Free self-guided itinerary. This is a travel guide, not a bookable guided tour.
Walk from east to west with the Seine on your right and getting lost is essentially impossible. That is the only rule this route has. It covers about 6 km, which is two hours if you walk without stopping — and it was not written to be walked without stopping.
Each section ends within a few minutes of a metro station. If you have had enough, stop there. Nothing is wasted, because each section stands on its own.
Start: the eastern tip of Île Saint-Louis, reached from Pont de Sully.
Île Saint-Louis is the quieter island and a good place to begin because it is residential rather than monumental — one main street, a handful of side lanes, and almost no through traffic. Cross the small footbridge at its western end onto Île de la Cité, which is where the city started.
Walk the north side of the Cité for the river view, then come round the eastern end of the cathedral. The exterior and the flying buttresses are visible from the garden behind it, which is also the best place to sit.
Exit: Cité or Saint-Michel.
Leave the island by Pont Neuf — despite the name, the oldest standing bridge in Paris. The small triangular garden at the island’s western tip, below the bridge, is one of the few places in central Paris where you sit at water level.
On the right bank, continue west along the river frontage of the Louvre. You are walking the length of a palace that took six centuries to reach its current size; the joins between periods are visible from outside if you look at the roofline.
Exit: Pont Neuf or Louvre–Rivoli.
Continue along the riverside edge of the Tuileries. The garden runs parallel to the river and is more pleasant than the quay itself — gravel, trees, and chairs you are allowed to move.
The garden ends at Place de la Concorde, which is best crossed at the edges rather than the middle; it is a very large traffic circle and the obelisk is not worth risking a car for.
Exit: Concorde.
Cross the river on Pont Alexandre III, the most decorated bridge in the city and the one worth crossing slowly. Look back east from the middle for the classic view of the river bending away.
On the left bank, walk west along the quay past the Grand and Petit Palais on the opposite side. The esplanade in front of Les Invalides opens off to your left if you want the detour.
Exit: Invalides.
The last section is the most open. Continue west along the left bank; the tower comes into view long before you reach it, and the approach along the river is a better first sight of it than arriving underneath.
Finish either at the foot of the tower or by crossing to Trocadéro, which is the standard viewpoint and is genuinely worth the extra ten minutes at the end of the day.
Exit: Bir-Hakeim, École Militaire or Trocadéro.
Early morning or close to sunset. In the middle of the day the riverside is both crowded and completely without shade, and the light flattens everything.
Water and shoes you have already broken in. There are drinking fountains along the way but they are easy to miss if you do not know to look. Nothing else about this walk requires preparation — that is rather the point of it.
English