Paris' fire-damaged top church anchors the historic island called Ile de la Cité. From here, you can take a "Historic Paris Walk" through 80 generations of history: Celtic, Roman, medieval, Revolution, bohemian café scene, modern city. Survey the progress on rebuilding Notre-Dame, marvel at Paris' other great church (stained-glass masterpiece Sainte-Chapelle), browse the bouquinistes (book stalls), and make a foray into the Latin Quarter. For details, try my free Historic Paris Walk audio tour.

Europe's biggest, greatest museum is housed in a U-shaped, 16th-century palace (with a 20th-century glass pyramid out front). It's home to “Mona Lisa,” Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory, and hall after hall of Greek and Roman masterpieces, medieval jewels, Michelangelo statues, and paintings by the greatest artists from the Renaissance to the Romantics. To save time, reserve an entry time online. To cover it all in one visit is impossible; hit the highlights with my free Louvre audio tour.

The Orsay, housed in an elegantly repurposed train station, picks up where the Louvre leaves off (19th-20th centuries). Conservative salon art and Neoclassicism give way to Manet, Monet, Degas, and Renoir and their colorful, lively invention — Impressionism. Then see their artistic descendants, the Post-Impressionists: Cézanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Renoir, Seurat, and Toulouse-Lautrec, plus Rodin sculptures and Art Nouveau. Reserve ahead online, and hit the highlights on my free Orsay audio tour.

It's crowded, it's expensive, and there are probably better views in Paris. But visiting this iconic, 1,000-foot-tall, Industrial Age ornament rarely disappoints, even in an era of skyscrapers. Book well in advance to make the eye-popping ascent and ear-popping descent, and you'll join the quarter of a billion people who've made the Eiffel Tower the most visited monument in the modern world. The top is memorable, but the lower two levels offer more recognizable views of the big monuments.

This famed boulevard is Paris' backbone. From the Arc de Triomphe and its swirling traffic circle, pedestrians and cars flow down Avenue des Champs-Elysées, where all of France seems to converge on Place de la Concorde. Even if it has become as international as it is French, a walk here is a must — to see high-end shops, manicured walkways, and lots of Parisians and tourists. Take the Métro to Charles de Gaulle-Etoile, then saunter down the boulevard. My Paris guidebook has a self-guided tour.

This art museum is as lovely as a water lily. Located in the Tuileries Garden and drenched by natural light from skylights, the Orangerie (oh-rahn-zhuh-ree) is the closest you'll come to stepping into an Impressionist painting. The main attraction, Monet's Water Lilies — gigantic canvases painted as the artist was slowly going blind — float dreamily in oval rooms. Downstairs is a manageable collection of works by Utrillo, Cézanne, Renoir, Matisse, Picasso, and other modern greats.

This user-friendly museum is filled with passionate works by Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), the greatest sculptor since Michelangelo. You'll see "The Kiss," "The Thinker," and more, displayed in the mansion where the sculptor lived and worked. Peruse exhibits that trace Rodin's artistic development and collaborations, explain the bronze casting process, and display studies for his unfinished masterpiece, "The Gates of Hell." Then stroll the beautiful gardens, packed with many of his greatest works.

A stroll down this market street introduces you to a thriving, traditional Parisian neighborhood, with vivid insights into the local culture. Although wealthy, Rue Cler retains the workaday charm still found in neighborhoods throughout the city. Rue Cler's shops are filled with the freshest produce, the stinkiest cheese, the tastiest chocolate, and the finest wines. Listen to my free Rue Cler Walk audio tour to heighten your appreciation of good cuisine — and the French knack for good living.

This lovely, leafy square — where Victor Hugo once lived — is at the heart of one of Paris' most intriguing quarters, the Marais. For a break from intense sightseeing, the Marais is a real, vital neighborhood, with trendy boutiques and art galleries, the excellent Picasso Museum, edgy cafés, narrow streets, Jewish heritage, aristocratic mansions, Bastille memories, lively nightlife, and real Parisians. My Paris guidebook includes a self-guided Marais Walk; for more, watch the video below.

This is the epicenter of Montmartre — Paris' highest hill, topped by Sacré-Cœur Basilica and known for its bohemian spirit. Struggling painters, poets, dreamers, and drunkards came here for cheap rent, untaxed booze, rustic landscapes, and the high-kicking cancan dancers at the Moulin Rouge. Today the hill is equal parts charm and kitsch — still vaguely village-like but mobbed with tourists (and pickpockets) on weekends. Come for a bit of history, an escape from noisy boulevards, and the view.

Every king's dream, Versailles (vehr-"sigh") — created by the Sun King, Louis XIV — was the residence of French monarchs and the cultural heartbeat of Europe until the Revolution of 1789. Today visitors ogle sumptuous halls (including the Hall of Mirrors) and wander through acres of manicured gardens sprinkled with fountains and studded with statues. Europe's next-best palaces are just Versailles wannabes. My free Versailles audio tour narrates the highlights of the palace and gardens.

Enclosed by a wall, lined with trees, and littered with evocative tombstones, Père Lachaise has become a kind of national cemetery — like a Westminster Abbey of honored dead. French people come here to remember their history, mourn national tragedies, and find inspiration from the past. The cemetery can be confusing; my free audio tour directs you to the graves of VIPs, including Frédéric Chopin, Molière, Edith Piaf, Oscar Wilde, Gertrude Stein, Héloïse and Abélard, and of course Jim Morrison.