Almost everything worth seeing in the Marais costs nothing: a square, a courtyard, a covered market, a few streets that have kept their old houses. Here is what each one is and when you can get in. When you would rather have a guide choose the route, compare the Le Marais tours.
Start with the square. The Place des Vosges was built between 1605 and 1612 on the site of the Hôtel des Tournelles, and Henri IV commissioned it. It opened in April 1612 for a double royal engagement, that of Louis XIII to Anne of Austria. It was called the Place Royale then, and it is the oldest planned square in Paris.
You will count 36 pavilions of red brick and pale stone around it, over an arcade you can walk the whole way round. The statue in the middle is Louis XIII. Victor Hugo lived at number 6, and his apartment is now a free museum.
The best short cut in the quarter goes through a palace. The Hôtel de Sully stands at 62 rue Saint-Antoine, and its courtyard and garden are open to you every day, free. Walk through them and you come out in the south-west corner of the Place des Vosges.
The rooms inside are closed except on special guided visits, which cost €13, or €6 reduced. The courtyard shuts on 1 January, 1 May, 1 and 11 November and 25 December. Both full-meal walks take this route into the square.
The Marché des Enfants Rouges is the oldest covered food market in Paris. It was founded in 1615 and takes its name from the red uniforms of the orphans of a hospital that Marguerite de Navarre founded in 1536. You eat there at the counters, standing or at shared tables.
The Original Food Tours walk meets at 40 Rue de Bretagne, right beside it.
These are the streets the walks name in their itineraries, and each one is worth your walking on your own.
The long shopping street that runs west from the Place des Vosges. The Babylon walk crosses it, and a garden entrance opens off it at numbers 35–37.
The street with the medieval houses between Saint-Paul and the Hôtel de Ville. The tastings walk from Saint-Paul and the Eating Europe walk both come this way.
The food street of the northern Marais, with the covered market at number 39 and the Square du Temple at number 64.
A short street leading into the Place des Vosges. The Eating Europe walk takes it early in its route.
A hôtel particulier is a private townhouse, built around a courtyard behind a street gate. The Marais kept dozens of them, and five are now open to you. Three hold museums: the Carnavalet, the Musée Picasso and the mahJ. The fourth is the Hôtel de Sully, and the fifth is Victor Hugo's apartment on the square.
| Townhouse | Address | What is inside | Can you go in? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hôtel de Sully | 62 rue Saint-Antoine, 4th | The headquarters of the Centre des monuments nationaux | The courtyard and garden, free, 9:00–19:00; the rooms only on special guided visits |
| Hôtel Carnavalet | 23 rue Madame de Sévigné, 3rd | The Musée Carnavalet, the museum of the history of Paris | Yes, Tuesday to Sunday; permanent collections free |
| Musée Picasso's townhouse | 5 rue de Thorigny, 3rd | The Musée national Picasso-Paris | Yes, with a €16 ticket; closed Monday |
| Hôtel de Saint-Aignan | 71 rue du Temple, 3rd | The mahJ, the museum of Jewish art and history | Yes, with a €13 ticket; closed Monday |
| 6 Place des Vosges | On the square, 4th | The Maison de Victor Hugo, the writer's apartment | Yes, Tuesday to Sunday; permanent collections free |
The protected Marais covers 126 hectares, about 1.2% of Paris. In December 1964 it became the first protected historic district in France, under the Malraux law of 4 August 1962. That is why so little of it has been rebuilt.
Sunday is the Marais's busiest shopping day. The quarter is one of the city's international tourist zones, where shops may open on Sundays and late in the evening. The zone takes in the Haut-Marais and the Ile Saint-Louis. The Place de la République is outside it.
So come on a Sunday if you want the shops open, and on a weekday morning if you want the streets quiet. The museums keep their own days: most close on Monday, and the Mémorial de la Shoah closes on Saturday.
Every walk passes the Place des Vosges or ends there, but they differ after that. The full-meal walks cross the Hôtel de Sully garden, the Original Food Tours walk starts at the Enfants Rouges, and the Babylon walk passes the Carnavalet. The table reads each listing's own itinerary. Where a listing prints no itinerary, it is left out.
| Sight | Walks whose itinerary names it |
|---|---|
| Place des Vosges | The tastings walk from Saint-Paul, both full-meal walks, the Eating Europe walk, the Original Food Tours walk, the Babylon walk, the Intrepid walk, the Saint-Germain walk, the Blue Bike ride |
| Hôtel de Sully courtyard and garden | Both full-meal walks, the Babylon walk, the Eating Europe walk (from outside) |
| Rue des Rosiers | The tastings walk from Saint-Paul, both full-meal walks, the Original Food Tours walk, the Babylon walk, the Intrepid walk, the Blue Bike ride |
| Marché des Enfants Rouges | The Original Food Tours walk (it meets there), the small-tastings walk, the tastings walk from Saint-Paul (past it) |
| Rue François Miron | The tastings walk from Saint-Paul, the Eating Europe walk |
| Église Saint-Paul Saint-Louis | The tastings walk from Saint-Paul, the Original Food Tours walk, the Babylon walk |
| Musée Carnavalet, from outside | The Babylon walk |
| Musée Picasso, from outside | The small-tastings walk finishes there |
The food walks feed you on the way round; the history walks spend every minute on the streets and the stories behind them.
The square's dates and architects are from the BnF; the courtyard's hours and closed days from the Hôtel de Sully's own page; the market's history from the city of Paris; the protected-district figures from the CAUE de Paris; the Sunday rule from APUR, all checked 20 September 2026. The tour stops are from each listing's own itinerary.
Three and a half hours from the covered market on the Rue de Bretagne down to the Rue de Rivoli, with cheese, chocolate and wine. Cancel at least three days ahead for a refund.
From $152 per person
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Two hours and about 2 km from the Pompidou's plaza to the Place de la Bastille, through courtyards most visitors walk past. One pastry from a local bakery, and vegetarian options.
From $60 per person
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Three hours from Saint-Sulpice on the Left Bank, over the Pont Neuf and into the Marais for its last hour or so. Seven people at most, and the city's layout explained on foot.
From $94 per person
Check AvailabilityNext: see the gardens on parks and gardens, the collections on museums in Le Marais, or compare every walk on Le Marais Paris Tours.