Travel Tips

Paris isn´t only beautiful at daytime. Maybe it´s even better at night, when the millions of lights enlighten Paris. It´s truely the city of lights you´ll see when you visit Paris in the dark. Of course the Ile de la Cite, together with the beautiful banks of the Seine is one of the greatest places to visit. By foot or by boat!

One of the most romantic squares in Paris is the Place des Vosges. It´s a beautiful square that used to be the inner square of a palace. The garden in the centre closes at night, but right before it closes, during sunset it´s the nicest it gets. The whole of the square has a pink-orange colour which is breath taking.

One of the most beautiful, free, views over Paris, is the view you get in front of the Sacre Coeur, at the hill of Montmartre. From here you can see all over the city, looking at the typical Paris roof: steep, black and lots of windows. Late at night, when the sun sets, the different colours disappear, and it gets one big soft-toned patchwork of houses.

The Place des Pyramides is the inner square of the Musée du Louvre. At daytime it´s a wonderful place, but at night it´s gorgeous. Everything is enlightened: the Arc de Triomphe du Caroussel, the Palais du Louvre itself, the Pyramides, and you have a good view of the Eiffel Tower and the Champs Elysées from far. This is the most beautiful place to hang out, and it´s quiet too.

One of the most famous boulevards in the world is also famous because of its beauty in the dark. From the Place de la Concorde you can see it the best. Two lines of cars, one with red lights and one with white. The lampposts at the sides of the street and the enlightened Arc de Triomphe at the end of all this. During Christmas it´s even more beautiful when all the trees contain millions of lights. What makes the Champs Elysées very special is the fact that it´s forbidden for the shops to have other lights then only white. So no yellow and red "M" of McDonald´s here.

Of course THE symbol of Paris is the Eiffel Tower. This famous monument is not only impressive at daytime, it can be a very romantic place to be at night. Thousends of lights make the tower "glow". Throughout the years many changes have been made to the lightning. In 2001 the tower could be turned into a red one after adding hundreds of red lights and in 2004 hundreds of flashlights were added. These flashlights start once in about 30 minutes and are visible from all over the city.

One of the most beautiful streets in Paris when it´s dark, definitely is the Rue de Rivoli. This street connects the Place de la Concorde with the Palais Royal, along the northside of the Louvre. It has some beautiful views of the Place de la Concorde and the Palais Royal, and it has a nice streetscene with the shopping gallery at the northside of the street. Classic lamps produce a nice golden shine. And the southside, in the Jardins de Tuileries, the Ferris Wheel called Grande Roue is also nicely enlightened.

Quartier Latin, the students quarter of Paris, has a colourful nightlife. It has plenty of little restaurants and bars where you can spend your night. But also outside on the street there are always a lot of things to see and too. It's a real sea of sounds, smells, and lights: a nice place to see the city in the dark.