Paris’s temples of fine dining at reasonable prices are its brasseries, a cross between a café and a restaurant where simple dishes start around $20. Traditionally brasserie menus lean heavily on German-influenced Alsatian cuisine, hence the signature dish, choucroutes (tangy sauerkraut, usually served with sausages a... Morend pork) and the preponderance of beer over wine (brasserie means "brewery"). Which brasserie is best is hotly disputed, but two favorites remain the 144-year-old Bofinger, all Belle Époque elegance and chaotic activity, and the more intimate and relaxed Left Bank bastion Balzar.

Address:
49 rue des Ecoles
Paris
France

Phone:
33-1-43-54-13-67Less

Paris’s temples of fine dining at reasonable prices are its brasseries, a cross between a café and a restaurant where simple dishes start around $20. Traditionally brasserie menus lean heavily on German-influenced Alsatian cuisine, hence the signature dish, choucroutes (tangy sauerkraut, usually served with sausages a... Morend pork) and the preponderance of beer over wine (brasserie means "brewery"). Which brasserie is best is hotly disputed, but two favorites remain the 144-year-old Bofinger, all BelleÉEpoque elegance and chaotic activity, and the more intimate and relaxed Left Bank bastion Balzar.

Address:
5-7 rue de la Bastille
Paris
France

Phone:
33-1-42-72-87-82Less

Located in the center of Paris in a building designed by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, Centre Pompidou is the brainchild of President Georges Pompidou. Opened in 1977, the museums is home to more than 60,000 modern and contemporary works, making it one of the world’s largest collections of 20th century art. Pieces range from painting and sc... Moreulpture to architecture and photography. Level four features contemporary works from 1960 to the present, including those by Penone, Boltanski and Rondinone, while the fifth flour features modern art from 1905 to 1960, including pieces from Picasso, Giacometti, Pollock, Dali, and Duchamp.

Address:
Place Georges Pompidou
Paris
France

Phone:
33-1-44-78-12-33Less

From the grotto-like breakfast room to the duplex junior-suites under mansard roofs, the 29-room Hôtel de la Bretonnerie is a sampler catalogue of French fashions. Guest quarter décor ranges from cozy canopy beds and rustic exposed beams to elegant Empire-style furnishings to exotic Indochine appointments. No room will be accused of be... Moreing spacious, but all are comfortable, the Sagot family’s management is friendly, and the setting is hard to beat: a classic 17th-century hôtel in the heart of the Marais, a few blocks from the Pompidou and Picasso Museum and a 15-minute stroll from Notre-Dame. Doubles from $196.

Address:
22 rue Saint-Croix-de-la-Bretonnerie
Paris
France

Phone:
33-1-48-87-77-63Less

Beyond Monet’s multipaneled and expansive Water Lilies ensemble, what makes this recently renovated space truly special is the regrouping of an exceptional collection of modern art. After being closed for six years, the skylit spaces are spare and monochromatic, allowing the works to shine. In one long, columned gallery, Cézan... Morene and Renoir’s masterworks hang side by side in gilt frames; in another small salon, the primitive, angular portraits of Rousseau and Modigliani are combined. The exceptional collection was culled first by one of the great modern art dealers, Paul Guillaume, and then expanded by the wealthy industrialist Jean Walter, who married Guillaume’s widow. Works by Matisse, Picasso, Derain, Soutine, Laurencin, and Utrillo are also hidden here.

Address:
Jardin des Tuileries (near Place de la Concorde)
Paris
France

Phone:
33-1-44-77-80-07Less

Across the Seine from the Tuileries Gardens, the Musée d’Orsay is Paris’s premier museum of Impressionism, displaying works from 1848 to 1914. Opened in 1986 with collections from the Louvre, the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, and the National Museum of Modern Art, the museum occupies the Beaux-Arts Orsay railway station, con... Morestructed for 1900’s Universal Exhibition, and retains the original soaring glass ceiling and expansive great hall. The permanent collection includes everything from paintings to photography to graphic arts by the likes of Millet, Manet, Renoir Courbet, Cézanne, and Matisse. Sculptures include Rodin’s The Age of Bronze and Degas’ Small Dancer, Aged Fourteen.

Address:
62 Rue de Lille
Paris
France

Phone:
33-1-40-49-48-14Less

In keeping with the spirit of the nature-loving Marie Antoinette, head gardener Alain Baraton stopped using chemicals on the garden grounds and reintroduced insects for pest control. Not only have his efforts brought about the return of swallows and the green woodpecker, but his practices have been adopted by other urban gardeners.

... MoreAddress:
place d’armes 78000 Versailles, Chateau de Versailles
Paris
France

Phone:
33-1-30-83-78-00Less

Become a museum VIP and waltz right past the long lines with the Paris Museum Pass. It costs $45 for two days, $70 for four days, or $95 for six days; covers all admission fees (except special exhibits); and lets you bypass the lines at 40 top sights in Paris and 21 more in the surrounding region, from the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay ... Moreto Versailles and Fontainebleau (pretty much everything except the Eiffel Tower).

Address:
5 rue des Pyramides
Paris
FranceLess

Become a museum VIP and waltz right past the long lines with the Paris Museum Pass. It costs $45 for two days, $70 for four days, or $95 for six days; covers all admission fees (except special exhibits); and lets you bypass the lines at 40 top sights in Paris and 21 more in the surrounding region, from the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay ... Moreto Versailles and Fontainebleau (pretty much everything except the Eiffel Tower).

Address:
5 rue des Pyramides
Paris
FranceLess