The royal axis
Stand mid-alley: the Louvre behind you, the obelisk and Arc de Triomphe ahead in one straight line — a whole city's geometry in a single glance.
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Truthfully, it's the world's most beautiful "corridor": make it your route between the Louvre and Concorde or the Orangerie instead of the metro, and you'll have visited it properly at zero extra time.
The green chairs around the ponds are free for all, and the garden has café terraces under the trees at tourist prices — cheaper to buy from a bakery outside and sit like a Parisian.
The Tuileries is a grand open promenade on the main tourist axis; Luxembourg is a neighbourhood garden Parisians actually live in. With children and time for only one, choose Luxembourg.
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The Tuileries is the green line connecting the Louvre to Place de la Concorde, and the oldest public garden in Paris: laid out in 1664 by Versailles' own designer André Le Nôtre on the grounds of a royal palace the revolution later burned — the garden survived, the palace did not. Walking it means walking Europe's greatest visual axis: the Louvre pyramid behind you, the dead-straight central alley between statues and water basins, the Concorde obelisk ahead, and the Arc de Triomphe deep on the horizon. Along the way, green chairs ring two circular ponds, and strictly ordered French rows of trees open suddenly onto sculptures by Rodin, Maillol, even Giacometti. At the western end, two museums merit a stop: the Orangerie with Monet's immersive water lilies, and the Jeu de Paume for photography. In summer, a seasonal funfair adds a Ferris wheel with a gentle-altitude view of Paris.
Stand mid-alley: the Louvre behind you, the obelisk and Arc de Triomphe ahead in one straight line — a whole city's geometry in a single glance.
Eight vast Monet water-lily murals wrap around you in two oval rooms the painter designed for exactly this — immersive before the word existed.
Rodin, Maillol and Giacometti scattered among the trees — a free sculpture museum most people walk past without noticing.
From June to August the northern side fills with traditional rides and a Ferris wheel overlooking the whole royal axis.
Between the Louvre and Place de la Concorde, 75001 Paris