How I Spent 4 Days and 3 Nights in Paris: A Full Itinerary

No matter how many times you’ve been to Paris before, planning an itinerary can be overwhelming. So, you can imagine just how I felt when I returned to the French capital for the first time in 17 years. Yes, I had been as a kid before, but going as a 30-year-old—and having to navigate the city (plus its many sights) yourself—is a whole different ballgame. 

I have vague memories of Paris itself from my visits when I was younger, but my fondest ones were of Disneyland (which is perhaps because I was a kid). Sadly, Disneyland wasn’t on the agenda this time—but I had a really fun three nights in Paris. Even more so when before the trip, I frankly wasn’t very interested in returning to the city… but I guess it’s good to sometimes be open-minded. 

To give you a realistic idea of how you can spend your own trip in Paris, I’ve written this full piece; it’s based on my own experiences in the city. My aim is that you can navigate those initial first few hours while you’re getting to grips with the City of Light, along with showing you what you can do when you visit yourself. 

After reading this guide, you’ll have a better understanding of how to structure your Paris weekend. Moreover, I’ll share some tips to help you make the most of your trip and enjoy yourself even more.

Before We Start: Some Useful Context for My Paris Itinerary

My idea with this itinerary is that you can take what you like and leave the rest. Rather than being a rule that you must follow everything to the book, it’s a guideline. You’ll have fun if you follow my itinerary closely, and if you only take some parts and create your own—based on your own interests—I’m sure you’ll still enjoy your stay.

I visited Paris in November (from Thursday to Sunday), and as a result, this itinerary is doable year-round. You’ll have more daylight hours if you visit in the summer, which allows you to go at a slower pace. Since Paris is quite dark in the latter months of the year, I wanted to fit more into the times when it was light. 

You’ll notice as I go through this itinerary that I don’t mention breakfast much. We had breakfast included at our hotel (we stayed at the Grand Hotel Lafayette, by the way). As a result, we ate here most mornings; it helps that the breakfast was good, but it was also the most effective option. We did go to a bakery for breakfast one day, which was great; if ever in doubt, baguettes and croissants are always good choices. 

Since I live in Copenhagen, Denmark, I flew to Paris. I arrived at Charles De Gaulle Airport and flew out of Orly. However, I visited France multiple times when I lived in the UK (which is where I grew up); on most of those trips, I took the Eurostar. If you’re visiting from the UK, Belgium, or the Netherlands, I suggest taking the train to Paris instead of flying.

Day 1: Arriving in Paris

My flight to CDG arrived early in the afternoon (and as a side note, I can confirm that Air France has become one of my favorite airlines. What an absolute dream). Since I only had a backpack and was arriving from another Schengen country, I headed straight for the RER train into Paris. The journey didn’t take too long, and it was pretty simple. I must admit, however, that the station at Charles De Gaulle can be a bit overwhelming after a flight. 

Luckily, one of the platform supervisors hurried me onto a train into the city center. After around 30 minutes, I was at Gare Du Nord. My hotel was a 20-minute walk from the station, and since I had already been sitting down for two hours (and needed to stat-pad my Apple Watch’s 10,000-step goal), I decided to do that. 

I walked around Le Marais for a bit and then went to see if my hotel room was ready. Well, I tried to find my hotel and failed spectacularly for quite some time. That killed a bit of time, I guess, but here’s a useful lesson: Google Maps is garbage in Paris. 

Afternoon

I already knew that our weekend in Paris was going to be quite busy, so I deliberately took my first afternoon easy. It was pretty uneventful; my girlfriend was at a work event, and in the meantime, I charged my phone at the hotel and waited so we could go out and explore the city. 

We spent our first evening by taking a leisurely stroll around Le Marais and eventually found ourselves in Pigalle. I had little interest in being there, to be honest, though we got to see the Moulin Rouge sign. Maybe I’ll actually see a performance there on a future visit.

My first impressions of Paris were that a) the architecture is really as stunning as they say, and b) most of the city was much cleaner than I anticipated. I also didn’t endure mystery smells that are one of the memories I have from previous visits, which was nice. 

Evening

Having only eaten a couple of convenience store sandwiches so far that day, I was quite hungry by this point. When in Rome, do as the Romans do, and I guess the same is true with Paris and the Parisians. Whether eating a crepe is truly Parisian is up for debate, but I wanted one, and they’re French… so we move. 

We went to Suzette Urbane, which was close to our hotel. We had one sweet and one savory crepe to share between us, both of which were pretty good. “This will go on my blog”, I said to myself—and sure enough, here we are. 

After filling up on more beige food, we went for an evening walk to burn off said beige food (and prepare to eat more beige food). We headed for the River Seine, and on our way, found ourselves outside the Louvre.

While we didn’t go inside, seeing the illuminated pyramid was cool. And then we saw a runner get chased by a security guard for presumably mistaking that he could run there. It reminded me of one of those silent French cinema films I’ve seen before, to be honest. 

We then continued toward the River Seine, stopping whenever I said “this is nice, let me take a photo”. Which, I assume, doubled our journey time because it was every few hundred meters. We were greeted by a beaming Eiffel Tower as we were walking along the riverfront, and my preconceived skepticism of Paris was slowly fading away. 

Seeing the Eiffel Tower at night is an absolute must when you visit the French capital; it really is as cool as it looks. We finished our walk by watching the tower glitter, which it does for five minutes every hour after sunset (until closing time). By this point, I was pretty tired; we then took an Uber back to Le Marais. 

Before retreating to the hotel, we had dinner at Le P’tit Piano—which was just around the corner. The food was great, and the service was super friendly. I didn’t take any photos as I was too busy eating, so yeah… sorry about that. 🙂

Day 2: Museums, the Eiffel Tower, Food, and 35,000+ Steps

The second day of our Paris itinerary was stacked to the point that I *almost* broke my record for how many steps I completed in a single day. To say that I felt it the day after would be an understatement, but it was lots of fun—so I can’t complain. 

Originally, I had planned to start the day by visiting the viewpoint at La Tour Montparnasse. After stressing about getting there because I was late for my reservation, I realized that didn’t matter. 

Arriving in the lobby at La Tour Montparnasse, I was met with a polite “bonjour, monsieur” by the person working there. I told them that I had tickets for the observation deck and apologized for being late. They told me that it was cloudy and I couldn’t see anything if I went up, so I was better off reorganizing or getting a refund. 

Since I didn’t have enough time to return (and the forecast was by and large cloudy for the rest of my trip), I opted for the latter. Sad, I guess, but I’ll definitely visit next time if the conditions are better. And to be honest, we had so much else to do during the day… so it was probably for the best.

Morning

My girlfriend still had to do some work on Friday, but before that, we had breakfast at the hotel. Then, after my failed attempt to visit La Tour Montparnasse’s observation deck, I took the Metro to the Musée D’Orsay. 

I wrote a full guide on visiting the museum, which you should also bookmark and read later. When I first visited, I have to say that I was taken aback by its size. I spent some time getting my bearings and then choosing where I wanted to go, spending most of the morning here. I really enjoyed my time, and the views toward Montmartre from one part of the building were cool. 

Once I had seen what I wanted to, I headed outside and was met with a deluge of rain. Good thing that I… also didn’t have an umbrella (note the sarcasm). Still, since I constantly go on about how much I love rainy weather, I guess I wasn’t so mad. Plus, it made for some cool street photography.

I walked mostly down the Seine and in the general direction of the Eiffel Tower, also stopping at the Place du Trocadéro to take some photos. I’m going to be a little controversial for a moment, but… I think it’s pretty overrated. It was dirty when I was there, and I just didn’t like the overall vibe. 

Afternoon

I had already walked way beyond 10,000 steps by this point, and I was very much ready for some food. My girlfriend and I met up for lunch at Kozy Bosquet, which is close to the Eiffel Tower. We were already going to see the Eiffel Tower in a few hours, so this made total sense to us. 

Kozy has a couple of brunch spots in Paris, and I thought it was really good. The pancakes are worth trying, in my opinion, and I also liked the avocado toast (because I clearly need to prove that I’m a true Millennial). It’s quite busy, so you might need to wait for a table. 

We then spent the rest of our afternoon at the Eiffel Tower. We had a guided tour to the second floor, which included elevator access. It was quite interesting to learn more about this iconic structure, though you can definitely visit without the tour. Either way, I do recommend booking tickets in advance.

We spent much longer than expected at the Eiffel Tower. Even though it was cloudy, and we therefore didn’t have a great sunset, we could still see many of the most iconic buildings in Paris. At some point, Sacre-Cœur became visible through a layer of clouds.

While at the Eiffel Tower, we also saw the Arc de Triomphe and Paris’s beautiful network of old-style apartments lining the streets below us. You can visit two platforms on the Eiffel Tower’s second floor, which we decided to make the most of. 

Though we took the elevator up, we decided to go back down to street level via the stairs. Once we were down there, we spent some time in the lovely garden at the foot of the tower. Then, we walked back to our hotel—again along the River Seine—to get ready for dinner. 

Evening

Having Italian food in France wasn’t top of my agenda, but since I am half-Italian, I’m always partial to a good pizza. For dinner on our second day in Paris, we went to Pink Mamma, a restaurant someone we know had recommended to us.

My honest opinion? It was the food highlight of our trip. 

Both of us had pizza, and both of them were amazing. We also shared a burrata starter, which was delicious, and tiramisú for dessert, which—because I can’t think of any alternative words—was also amazing. 

Pink Mamma is one of those places where you can watch the chefs cook your food, which I always enjoy. Like most good restaurants in Paris, you should book a table in advance, as we did. We went to the establishment in Pigalle, but you’ll find a number of restaurants in Paris.

By this point, I was starting to feel like I had been walking all day. So, we then went back to the hotel—by which point I could feel like I’d clocked over 35,000 steps. 

Day 3: Arc de Triomphe, a River Seine Cruise, and the Latin Quarter

I woke up still feeling cooked from walking all day on Friday, but after some breakfast, I was fine. Our third day in Paris featured more of the city’s main highlights; it was more chilled than day two, but still very enjoyable.

Morning

After breakfast at our hotel, we visited the Monocle Café on Rue Bachaumont. I personally love coffee table books, and I could spend hours in bookstores just looking at these. While I didn’t get anything from the store, it was still nice to visit.

We then spent the rest of our morning walking around the 2. Arrondissement. Since today would be another long day, we deliberately took it easy. 

Afternoon

Around lunchtime, we took the Metro to the Arc de Triomphe. This had been one of the absolute must-visits for me before this trip, and adding it to our itinerary was a great decision. We went to the observation deck, where we were greeted with excellent views of Paris in all directions. 

In my opinion, the Arc de Triomphe is the best place to go for views of the Eiffel Tower. To be honest, I spent the bulk of my time here taking photos of The Iron Lady and admiring what I think is one of the greatest all-time engineering triumphs. 

The river cruise gave us a cool alternative perspective of Paris, and despite my internet connection conveniently cutting off when needed, we got access to the tickets and made it onto the boat. As a useful FYI, you should definitely screenshot your tickets beforehand to avoid this mistake 🙂.

As for the cruise itself, we got to see many of Paris’s other cool sights and neighborhoods from the water. For example, we passed Notre Dame and Pont Alexandre III. The tour started back at the pier near the Eiffel Tower. 

Evening

The sun was soon to go down at this point, and we hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast, so we went to the Latin Quarter. We had an early dinner at Le Cèdre, a fantastic Lebanese restaurant. We shared quite a lot of food between us, and as someone who loves Middle Eastern cuisine, this very much won my approval. 

We then walked around the Latin Quarter and went to a bakery near the restaurant we had just visited. After that, we went to Notre Dame and checked out the Latin Quarter’s many random streets before walking back to our hotel. 

I was definitely feeling the non-stop action of this trip, and we had an early night. This, to be honest, was greatly appreciated. I was also glad to see that I grew up from my younger way of traveling, which would’ve involved trying to find a bar instead of getting some sleep. 🙂

Day 4: Montmartre, More of Central Paris, and Flying Home

Besides being quite tired, our early night was largely because we wanted to get up early and make the most of our last day in Paris. We were both flying home mid-afternoon, so we effectively had the morning to still explore the city. 

Morning

We set our alarm to wake up in enough time to get ready and visit Montmartre in time for sunrise. More specifically, we wanted to get to the viewpoint at Sacre-Cœur. We succeeded in that respect, but the cloud cover hindered us from seeing any kind of spectacular sunrise. Nonetheless, the views were still worth it. 

Montmartre was another part of Paris I had really wanted to explore, and we spent the majority of our morning doing just that. We went to the various streets around Sacre-Cœur and also got to see some artists setting up shop for the day. It was really nice to walk around without the massive crowds, as this is often one of the most crowded places in Paris. 

For some food, we went to the boulangerie Boris Lumé on Rue Caulaincourt. The pan Suisse was the best I’ve ever had, no exceptions. We also got some sandwiches, which were equally delicious. The scent of freshly-baked goods is enough to pull anyone in. If you want sweets, you can go to the café / pâtisserie on Rue Lepic instead.

We then spent some time exploring the lower part of Montmartre, which has a nice community feel and was pretty lively. Then, we went back to our hotel to check out and return the keys.

Afternoon

I flew out of Orly, which is very easy to reach on the Metro. So, before heading there for my flight, I went to see a bit more of Paris. For the most part, I spent my early afternoon in the beautiful Jardin Tuileries; we had been here a few days earlier on a walk back to our hotel, but it was at night. 

In a full-circle moment, I found myself back at the Louvre. This was largely because I had to use the Metro station here. It was much busier than before, and after taking a few photos, I headed to the airport. 

The train to Orly was very peaceful, clean, and efficient. I had some time before my flight back to Copenhagen, which was handy because I got completely lost at Orly 🫠. Still, I made my plane with more than enough time to spare and got a nice view over Paris on the way home. 

Is There Anything I Wish I Had Done Differently on My Paris Trip?

For the most part, I got to see everything I wanted to. I had a great time, too, so I don’t know if there’s a huge amount I would have done differently. The main mistake I made was not being honest about how many museums I could visit in one day. 

As I mentioned in my Paris tips for first-time visitors guide, some of the museums are the size of towns in and of themselves. Now that I know, I would be more honest and not try to cram my itinerary. Besides the size of the Musée D’Orsay, it’s also a lot to take in so much information. 

If you have the luxury to, I’d definitely recommend adding another day or two (or honestly, another week). Four days is good if you want to see the main highlights in Paris, but you definitely won’t see *everything*. For example, I would have loved to see the Palace of Versailles.

How you structure this depends on whether you’re likely to visit Paris again. I have the privilege of living in Europe and being just two hours away by plane, so I could just go for a weekend trip whenever. But if you’re on a once-in-a-lifetime trip, I would strongly recommend staying at least a week. If you can’t, no worries; you can still see a lot in four days, but you’ll have to prioritize.

Final Thoughts

I wrote this Paris itinerary to give you a realistic idea of what to expect and how you can spend your days. On top of that, I wanted to show you both the highlights and what can go wrong. I had a lot of fun writing this (as well as visiting Paris in general), and I really hope you found it helpful. 

Whether you follow my itinerary as is or take the parts that mean the most to you, I’m sure that you’ll have a great trip. The City of Light really is as great as it’s made out to be, and there truly is no place like it on this planet. 

Now that you’ve read my complete Paris itinerary, you should have a better idea of how you can structure your own trip here. If you have any questions, you’re more than welcome to leave a comment; I’ll do what I can to help. 

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