Île de la Cité
The 22.5-hectare island where Paris began — and where every road distance in France is still measured from.
Coming soon on iOS — be first to walk Paris offline.
Clovis I set his palace here in 508, and for centuries the island held the royal courts, Notre-Dame, and Sainte-Chapelle. In a few hundred steps you cross from Louis IX's stained glass to the cell where Marie-Antoinette waited 76 days for the guillotine.
What to look for
- The Point Zéro plaque on the parvis before Notre-Dame — where all distances to French cities are measured from.
- The equestrian statue of Henry IV on the Pont Neuf: the 1817 replacement for the original destroyed in 1792.
- Sainte-Chapelle's upper chapel — over 1,300 stained-glass panels Louis IX built (1241–1248) to house the Crown of Thorns.
Eight bridges reach the island; Notre-Dame reopened December 7, 2024 after the 2019 fire, and the Pont Neuf (finished 1606–07) leads to the Square du Vert-Galant on the western tip.
Île de la Cité is one of 33 sights worth the detour in Paris, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Paris pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Paris
- Eiffel TowerThe 300-metre iron tower Parisian artists petitioned against before it was even finished.
- Louvre MuseumThe world's most-visited museum lives inside a 12th-century fortress that became a royal palace.
- Notre-Dame de ParisThe spire fell on live TV in April 2019; since December 2024 you can walk back inside.
- Musée d'OrsayVan Gogh and Monet hung inside a Beaux-Arts station built for the Paris–Orléans railway.
- Champs-ÉlyséesA single 1.9-km straight line runs from the Concorde obelisk to the Arc de Triomphe — Paris's ceremonial spine on the Axe historique.
- Place de la BastilleThe prison that lit a revolution is gone — and the mob that stormed it on 14 July 1789 came for gunpowder, not the seven forgotten men inside.