Euro 2016 host cities: guide to Paris

As Uefa Euro 2016 kicks off this week, The Independent has compiled concise guides to each of the host cities

The Seine slices through Paris (Shutterstock)

Get your bearings

The core of the capital is where the Seine broadens around the two city-centre islands: the Ile de la Cité, home to the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, and the Ile-St-Louis. Other key monuments and intersections include the Opéra Garnier, the Place de la Concorde, the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower.

The main tourist office is at 25 Rue des Pyramides (parisinfo.com); open 9:00 to 19:00 daily.

While Paris is a great city for walking, its size means the Métro is a valuable asset. Single tickets for journeys within the Paris boundaries cost €1.80. Or buy a carnet of 10 for €14.10 (ratp.info). The Métro runs mainly beneath the streets, but has some above-ground stretches.

Touch down

Reach Paris by train via Eurostar (eurostar.com). The lowest fare is £58 return from London St Pancras, Ebbsfleet and Ashford to Gare du Nord, which is well-connected to the Métro and RER suburban rail network.

Alternately, flights from most UK airports arrive at Charles de Gaulle airport, 26km to the north. Line B of the RER takes 30-40 minutes to Gare du Nord, Châtelet for the Rive Droite (north of the river) or St-Michel for the Rive Gauche to the south (fare €10).

Some flights arrive at Orly, 15km to the south. Take the Orlyval train to Antony station (€9.30), and change to the Métro or RER.

Take a hike

Start at the tourist office. Walk north to admire the spectacular façade of the Opéra Garnier, rich with sculptures of the muses and composers. Retrace your steps down Avenue de l’Opera. At Starbucks, bear left along Rue des Petit Champs, which divides the 1st and 2nd arrondissements. A more Parisian place for a coffee is Belle Epoque at No 36. Turn right and immediately left along Rue Villedo, with Japanese shops and galleries, then right along Rue de Richelieu, passing the monument of Molière.

Turn left at the Comedie Francais and cut through a gallery that leads across the Cour d’Honneur of the Palais Royal, through an artwork called Les Deux Plateaux by Daniel Buren, resembling giant sticks of rock poking up through the ground.

You will reach the lovely 1823 Galerie Véro-Dadot, where the architecture and decoration are even more enticing than the art, book and music boutiques. Bear left, when you emerge, to the Bourse de Commerce, formerly the grain market. You are now on the western edge of Chatelet-Les Halles, the old market that’s been artistically re-invigorated.

Lunch on the run

A few minutes’ walk south-east is the villagey heart of St-Honoré, with plenty of options for a quick, tasty lunch – try a galette at the Crêperie St-Honoré at 24 Rue du Pont Neuf, if you get that far.

Window shopping

Rue St-Honoré is flanked by upmarket fashion stores whose profit margins are as impressive as their premises. For more modest prices, the Place du Marché St-Honoré is a stylish glass structure ringed by stalls.

Or you could try an only-in-Paris store. Shakespeare and Company (shakespeareandcompany.com). The Left Bank bookshop at 37 Rue de la Bûcherie (10am to 11pm, daily), is a long-established expatriate hub with a new café. Also on the Left Bank, Boutique de l’Assemblée Nationale at 7 Rue Aristide Briand offers patriotic gifts. Tucked behind the Opera Garnier at 9 Rue Scribe, the new Fragonard Musée du Parfum has a fascinating collection and a gift shop.

An aperitif

You can barely walk 100 metres along a central Parisian street without seeing a bar boasting of its happy hour – typically €5 a pint. You’ll pay more at the Café de la Paix (cafedelapaix.fr) at 5 Place de l’Opéra, but this is the classic Paris brasserie, opened in 1862 by Empress Eugenie.

Dine with the locals

Le Poule au Pot (pouleaupot.co.uk) at 9 Rue Vauvilliers takes its name from the boiled chicken dish that Henri IV commanded his subjects to eat each Sunday. Today, this convivial restaurant, which was founded in 1935, serves the dish (€22) every night apart from Monday, when it is closed.

For a quieter, neighbourhood location, try Le Bistro, at 17 Rue Perignon, on the corner of Rue Bellart, close to Segur Métro station (00 33 1 45 66 84 03). Try steak tartare, entrecôte or confit de canard in cheerful surroundings decorated with faded rugby posters.

Cultural afternoon

If you want to escape from the football excitement, head over the river to the Pompidou Centre at 19 Rue Beaubourg (centrepompidou.fr; 11:00-22:00 daily except Tuesdays) to visit the fourth-floor collection of the Musée National d’Art Moderne. You can experience the angst of Francis Bacon’s portraits, the void of Mark Rothko’s canvases and the deliberate chaos of Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings.

From the roof, visitors can enjoy a panoramic view of the iconic Parisian skyline. An adult ticket for entry to all the exhibition spaces, the museum and the view costs €14, but on the first Sunday of every month access is free.

Meanwhile the 400-year-old mansion in the south-east corner of the Place des Vosges, at No 6, is the Maison de Victor Hugo (maisonsvictorhugo.paris.fr; Open Tuesdays to Sundays between 10:00 and 18:00; free) – where the writer lived in a second-floor apartment from 1832 to 1848. Besides writing Les Misérables here, he created some extravagant rooms. “I missed my vocation,” he once said. “I was born to be an interior decorator.” The Salon Chinois is the most striking, with an oriental fireplace inscribed “VH”. Climb the elegant staircase all the way to the fourth floor to see some intriguing posters and photographs.

Icing on the cake

Visit Caveau de la Huchette at 5 Rue de la Huchette (caveaudelahuchette.fr), the last remaining post-war cellar club and the inspiration for Liverpool’s Cavern Club. The accent is on American sounds and the dance floor is soon jerking and spinning with serious jivers. This is as close as you’ll get to the spirit of 1940s clubs such as Le Tabou that were once the heart of Existentialist Paris.

Additional research by Francesca Street