Tour Eiffel & Invalides
Monumental, ministerial and green: the tower, the Champ de Mars, Napoleon's gold dome, and the embassy-and-civil-service blocks of the 7th in between. Grand rather than lively, with a genuinely excellent and under-visited museum cluster and one classic market street.
Who it's for: First-time visitors — the tower is non-negotiable and the Rodin is one of the best museum hours in Paris. Families, thanks to the Champ de Mars. Anyone who likes a formal, spacious, low-rise part of the city.
Things to know
- Book Eiffel Tower tickets online, up to 60 days ahead, on the official site. Summit slots go first, and sunset slots go first of all. From 29 September 2026 even the stairs tickets require an advance reservation.
- The stairs to the second floor cost roughly a third of the summit lift and are the better experience — you see the ironwork up close and skip the worst queues. Then take the lift from level two if you want the summit.
- The Rodin and Invalides combined ticket (about €26 versus €14 and €17 separately) is the obvious buy if you are doing both, and they are five minutes' walk apart.
- The Rodin garden is seven acres and holds The Thinker, The Burghers of Calais and The Gates of Hell in the open air. On a fine day the garden is the visit and the house is the bonus.
- The best Eiffel Tower photograph is not from the Champ de Mars. Cross to the Trocadéro terrace on the Right Bank for the head-on view, or shoot from the Pont de Bir-Hakeim for the ironwork.
- Eat on rue Cler or rue Saint-Dominique, not on the Champ de Mars side — the streets immediately around the tower are the worst-value food in central Paris.
- The tower sparkles for five minutes on the hour after dark, until 1am in summer. It is worth planning a drink or a picnic on the Champ de Mars around one of those.