5 Days in Paris — September 2026
My Paris trip from 9/8/2026 - 9/12/2026
Paris was the next stop after Milan — we took the 8-hour train up rather than flying, and spent the days after working through as much of the city as we could fit in.
Louvre
The world's largest art museum, and impossible to see in a single visit. I.M. Pei's glass pyramid went up in 1989 as the new main entrance — finally got to see it in person.
The shade inside is amazing.
The famous painting, the Mona Lisa — very crowded, hard to get to the front row.
The huge painting facing the Mona Lisa is The Wedding at Cana by Veronese — the largest painting in the Louvre. It's like everyone in the room is part of the painting too.
Bourse de Commerce — Pinault Collection
Paris's former commodities exchange, a circular 19th-century building topped with a glass dome and a 360° painted mural of global trade around the rotunda. Tadao Ando renovated the inside in 2021, dropping a raw concrete cylinder into the middle of it to house François Pinault's contemporary art collection — old and new stacked directly on top of each other.
There was an exhibition inside the concrete cylinder — a fog sculpture by Fujiko Nakaya called Cloud. People appear and disappear in the white fog of water vapor.
There's also a fake mouse poking out of a hole in the wall right next to the gift shop — I first thought someone nearby was talking, then realized the voice was coming from it.
The Centre Pompidou
Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers turned the building inside out in 1977 — structure, escalators, and color-coded ductwork all run along the exterior, leaving the interior open for the art. We didn't get in since it was temporarily closed.
Espace Niemeyer
Headquarters of the French Communist Party, designed by Oscar Niemeyer and completed in 1980 — best known for the low white dome housing the assembly hall, sitting like a spaceship in the middle of Place du Colonel Fabien.
Grand Palais
Built for the 1900 Exposition Universelle, with a massive glass-and-steel nave under the largest glass roof in Europe at the time. It went through a multi-year renovation ahead of the 2024 Olympics — the ironwork and skylight look brand new.
There was no exhibition when we visited — we could only see it behind the glass.
During Paris Design Week, a huge plastic flower installation sat right below the glass dome, with another one elsewhere in the building.
The locker space and bookstore are cool too.
Eiffel Tower
Gustave Eiffel built it for the 1889 World's Fair — meant to be temporary, and still standing over 130 years later.
We sat by the river waiting for the tower to shine — every hour, for the first five minutes after sundown, it sparkles.
| Pont de Bir-Hakeim
A two-level bridge over the Seine just south of the tower, with a colonnade running down the middle of the upper deck — probably familiar if you've seen Inception.
Arc de Triomphe
Commissioned by Napoleon in 1806 to honor the French army, standing at the center of Place Charles de Gaulle with twelve avenues radiating out from it.
Parc Monceau
An elegant English-style park in the 8th arrondissement, opened to the public in 1861. Lots of kids were playing soccer when we visited.
Île de la Cité
The island in the Seine where Paris began — Notre-Dame and Sainte-Chapelle are both here, along with some of the oldest streets in the city.
Notre-Dame reopened in December 2024 after the 2019 fire and five years of restoration — the facade looks pristine now, and it's packed.
Domaine National du Palais-Royal
The garden and arcades next to the Palais-Royal, striped black-and-white columns scattered across the main courtyard.
CDG Airport
My girlfriend flew out of CDG's Terminal 1 — the circular, raw-concrete Paul Andreu building from the 1970s, one of the more striking pieces of airport architecture out there.
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Paris Design Week
We happened to be in town for Paris Design Week — walked through one of the exhibitions showing experimental furniture from independent designers.
Really liked this one — a speaker made from a paper-like material.
Shop
| Dover Street Market
Rei Kawakubo's multi-label concept store, spread across several floors and mixing high fashion with more experimental labels.
| Le Bon Marché
Paris's oldest department store, founded in 1852. There was a "Super Japon" exhibition happening when we visited.
Sacai built a pop-up café for the event, with some exclusive items for sale too — but it was closed when we visited.
| Printemps
A historic department store near the Opéra, known for the stained-glass cupola over the main hall.
There's a terrace with a great view above Paris — you can see the whole city, the Eiffel Tower, and the Opéra from up there.
| Merci
A store with a few locations around Paris — they carry men's and women's clothing, plus goods for the kitchen and stationery.
I was looking for this Veark magnetic wall rack during my Copenhagen trip but couldn't find one — couldn't believe they had it in Paris. Didn't get one though, since I have no space for my backpack.
| Centre Commercial
A sustainable-fashion concept store near Canal Saint-Martin, playing on the name — centre commercial means "shopping mall" in French.
| Centre Commercial Outdoor
Their sibling shop nearby, focused on outdoor and hiking gear.
| Lemaire
Christophe Lemaire and Sarah-Linh Tran's label, known for quiet, tailored menswear and womenswear.
| The Broken Arm
A concept store and café, with a small bookstore next door.
| Yvon Lambert
An art bookstore and gallery in the Marais.
| Stool
A small bookshop built into a plywood-shelved studio space, books on design and art stacked floor to ceiling with a coffee bar tucked in back.
| Papier Tigre
A French stationery shop in the Marais they have colorful notebooks and paper goods.
| Camperlab
Camper's experimental, more conceptual line — the sculptural shoe displays make the store feel more like a gallery.
| Satisfy
A running apparel brand built around trail and distance running gear.
Looks like a really comfy camping chair.
Right across the street there's a Satisfy Fuel Station.
A hydration and recovery bar across the street from the main store — espresso, electrolyte blends, and quinton shots served off a printed menu, with a running-nutrition pantry stocked alongside it.
These are the energy shots they make — feels like the vials a doctor would use, but pretty cool.
| Circle Sportswear
A running apparel shop — didn't have a chance to get in.
| Distance
A specialty running store.
| Yoyaku
A record shop specializing in house, disco, and Balearic vinyl. The store is hidden inside a building.
You have to press this button to get into the courtyard — we almost gave up before we found it.
More records are in the basement, and it looks like they sometimes host events there too.
| Paloma Wool
The Barcelona fashion and art brand's Paris shop.
| Second Vue
Wall-to-wall shelves of vintage and second-hand sunglasses and eyewear.
| At Dawn
A handpicked vintage and multi-label space, per the storefront.
| Brut
An archive and apparel store, with two locations — one in Paris, one in New York.
| A Steel-Frame Bicycle Shop
A small shop specializing in steel-frame bikes.
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Meals
| Au Pied de Cochon
A Les Halles institution since 1947, open around the clock and known for onion soup and pig's trotters.
| Caractère de Cochon
A baguette sandwich shop, with a lot of meats from different origins to choose from.
I forget what we ordered, but it was really good — the cheese and pickles keep the ham from getting too salty.
| Carette
A classic Parisian café and pâtisserie, the kind of place with marble tables and waiters in long aprons — long line to get in, and it's pricey ($$$$).
| Junk
A burger spot in the Marais with an open kitchen right up front. Pretty good — the crispy onions really make the burger.
| Kodawari Ramen
A ramen chain with a few locations around the city, known for tsukemen dipping noodles. The whole space channels Tsukiji Market (築地市場) in Tokyo — foam fish boxes, seafood samples on display, even the background noise.
| Okdongsik
A Korean restaurant opened by a chef who appeared on Culinary Class Wars Season 2. I'd tried the New York location once before.
| Onii-san Izakaya
A Japanese izakaya. Just walked by — looked cool, but we didn't get the chance to go in.
| Otto
A neo-Neapolitan pizzeria in the Marais with a wood-fired oven up front.
This is good!
| A Creperie
A buckwheat galette with ham, egg, sour cream, and cheese — a classic galette complète.
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Coffee
| Tanat
A specialty coffee roaster with its own café — "Café de spécialité, torréfié à Paris" on the window.
| Daark3
A specialty coffee counter with a La Marzocco machine and its own house blend.
| Krave
A tiny coffee counter tucked into a narrow storefront, pastries kept under glass domes.
| Sevenly Heart
A small café with a plaster heart set into the facade outside.
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Bakery & Dessert
| La Toque Cuivrée
A bakery counter at the train station, canelés de Bordeaux lined up by the dozen for €0.55 each.
P.S. — the canelés here are softer and chewier than the ones I make. Mine come out different, crunchier.
| La Panifacture
A modern bakery, the name playing on panification — the bread-making process. They have really good pastries, worth a visit if you're in Paris.
| Les Merveilles des Bourguignons
A pastry shop — this one shaped and glazed like a peanut shell.
| A Creperie
A quick sweet crepe from a stand we never caught the name of.
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Around the City
A few shots from wandering around.
I dropped all these spots into a list below — it also has a few places I didn't get a chance to check out this time, so take a look if you want to visit them yourself.
Paris is always a good idea! ◡̈
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