09:00–10:30
1Île de la Cité & Notre-Dame exterior Walk
Wander the island's medieval lanes; the cathedral's flying buttresses are best seen from Square Jean XXIII behind it.
Trips planned by Robin · Paris, France
Paris Art Itinerary: 3 Days for Art Lovers.
Three days of Paris for people who came for the art, sequenced around light and crowds: Monet's Water Lilies in the oval rooms he designed for them, on a timed afternoon ticket when the daylight does its work; the Louvre's Denon wing at opening before the Mona Lisa scrum forms; and the Marmottan's astonishing private Monet hoard, including Impression, Sunrise, saved for the calm of the last day. Between museums the plan walks you through the places painting actually happened, Montmartre's studios and a picnic of Poilâne sourdough in the Luxembourg Gardens.
Robin planned this trip forFirst visitArt-first daysTimed entries bookedBalanced paceEarly JuneChange these assumptions →
Planned by Robin
3 days · 14 stops
Every place is real, planned with the same verified data that Robin uses in the app. How these itineraries are made
3-day Paris itinerary at a glance
1Île de la Cité→Sainte-Chapelle→Orangerie Water Lilies→Tuileries→Le Comptoir
2Louvre at opening→Café Marly→Montmartre and its studios→Bouillon Racine
3Musée Rodin→Poilâne picnic in the Luxembourg→Marmottan Monet→La Palette
- Best for
- Art-first travelers who plan around opening hours, not landmarks
- Car needed
- No: metro and riverside walks
- Where to stay
- Saint-Germain keeps two of the three dinners and the gallery streets at your door
- Best months
- June for long light through the Orangerie's ceiling, winter for empty galleries
- Pace
- Balanced: one anchor collection per day, never two
- Robin recommends
- Book the Louvre's opening slot and the Orangerie's mid-afternoon one before you fly, those two timed tickets are the trip's skeleton and everything else flexes around them
Your 3-day route
All stops, numbered by day order · Map © OpenStreetMap contributors
Day 1 · Wednesday
Day 1: Medieval glass to Monet's ovals
Ease into the city with the Île de la Cité's quiet grandeur, then your timed Water Lilies moment at the Orangerie in the golden late-afternoon light before a classic bistro dinner.
Stops in walking order · Map © OpenStreetMap contributors
↓580 m · ~7 min walk
12:00–13:00
2Sainte-Chapelle Culture
The upper chapel's stained-glass walls are one of the rare pieces of medieval art still glowing in its original setting.
↓2.5 km · a short ride
14:00–15:30
3Musée de l'Orangerie. Water Lilies rooms Culture
Timed entry for the two oval rooms Monet designed specifically to hold these canvases in natural daylight; book ahead.
Jardin Tuileries, 75001 Paris · Google Maps · Website
↓470 m · ~6 min walk
15:45–17:00
4Jardin des Tuileries Nature
Stroll the gravel paths toward Place de la Concorde; the west end catches the best late-day light for photos of the wheel and obelisk.
↓2.0 km · ~25 min walk
18:00–19:30
5Le Comptoir du Relais Eat
Saint-Germain bistro classic known for its Sunday-to-Friday market menu of French comfort dishes.
Robin's tip. At the Orangerie, do the two Water Lilies rooms twice: once on arrival, then again after the downstairs Walter-Guillaume collection, the second visit, with emptier benches, is the one you will remember.
Day 2 · Thursday
Day 2: The Louvre early, Montmartre after
The Louvre's headline pieces in the cool morning hours, then Montmartre's steep streets and studios for the afternoon, book the Louvre slot early, it fills fast.
Stops in walking order · Map © OpenStreetMap contributors
09:00–12:00
1Musée du Louvre Culture
Go straight for the Denon wing at opening to beat the crowds to the Mona Lisa and the Winged Victory staircase.
Rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris · Google Maps · Website
↓220 m · ~3 min walk
12:15–13:00
2Café Marly Eat
Terrace overlooking the glass pyramid, a quick lunch that keeps you inside the Louvre's own courtyard.
↓3.7 km · a short ride
14:00–14:45
3Explore Montmartre Walk
Climb Rue Foyatier's steps to Sacré-Cœur, then duck into the Musée de Montmartre's garden for the studio where Renoir and Valadon once worked.
↓5.3 km · a short ride
18:00–19:30
4Bouillon Racine Eat
Art Nouveau dining room from 1906 serving traditional bouillon-style French cooking at gentle prices.
Choose your day-2 afternoon
If you want painting's actual placeskeep Montmartre: the Musée de Montmartre's garden studio and the climb to Sacré-Coeur trade masterpieces for the streets Renoir and Utrillo worked in, accept the cross-town ride as the price
If you would rather stay with the picturesask Robin to swap Montmartre for the Musée d'Orsay, the great 19th-century collection continues the morning's thread and keeps the whole day on one riverside axis
If you are flagging after the Louvrestay put: the Louvre's quieter wings, Richelieu's Dutch rooms and the Cour Marly sculptures, reward the afternoon better than a second neighborhood, then walk the arcades to an early dinner
Ask Robin to personalize this day →
Day 3 · Friday
Day 3: Rodin's roses, a garden picnic, and the first Impression
A gentler farewell day: Rodin's sculpture garden, a Poilâne picnic in the Luxembourg Gardens, and Monet's private late-life canvases at Marmottan before one last Left Bank dinner.
Stops in walking order · Map © OpenStreetMap contributors
09:30–11:30
1Musée Rodin Culture
The sculpture garden's rose beds frame The Thinker and The Gates of Hell, arrive early for near-empty paths.
77 Rue de Varenne, 75007 Paris · Google Maps · Website
↓1.3 km · ~16 min walk
12:00–13:15
2Poilâne Eat
Pick up the famous sourdough miche and pastries here, you'll eat them on the lawns of the Luxembourg Gardens.
8 Rue du Cherche-Midi, 75006 Paris · Google Maps
↓1.2 km · ~15 min walk
13:30–14:45
3Picnic in the Jardin du Luxembourg Nature
Settle near the octagonal basin where locals sail toy boats, the shadiest benches sit along the western terrace.
↓6.3 km · a short ride
15:00–17:00
4Musée Marmottan Monet Culture
Holds the largest Monet collection anywhere, including Impression, Sunrise, the painting that named the movement, quieter than the Orsay crowds.
2 Rue Louis Boilly, 75016 Paris · Google Maps · Website
↓6.1 km · a short ride
18:00–19:30
5La Palette Eat
Painter-frequented Left Bank wine bar-bistro near the old art academies, a fitting last dinner for an art-filled trip.
Bucket-list foods in Paris
A bouillon dinner
Traditional French cooking at gentle prices in a listed 1906 Art Nouveau room, the painters' price-bracket, preserved.
On this trip: Bouillon Racine, day 2 dinner
Poilâne sourdough, eaten in a garden
The famous miche and a punition biscuit or two, carried to a bench like a proper Left Bank lunch.
On this trip: Poilâne then the Jardin du Luxembourg, day 3
Lunch in the Louvre's courtyard
A terrace facing the glass pyramid, timed so you never surrender your museum momentum.
On this trip: Café Marly, day 2
Chocolat chaud, old style
The thick, pot-poured hot chocolate of the classic salons is the museum-goer's traditional restorative. No slot on this plan, ask Robin to add one near day 1's Tuileries walk and it will.
Where to stay for this itinerary
Stay in Saint-Germain-des-Prés if…
- you want gallery streets, art bookshops and two of this plan's dinners at your door
- cafe mornings are part of your museum ritual
Stay in The 1st, by the Tuileries if…
- you want the Louvre and Orangerie within a ten-minute walk
- you plan to use early timed entries hard
Stay in Montmartre if…
- the studio-village romance is why you came
- you do not mind the metro ride to the riverside museums
Before you go
Do you need a car?
No. Every museum here sits near a metro stop, and the walks between them, the Tuileries, the Seine quays, are half the pleasure.
What must be booked ahead?
The Louvre and the Orangerie both run on timed entries that sell out days ahead in season, book both before you travel. The Rodin and Marmottan usually sell at the door on weekdays, but a timed slot costs nothing extra.
Which museums close which days?
The Louvre closes Tuesdays, the Orsay and Marmottan close Mondays, and the Orangerie closes Tuesdays. This plan's order respects those, but if you shuffle days, check each museum's calendar before you move anything.
Where is the Musée d'Orsay in all this?
Deliberately optional: with the Orangerie and the Marmottan, you already get Impressionism's bookends without the Orsay's crowds. If it is a must for you, the day-2 choice above slots it in cleanly.
Is this a first-visit itinerary?
It shares an island morning with one, then diverges into the collections. The Eiffel Tower and the grand boulevards live on the first-visit plan, pair the two across five days if you want both Parises.
4-5 days
Have 4-5 days?
First, give day 2 the Orsay
With four days you stop choosing: Louvre morning, Orsay afternoon on its own day, and Montmartre's studios get a relaxed half-day instead of a squeezed one.
Day 4: the modern side
The Pompidou's collection and the Marais galleries around it, then the Picasso Museum, twentieth-century Paris in one walkable arc.
Day 5: Giverny
The day trip this trip is secretly pointing at: Monet's gardens and the lily pond itself, best midweek, and Robin can time the trains around a final Paris dinner.
Make this itinerary yours
This trip was built for a typical first visit. You aren't typical. Find your loves, your budget, and your perfect Paris adventure by building on this trip with Hey Robin.
Finish this itinerary FREE at Hey Robin →