Paris kept its kings' houses and then filled them with other things: ministries, shops, art. This walk follows that change across the first arrondissement, from the gateway of a palace that no longer exists to a grain exchange that now holds contemporary art.
There are six stops, and the ground is flat and close together, so the time goes on what you choose to enter. The Louvre alone can fill a morning. Decide before you start how much of it you want, and leave the rest of the half day for the others.
Avoid Tuesdays. The Louvre and the Bourse de Commerce are both closed that day, and the Louvre is also closed on 1 January, 1 May and 25 December. The Bourse closes on 1 May as well.
1. Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel: a gate with nothing behind it
Start at the Triumphal Arch of the Carousel, a gateway built between 1806 and 1808 by the architects Percier and Fontaine. It marked the entrance to the Tuileries Palace and celebrated Napoleon's victories of 1805. The palace is gone, so the arch now frames an empty view across the gardens.
Look at the bronze team on top. It replaced the four horses Napoleon took from Saint Mark's in Venice, which went back in 1815; the sculptor Bosio's chariot of Peace commemorates the Bourbon return instead.
2. The Louvre: the palace first, the paintings second
The Louvre was a royal palace before it was a museum, and the courtyard is the best way to feel it. Stand between the wings and turn slowly: the façades around you are the palace, and the glass pyramid in the middle is the way in. Visitors can also enter through the Carrousel, the underground shopping gallery near the arch.
The museum is open every day except Tuesday, from 9:00 to 18:00 on most days and until 21:00 on Wednesdays and Fridays. Last entry is an hour before closing. The wider the gap between what you want to see and the time you have, the more it helps to pick one wing and leave the others.
3. The Palais-Royal: a cardinal's house turned into a garden
Cross the Rue de Rivoli and the Palais-Royal is a few steps away. Cardinal Richelieu had it built as his own house, the Palais-Cardinal, between 1633 and 1639. When he died in 1642 it passed to the crown and took the name it has today.
In the 1780s the Duke of Orléans had arcaded buildings put up around the garden and let the shops open to the public, and the garden became a place Parisians could walk. The palace itself now houses the Conseil d'État, the Constitutional Council and the Ministry of Culture, so it is the courtyard and the garden you visit. In the courtyard stand Daniel Buren's black-and-white striped columns of different heights, put up in 1985 and 1986.
4. Bourse de Commerce: a grain exchange with a dome
Follow the streets east and the round Bourse de Commerce appears behind its tall column. The column is the one remnant of a mansion built for Catherine de' Medici between 1574 and 1584; its tower was used for observing the stars. The city saved it when the house was demolished in 1748.
The round building was a wheat exchange, built from 1763 to 1767. The iron and glass dome dates from the rebuilding of 1888 and 1889, and underneath it a painted frieze shows the history of trade on the five continents. Since 2021 it has held the Pinault Collection of contemporary art, with a nine-metre concrete cylinder inside by Tadao Ando.
5. Saint-Eustache: a Gothic church in Renaissance clothes
Walk a few streets to the site of the old Les Halles market, and Saint-Eustache rises beside it. The church was begun in 1532 and consecrated in 1637. Its structure is Flamboyant Gothic, its decoration Renaissance and classical, which is why it looks unlike the medieval cathedrals elsewhere in the city.
Inside, look for the painting by Rubens, The Disciples at Emmaus, and for Keith Haring's bronze triptych in a side chapel. The great organ has nearly 8,000 pipes. Mozart held his mother's funeral here. It is a working parish church, so keep to the sides during services.
6. Théâtre du Châtelet: where the Ballets Russes began
End on the Théâtre du Châtelet, on a square with a fountain of 1808 whose column commemorates Napoleon's campaign in Egypt. Gabriel Davioud designed the theatre for Haussmann, and it opened in 1862. It seats about 2,500.
It was the first Paris home of the Ballets Russes, and Petrushka in 1911 and Daphnis et Chloé in 1912 were first staged here. Facing it across the square is its near twin, the Théâtre de la Ville. Compare their arcaded fronts: the outsides match, the interiors do not.
Where it leaves you
You began at a gate to a vanished palace and finish at a theatre built in the time of Napoleon III. In between, a royal house became a museum, a cardinal's palace became a garden, and a grain exchange became a gallery. Paris rarely tears a building down if it can find a new use for it, and this walk is that habit in a straight line.