France · Old Town
Paris
A self-guided walking tour of the Paris Old Town, every street in two days.
Every street on the menu.
Every street in the Old Town of Paris is a line of dots you collect by walking it. I have been lying in one of them for six hundred years and I am still not finished.
At a glance
Plan your walk.
- Distance
- 35.2 km
- Time
- about 10 hours
- Streets
- 143
- Steps
- 3 streets with steps
- Start point
- Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris
- Phone needed while walking
- no
- Works offline
- yes
- Expires
- never
The Old Town
Every street, drawn.
Every lane inside that line is a course. The circles are fruit.
Landmarks
What I would eat first.
Landmarks are fruit. The bigger the sight, the bigger the bonus.
Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris 1,500 points
The big one at the east end of the island, and the reason half the bridges are busy. Most people look at the doors. Look higher. A row of figures climbs the roof, and one of them has his mind on something else. I am not telling you what.
Centre Georges Pompidou 500 points
The one that kept its insides on show: tubes and ducts run up the walls instead of hiding in them. Most buildings are a pie. This one is the filling, turned the wrong way out. Walk all the way round it.
Hôtel de ville 500 points
The town hall, and the grandest building I have ever seen used for paperwork. Look at the figures along its walls. There are a great many of them, and they all share one thing. The square it faces gave a language a word, too. I am not telling you which.
Place des Vosges 500 points
Red-brick houses, all to one plan, closing a square around a garden. The most regular square I have met: a waffle, basically. Walk the covered gallery all the way round. Somewhere along it, a message has been waiting a very long time. I am not telling you where.
Tour Saint-Jacques 500 points
A tall Gothic tower standing on its own in a small garden. Towers do not usually come without a church. This one lost the main course and kept the dessert. How it managed that is a tale of its own.
Église Saint-Louis-en-l'Île 250 points
The church of the smaller island, tucked so neatly into its main street that people walk right past. The steeple gives it away: lacy as a biscuit, and built that way for a reason.
Église Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis 250 points
A big domed church on the rue Saint-Antoine. Stop just inside the door. A famous neighbour from round the corner left something there, and it is the strangest gift I have seen at a church door. I am not telling you what.
Enceinte de Philippe-Auguste 250 points
The older of the two old city walls in this level, still standing tall on a quiet side street. A wall this old ought to be rubble by now. How it lasted is the best part, and its surface is worth a close look too. Old crust. My kind of crust.
Hôtel de Sully 250 points
A grand town house on the rue Saint-Antoine. Go in through the courtyard and keep going. A house you can walk through, like a sandwich with two open ends. Where you come out is the surprise.
Maison de Victor Hugo 250 points
Victor Hugo's home, on a corner of the square. Climb the stairs and see how the man lived. One piece of his furniture gives away how he worked. Look for it.
Mémorial de la Shoah 250 points
Here Paris remembers the Shoah. A quiet building on a quiet street, and on this one I keep my appetite to myself. Take your time with the walls outside. They are worth it.
Eating
Actual food.
Paris has no one dish. It has a counter: ham and butter in a baguette, a cheese made from Seine-et-Marne, to the north-east, out to the Meuse, falafel on the old Jewish street of the Marais. Most of it you eat on your feet. That suits me. I have not sat down in centuries.
With meat
One dish here, not three. Nothing else I checked had three separate writers behind it, and I list only what someone on record backs.
Jambon-beurre
Half a baguette, split, buttered, with ham inside. Paris also just calls it a parisien. Bread, butter, ham. Nothing left to argue about.
Sources: Wikipedia (French), Jambon-beurre, Paris by Mouth, Edible Marais guide, David Lebovitz, The Sandwich at Le Petit Vendôme in Paris
Vegetarian
One cheese, from the state register, and that is the band. No meat-free Paris dish had three separate writers behind it this time.
Brie de Meaux
A big soft cheese, 36 to 37 cm across, made only from raw cow's milk and ripened for at least four weeks. It is made from Seine-et-Marne, north-east of Paris, all the way to the Meuse. Four weeks. For me, that is fresh.
It is raw milk, every wheel. If you avoid raw milk cheese, skip this one.
Sources: INAO (Institut national de l'origine et de la qualité), AOP register entry Brie de Meaux
Vegan
One dish. The falafel had three separate writers behind it. Nothing else fully plant-based in the Old Town did, and I do not pad a list.
Falafel in pita
Fried falafel and soft aubergine, stuffed into a pita. On the rue des Rosiers, the pedestrian street through the Jewish quarter of the Marais, people queue for it. Bread that comes with its own pocket. Handy, when you have no hands.
Sources: Dorie Greenspan, Falafel: Worth the Wait, Even for Parisians, Paris by Mouth, L'As du Fallafel review, France Revisited (Gary Lee Kraut), In Search of a Jewish Quarter: Rue des Rosiers
Dinner
Bistrot des Tournelles where locals go
A retro bistro between the Place des Vosges and the Bastille, dressed to look a hundred years old. It is not. The cooking is simply good, and the cooking is the part I eat.
- Mon19:00–23:00
- Tue19:00–23:00
- Wed19:00–23:00
- Thu19:00–23:00
- Fri19:00–23:00
- Sat19:00–23:00
- Sun19:00–23:00
Sources: Le Fooding, restaurant guide entry Bistrot des Tournelles, Time Out Paris, anonymous paid review Bistrot des Tournelles
Checked 24 September 2026.
Name origin
Why it is called Paris.
Paris is named after the Parisii, a Gaulish people. Around the 4th century the Latin form, Parisiis, pushed out the older name, Lutetia. What Parisii itself meant, nobody has ever pinned down. A recipe with the label torn off. I eat it anyway.
Sources: Wikipédia (French) — Histoire de Paris, https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histoire_de_Paris (accessed 2026-09-24), Wikipedia (Deutsch) — Geschichte von Paris, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geschichte_von_Paris (accessed 2026-09-24)
Why here
Somebody stood here and decided.
On an island in the Seine, the one now called the Île de la Cité, where a road running north to south met the river running east to west. The islands made the river easier to cross, and sometimes harder to sail. Two islands in a river: dumplings in a broth. I noticed.
Sources: Ministère de la Culture — Archéologie de Paris, Les îles, https://archeologie.culture.gouv.fr/paris/fr/les-iles (accessed 2026-09-24), Wikipedia (Deutsch) — Geschichte von Paris, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geschichte_von_Paris (accessed 2026-09-24)
Why then
When the first stone went down.
53 BC is the first time anyone writes the name down: in his Gallic War, Caesar calls the Gaulish peoples to an assembly at Lutetia, in the country of the Parisii. The settlement on the island is older, from the middle of the 3rd century BC. Young, by my standards. Most things are.
Sources: Ministère de la Culture — Archéologie de Paris, La bataille de Lutèce, https://archeologie.culture.gouv.fr/paris/fr/la-bataille-de-lutece (accessed 2026-09-24), Wikipedia (Deutsch) — Geschichte von Paris, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geschichte_von_Paris (accessed 2026-09-24)
Who ruled
Everyone who thought they owned this.
I outlasted all of them. It is the one thing I am good at.
- 1180–1223
Philip Augustus, the seventh king of the Capetian line. He came to the throne at 14 and left the kingdom four times the size he found it. A growth spurt. I get those after a long street.
Sources: Wikipédia (French) — Philippe II Auguste, https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_II_Auguste (accessed 2026-09-24), Ville de Paris — Sur la piste de l'enceinte médiévale Philippe Auguste, rive droite, https://www.paris.fr/pages/sur-la-piste-de-l-enceinte-medievale-philippe-auguste-rive-droite-episode-1-2-20729 (accessed 2026-09-24)
- 1357–1789
Not a king: the merchants' provost ran the town. In 1357 the provost Étienne Marcel bought the Maison aux Piliers, and it became the seat of the city government. Provosts led it until the Revolution of 1789. Merchants in charge. At least somebody was counting the bread.
Sources: Ville de Paris — L'histoire de l'Hôtel de Ville en sept dates marquantes, https://www.paris.fr/pages/l-histoire-de-l-hotel-de-ville-en-sept-dates-marquantes-7667 (accessed 2026-09-24), Ville de Paris — Fluctuat nec mergitur : l'histoire de la devise de Paris, https://www.paris.fr/pages/fluctuat-nec-mergitur-l-histoire-de-la-devise-de-paris-15814 (accessed 2026-09-24)
- 1589–1610
Henri IV, king of France from 2 August 1589 to 1610. He had two new squares built in Paris: the one now called the Place des Vosges, and the Place Dauphine on the Île de la Cité. A king who ordered squares. I would have ordered pastries.
Sources: Wikipédia (French) — Henri IV (roi de France), https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_IV_(roi_de_France) (accessed 2026-09-24)
The emblem
What the shield means.
A ship. It was already on the seal of the Nautes, the water merchants, in 1210, and the city government grew out of their powerful guild. Traders on a river, a boat on the shield: it follows. I would have put a loaf on it.
Sources: Ville de Paris — Fluctuat nec mergitur : l'histoire de la devise de Paris, https://www.paris.fr/pages/fluctuat-nec-mergitur-l-histoire-de-la-devise-de-paris-15814 (accessed 2026-09-24)
Emblem: Original artwork for Cobble Gobble — no third-party source
Three facts
Three things I know about this place.
The first stone of the Hôtel de Ville was laid on 15 July 1533 by the merchants' provost Pierre Viole, with a plate carrying the date and the names of the town council's members. The Wars of Religion slowed the builders down; they finished in 1628. Ninety-five years for one house. I have had longer lunches.
Sources: Ville de Paris — L'histoire de l'Hôtel de Ville en sept dates marquantes, https://www.paris.fr/pages/l-histoire-de-l-hotel-de-ville-en-sept-dates-marquantes-7667 (accessed 2026-09-24)
Henri IV's first plan for the square that is now the Place des Vosges was a workshop for precious cloth and tapestries, to rival the great ones of Lyon, Milan and Tours. The cloth workshop shut its doors in 1607, and the nobles moved in instead. Cloth was never on my menu either.
Sources: BnF Passerelles — Une brève histoire de la place des Vosges, https://passerelles.essentiels.bnf.fr/fr/chronologie/construction/88edd96f-e82f-4873-bed8-423e6dd07825-place-vosges/article/92987b33-bdbf-4af9-b1c9-7f5da10e7b9f-une-breve-histoire-la-place-vosges?type=construction (accessed 2026-09-24)
The city's motto, Fluctuat nec mergitur, became official on 24 November 1853, by a decision of Baron Haussmann, then prefect of the Seine. It recalls the floods the capital has had to face again and again. High water does not bother me. I just wait at the bottom.
Sources: Ville de Paris — Fluctuat nec mergitur : l'histoire de la devise de Paris, https://www.paris.fr/pages/fluctuat-nec-mergitur-l-histoire-de-la-devise-de-paris-15814 (accessed 2026-09-24)
Street words
What the names on the signs mean.
- rue
- A street. Paris has more of them than I have teeth, and I am counting.
- quai
- The street along the river. Flat, long, stone-edged. A breadstick with a view.
- pont
- A bridge. With two islands in the level, these carry you from course to course.
- impasse
- A dead end. The cul-de-sac under a nicer name. I eat it all the same, and then I have to turn round.
- hôtel
- On a name plate, a grand town house, like the Hôtel de Ville, the town hall. Nobody checks in.
The size of it
Walk it in a day: Paris in numbers.
Counted from the streets in the level itself, not from a guidebook.
- 143streets
- 1,768dots
- 29.0km of street
- 35.2km on foot
- 10.1hours at a stroll
Nearby
Old Towns close to this one.
The game
Your first city is free.
Cobble Gobble is a walking game for iPhone. Claim any city as your free one. Every other city is a one-time purchase you keep for good, Family Sharing included, and a city you own plays fully offline.