arithmetic of a Paris lunch: the same cook charges €18–24 for a formule midi (starter and main, or main and dessert) between 12 and 14:30, and €40 and up from the evening carte. Look for a board written in chalk and a menu that changes daily; if the menu is translated into four languages and has photographs, keep walking. Rue Mouffetard in the 5th, Rue Montorgueil in the 2nd and Rue des Martyrs in the 9th are streets where this is still done for locals. Alongside: 'une carafe d'eau' is free by law, coffee is about €2 at the counter and about €5 on the terrace, and 'service compris' means a tip is not obligatory.

BudgetWhat does all of it cost a day?What Paris costs →

Vélib and the riverbanks

Vélib is the city bike scheme with two thousand docks: a single ride of up to 45 minutes is €3, a day pass on a mechanical bike €5, on an electric one €10 — bought in the app, no subscription. It makes sense for two things: the lower quays of the Seine between the Louvre and the Bastille, which are closed to traffic, and the Canal Saint-Martin. For the hills of Montmartre take an electric one or don't bother.

Day tripsAfter Monet's Water Lilies in the Orangerie — his own garden at Giverny:Day trips from Paris →

GuideParis as a whole — what to see first?Paris →