La Sagrada Família

Carrer de Mallorca 401 | 9am-8pm Apr-Sep, 9am-6pm Oct-Mar

If you have time for only one sightseeing outing, this should be it. La Sagrada Família inspires awe by its sheer verticality, and in the manner of the medieval cathedrals it emulates, it’s still under construction after more than 100 years. When completed, the highest tower will be more than half as high again as those that stand today. Unfinished it may be, but it attracts around 2.8 million visitors a year and is the most visited monument in Spain.

Museu Picasso

Carrer de Montcada 15-23 | 10am-8pm Tue-Sun & holidays

The setting alone, in five contiguous medieval stone mansions, makes the Museu Picasso worth the detour (and the probable queues). The pretty courtyards, galleries and staircases preserved in the first three of these buildings are as delightful as the collection inside is unique. One word of warning: the collection concentrates on the artist’s formative years, sometimes disappointing for those hoping for a feast of his better-known later works (best found in Paris). The permanent collection is housed in Palau Aguilar, Palau del Baró de Castellet and Palau Meca, all dating to the 14th century. The 18th-century Casa Mauri, built over medieval remains (even some Roman leftovers have been identified), and the adjacent 14th-century Palau Finestres accommodate temporary exhibitions.

Font Màgica

Avinguda de la Reina Maria Cristina | every 30min 7-9pm Fri & Sat Oct-late Jun, 9-11.30pm Thu-Sun late Jun-Sep

With a flourish, the ‘Magic Fountain’ erupts into a feast of musical, backlit liquid life. It is extraordinary how an idea that was cooked up for the 1929 World Exposition has, since the 1992 Olympics, again become a magnet. On hot summer evenings especially, this 15-minute spectacle (repeated several times throughout the evening) mesmerises onlookers. The main fountain of a series that sweeps up the hill from Avinguda de la Reina Maria Cristina to the grand facade of the Palau Nacional, Font Màgica is a unique performance in which the water at times looks like seething fireworks or a mystical cauldron of colour. On the last evening of the Festes de la Mercè in September, a particularly spectacular display includes fireworks.

La Pedrera

Carrer de Provença 261-265 | 9am-8pm Mar-Oct, 9am-6.30pm Nov-Feb

This undulating beast is a madcap Gaudí masterpiece, built in 1905–10 as a combined apartment and office block. Formally called Casa Milà, after the businessman who commissioned it, it is better known as La Pedrera (the Quarry) because of its uneven grey stone facade, which ripples around the corner of Carrer de Provença. In spite of appearances, the building is coated in a layer of stone rather than built out of it. The wave effect is emphasised by elaborate wrought-iron balconies.

Església de Santa Maria del Mar

Plaça de Santa Maria | 9am-1.30pm & 4.30-8pm

At the southwest end of Passeig del Born stands the apse of Barcelona’s finest Catalan Gothic church, Santa Maria del Mar (Our Lady of the Sea). Built in the 14th century, Santa Maria was lacking in superfluous decoration even before anarchists gutted it in 1909 and 1936. Built with record-breaking alacrity for the time (it took just 59 years), the church is remarkable for its architectural harmony. The main body is made up of a central nave and two flanking aisles separated by slender octagonal pillars, creating an enormous sense of lateral space. This was built as a people’s church. The city’s porters (bastaixos) spent a day each week carrying on their backs the stone required to build the church from royal quarries in Montjuïc. Their memory lives on in reliefs of them in the main doors and stone carvings elsewhere in the church. Keep an eye out for music recitals, often baroque and classical, here. The uneven acoustics are more than made up for by the setting.

Comerç 24

Carrer del Comerç 24 | Tue-Sat

The edgy black-red-yellow decor in the rear dining area lends this culinary cauldron a New York feel. Chef Carles Abellán whips up some eccentric dishes, inspired by everything from sushi to crostini. Plump for the tasting menu (€54) and leave it up to Abellán.

Xiringuito d'Escribà

Ronda del Litoral 42 | lunch daily

The clan Escribà operates one of the most popular waterfront seafood eateries in town. This is one of the few places where one person can order from a selection of paella and fideuà (normally reserved for a minimum of two people). Prices are higher than average, but quality matches. You can also choose from a selection of Escribà pastries for dessert – worth the trip alone.

Otto Zutz

Carrer de Lincoln 15 | midnight-5.30am Tue-Sat

Beautiful people only need apply for entry to this three-floor dance den. Downstairs, shake it all up to house, or head upstairs for funk and soul on the 1st floor. DJs come from the Ibiza rave mould and the top floor is for VIPs (although at some ill-defined point in the evening the barriers all seem to come down). Friday and Saturday it’s hip hop, R&B and funk on the ground floor and house on the 1st floor.

Harlem Jazz Club

Carrer de la Comtessa de Sobradiel 8 | 8pm-4am Tue-Thu & Sun, 8pm-5am Fri & Sat

This narrow, smoky, old-town dive is one of the best spots in town for jazz. Every now and then it mixes it up with a little rock, Latin or blues. It attracts a mixed crowd who maintain a respectful silence during the acts. Usually there are two sessions with different musos each night. Get in early if you want a seat in front of the stage.

Gran Teatre del Liceu

La Rambla dels Caputxins 51-59 | box office 2-8.30pm Mon-Fri & 1hr before show Sat & Sun

If you can't catch a night at the opera, you can still have a look around one of Europe's greatest opera houses, known to locals as the Liceu. Smaller than Milan's La Scala but bigger than Venice's La Fenice, it can seat up to 2300 people in its grand horseshoe auditorium. Built in 1847, the Liceu launched such Catalan stars as Josep (aka José) Carreras and Montserrat Caballé. Fire virtually destroyed it in 1994, but city authorities were quick to get it back into operation. Carefully reconstructing the 19th-century auditorium and installing the latest in theatre technology, technicians brought the Liceu back to life in October 1999. You can take a 20-minute quick turn around the main public areas of the theatre or join a one-hour guided tour. On the guided tour you are taken to the grand foyer, with its thick pillars and sumptuous chandeliers, and then up the marble staircase to the Saló dels Miralls (Hall of Mirrors). These both survived the 1994 fire and the latter was traditionally where theatregoers mingled during intermission. With mirrors, ceiling frescoes, fluted columns and high-and-mighty phrases in praise of the arts, it all exudes a typically neobaroque richness worthy of its 19th-century patrons. You are then led up to the 4th-floor stalls to admire the theatre itself. The tour also takes in a collection of Modernista art, El Cercle del Liceu, which contains works by Ramon Casas. It is possible to book special tours, one that is similar to the guided tour described above but including a half-hour music recital on the Saló dels Miralls. The other tour penetrates the inner workings of the stage and backstage work areas.

Centre Pompidou

place Georges Pompidou | Musée National d'Art Moderne 11:00-21:00 Wed-Mon, library 12:00-22:00 Mon & Wed-Fri, 11:00-22:00 Sat & Sun

The Centre National d’Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou (Georges Pompidou National Centre of Art & Culture), also known as the Centre Beaubourg, has amazed and delighted visitors since it was inaugurated in 1977, not just for its outstanding collection of modern art but for its radical architectural statement.

The Forum du Centre Pompidou, the open space at ground level, has temporary exhibits and information desks. The 4th and 5th floors of the centre exhibit a fraction of the 50,000-plus works of the Musée National d’Art Moderne, France’s national collection of art dating from 1905 onward, and including the work of the surrealists and cubists as well as pop art and contemporary works.

The huge Bibliothèque Publique d’Information, entered from rue du Renard, takes up part of the 1st as well as the entire 2nd and 3rd floors of the centre. The 6th floor has two galleries for temporary exhibitions (usually now included in the higher entrance fee) and a restaurant from the trendy Costes stable called Georges, with panoramic views of Paris. There are cinemas and other entertainment venues on the 1st floor and in the basement.

West of the centre, Place Georges Pompidou and the nearby pedestrian streets attract buskers, musicians, jugglers and mime artists, and can be a lot of fun. South of the centre on place Igor Stravinsky, the fanciful mechanical fountains of skeletons, hearts, treble clefs and a big pair of ruby-red lips, created by Jean Tinguely and Niki de St-Phalle, are a positive delight.

The Atelier Brancusi, across place Georges Pompidou to the west of the main building, was designed by Renzo Piano and contains almost 160 examples of the work of Romanian-born sculptor Constantin Brancusi (1876–1957) as well as drawings, paintings and glass photographic plates.

Sainte Chapelle

4 blvd du Palais | Mar-Oct 09:30-18:00, Nov-Feb 09:00-17:00

The place to visit on a sunny day! Security checks make it long and snail-slow to get into this gemlike Holy Chapel, the most exquisite of Paris’ Gothic monuments, tucked away within the walls of the Palais de Justice (Law Courts). But once in, be dazzled by Paris’ oldest and finest stained glass – the light on sunny days is extraordinary.

Built in just under three years (compared with nearly 200 for Notre Dame), Ste-Chapelle was consecrated in 1248. The chapel was conceived by Louis IX to house his personal collection of holy relics (including the Holy Crown now kept in the treasury at Notre Dame). The chapel’s exterior can be viewed from across the street from the law courts’ magnificently gilded 18th-century gate, which faces rue de Lutèce.

Musée du Louvre

place du Louvre | 9am-6pm Mon, Thu, Sat & Sun, to 10pm Wed & Fri

The vast Palais du Louvre was constructed as a fortress by Philippe-Auguste in the early 13th century and rebuilt in the mid-16th century for use as a royal residence. The Revolutionary Convention turned it into a national museum in 1793.

The paintings, sculptures and artefacts on display in the Louvre Museum have been assembled by French governments over the past five centuries. Among them are works of art and artisanship from all over Europe and collections of Assyrian, Etruscan, Greek, Coptic and Islamic art and antiquities. The Louvre’s raison d’être is essentially to present Western art from the Middle Ages to about 1848 (at which point the Musée d’Orsay across the river takes over), as well as the works of ancient civilisations that formed the starting point for Western art.

When the museum opened in the late 18th century it contained 2500 paintings and objets d’art; today some 35,000 are on display. The ‘Grand Louvre’ project inaugurated by the late President Mitterrand in 1989 doubled the museum’s exhibition space, and new and renovated galleries have opened in recent years devoted to objets d’art such as Sèvres porcelain and the crown jewels of Louis XV (Room 66, 1st floor, Apollo Gallery, Denon Wing).

Daunted by the richness and sheer size of the place (the side facing the Seine is 700m long and it is said that it would take nine months to see every piece of art in the museum), locals and visitors alike often find the prospect of an afternoon at a smaller museum far more inviting, meaning the Louvre may be the most actively avoided museum in the world. Eventually, most people do their duty and visit, but many leave overwhelmed, unfulfilled, exhausted and frustrated at having got lost on their way to da Vinci’s La Joconde, better known as Mona Lisa (Room 6, 1st floor, Salle de la Joconde, Denon Wing). Since it takes several serious visits to get anything more than a brief glimpse of the works on offer, your best bet – after checking out a few that you really want to see – is to choose a particular period or section of the Louvre and pretend that the rest is in another museum somewhere across town.

The most famous works from antiquity include the Seated Scribe (Room 22, 1st floor, Sully Wing), the Code of Hammurabi (Room 3, ground floor, Richelieu Wing) and that armless duo, the Venus de Milo (Room 7, ground floor, Denon Wing) and the Winged Victory of Samothrace (opposite Room 1, 1st floor, Denon Wing). From the Renaissance, don’t miss Michelangelo’s The Dying Slave (ground floor, Michelangelo Gallery, Denon Wing) and works by Raphael, Botticelli and Titian (1st floor, Denon Wing). French masterpieces of the 19th century include Ingres’ The Turkish Bath (Room 60, 2nd floor, Sully Wing), Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa (Room 77, 1st floor, Denon Wing) and works by Corot, Delacroix and Fragonard (2nd floor, Denon Wing).

The main entrance and ticket windows in the Cour Napoléon are covered by the 21m-high Grande Pyramide , a glass pyramid designed by the Chinese-born American architect IM Pei. You can avoid the queues outside the pyramid or at the Porte des Lions entrance by entering the Louvre complex via the Carrousel du Louvre entrance, at 99 rue de Rivoli, or by following the ‘Musée du Louvre’ exit from the Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre metro station. Buy your tickets in advance from the ticket machines in the Carrousel du Louvre, online or by ringing 08 92 68 36 22 or 08 25 34 63 46, or from the billeteries (ticket offices) of Fnac for an extra €1.10, and walk straight in without queuing. Tickets are valid for the whole day, so you can come and go as you please. They are also valid for the Musée National Eugène Delacroix on the same day.

The Louvre is divided into four sections: the Sully, Denon and Richelieu Wings and Hall Napoléon. Sully creates the four sides of the Cour Carrée (literally ‘square courtyard’) at the eastern end of the complex. Denon stretches along the Seine to the south; Richelieu is the northern wing runing along rue de Rivoli.

The split-level public area under the Grande Pyramide is known as the Hall Napoléon. The hall has an exhibit on the history of the Louvre, a bookshop, restaurant, café, auditoriums for concerts, lectures and films, and CyberLouvre, an internet research centre with online access to some 35,000 works of art. The centrepiece of the Carrousel du Louvre, the shopping centre that runs underground from the pyramid to the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, is the pyramide inversée(inverted glass pyramid) , also the work of Pei.

Free English-language maps of the complex (entitled Louvre Plan/Information ) can be obtained from the circular information desk in the centre of the Hall Napoléon. Excellent publications to guide you if you are doing the Louvre on your own are Destination Louvre: A Guided Tour (€7.50), Louvre: Guide to the Masterpieces (€8) and the hefty, 475-page A Guide to the Louvre (€17). Much more esoteric are the specialist titles Cats in the Louvre and the competing Dogs in the Louvre, each priced at €15. An attractive and useful memento is the DVD entitled Louvre: The Visit (€26). All are available from the museum bookshop.

English-language guided tours (01 40 20 52 63) lasting 1½ hours depart from the area under the Grande Pyramide, marked Acceuil des Groupes (Groups Reception), at 11am, 2pm and (sometimes) 3.45pm Monday to Saturday. Tickets cost €5 in addition to the cost of admission. Groups are limited to 30 people, so it’s a good idea to sign up at least 30 minutes before departure time.

Self-paced audioguide tours in six languages, with 1½ hours of commentary, can be rented for €5 under the pyramid at the entrance to each wing.

Cathédrale de Notre Dame de Paris

place du Parvis Notre Dame | 7.45am-6.45pm, information desk 9.30am-6pm Mon-Fri, 9am-6pm Sat

This is the heart of Paris – so much so that distances from Paris to every part of metropolitan France are measured from place du Parvis Notre Dame, the square in front of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Paris. A bronze star across the street from the cathedral’s main entrance marks the exact location of point zéro des routes de France. Nearby, Charlemagne (742–814), emperor of the Franks, rides his steed under the trees.

Notre Dame, the most visited site in Paris with 10 million people crossing its threshold a year, is not just a masterpiece of French Gothic architecture but has also been the focus of Catholic Paris for seven centuries.

Built on a site occupied by earlier churches – and, a millennium before that, a Gallo-Roman temple perhaps dedicated to the god Mithra – it was begun in 1163 according to the design of Bishop Maurice de Sully and largely completed by the early 14th century. The cathedral was badly damaged during the Revolution; architect Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc carried out extensive renovations between 1845 and 1864. The cathedral is on a very grand scale; the interior alone is 130m long, 48m wide and 35m high and can accommodate more than 6000 worshippers.

Notre Dame is known for its sublime balance, though if you look closely you’ll see all sorts of minor asymmetrical elements introduced to avoid monotony, in accordance with standard Gothic practice. These include the slightly different shapes of each of the three main portals, whose statues were once brightly coloured to make them more effective as a Biblia pauperum – a ‘Bible of the poor’ to help the illiterate understand Old Testament stories, the Passion of the Christ and the lives of the saints. One of the best views of Notre Dame is from square Jean XXIII, the little park behind the cathedral, where you can view the forest of ornate flying buttresses that encircle the chancel and support its walls and roof.

Inside, exceptional features include three spectacular rose windows, the most renowned of which are the 10m-wide one over the western façade above the 7800-pipe organ, and the window on the northern side of the transept, which has remained virtually unchanged since the 13th century. The central choir, with its carved wooden stalls and statues representing the Passion of the Christ, is also noteworthy. There are free 1½-hour guided tours of the cathedral, given in English.

The trésor in the southeastern transept contains artwork, liturgical objects, church plate and first-class relics, some of them of dubious origin. Among these is the Ste-Couronne, the ‘Holy Crown’, which is purportedly the wreath of thorns placed on Jesus’ head before he was crucified, and was brought here in the mid-13th century. It is exhibited between 3pm and 4pm on the first Friday of each month, 3pm to 4pm every Friday during Lent, and 10am to 5pm on Good Friday.

The entrance to the Tours de Notre Dame is from the North Tower. Climb the 422 spiralling steps to the top of the western façade, where you’ll find yourself face-to-face with the cathedral’s most frightening gargoyles, the 13-tonne bell Emmanuel (all of the cathedral’s bells are named) in the South Tower, and, last but not least, a spectacular view of Paris.

Eiffel Tower

Champ de Mars | lifts 09:00-00:45 mid-Jun-Aug (final ascension to top 23:00, to other levels 24:00), 09:30-23:45 Sep-mid-Jun (final ascension to top 22:30, to other levels 23:00), stairs 09:00-00:30 mid-Jun-Aug (final admittance 24:00), 09:30-18:30 Sep-mid-Jun (final adm

La Tour Eiffel faced massive opposition from Paris’ artistic and literary elite when it was built for the 1889 Exposition Universelle (World Fair), marking the centenary of the Revolution.

The ‘metal asparagus’, as some Parisians snidely called it, was almost torn down in 1909 but was spared because it proved an ideal platform for the transmitting antennas needed for the newfangled science of radiotelegraphy. It welcomed two million visitors the first year it opened and more than three times that number – 6.9 million in 2007 – make their way to the top each year.

The Eiffel Tower, named after its designer, Gustave Eiffel, is 324m high, including the TV antenna at the tip. This figure can vary by as much as 15cm, however, as the tower’s 7300 tonnes of iron, held together by 2.5 million rivets, expand in warm weather and contract when it’s cold.

Three levels are open to the public. The lifts (in the east, west and north pillars), which follow a curved trajectory, cost €4.80 to the 1st platform (57m above the ground), €7.80 to the 2nd (115m) and €12 to the 3rd (276m). Children aged three to 11 pay €2.50, €4.30 or €6.70. If you’re feeling fit and/or energetic you can avoid the lift queues by taking the stairs (over/under 25yr €4/3.10) in the south pillar as far as the 2nd platform.

Le Temps au Temps

3 rue Paul Bert | lunch & dinner to 10.30pm Tue-Sat

This tiny little place with about 10 tables has a very exciting three-course menu that changes daily; some of the dishes have been inspired by the cuisine récréative (entertaining cuisine) of the great Catalan chef Ferran Adria. Come here for lunch; you’re much more likely to get a seat.

Sardegna a Tavola

1 rue de Cotte | lunch Tue-Sat, dinner to 11pm Mon-Sat

‘Sardinia at the Table’ claims it will introduce you to ‘ les saveurs, les couleurs et les odeurs de la Méditerranée ’ (the flavours, colours and fragrances of the Mediterranean) and you barely have to walk though the door for the last two. But stick around for the flavours and you won’t be disappointed. Try the poêlon (pot) of mixed seafood cooked with parsley, tomatoes and garlic and the distinctly Sardinian spaghetti with bottarga (cured mullet roe) cooked with oil, garlic, parsley and red pepper flakes.

Le Pré Verre

25 rue Thénard | lunch & dinner Tue-Sat

Noisy, busy and buzzing, this jovial bistro run by the Delacourcelle brothers plunges diners into the heart of a Parisian’s Paris. At lunchtime join the flock and go for the fabulous-value formule dejeuner (€13) – the day we were there it had curried chickpea soup, guinea-fowl thigh spiced with ginger on a bed of red and green cabbage, a glass of wine and loads of ultra-crusty, ultra-chewy baguette (the best). Desserts mix Asian spices with traditional French equally well. Philippe cooks but is constantly in and out the kitchen, throwing around his charm, while Marc is the man behind the interesting wine list, which features France’s small independent vignerons (wine producers).

Le Verre à Pied

118bis rue Mouffetard | 8am-9pm Tue-Sat, to 4pm Sun

This café-tabac is a pearl of a place where little has changed since 1870. Its nicotine-hued mirrored wall, moulded cornices and original bar make it part of a dying breed, but the place oozes the charm, glamour and romance of an old Paris everyone loves. Stall holders from the rue Mouffetard market yo-yo in ’n’ out, contemporary photography and art adorns one wall. Lunch is a busy, lively affair, and live music quickens the pulse a couple of evenings a week.

Le 10

10 rue de l’Odéon | 5.30pm-2am

A local institution, this cellar pub groans with students, smoky ambience and cheap sangria. Posters adorn the walls and an eclectic selection emerges from the jukebox – everything from jazz and the Doors to chanson française (‘French song’; traditional musical genre where lyrics are paramount). It’s the ideal spot for plotting the next revolution or conquering a lonely heart.

New Morning

7-9 rue des Petites Écuries | 8pm-2am

New Morning is a highly regarded auditorium with excellent acoustics that hosts big-name jazz concerts as well as blues, rock, funk, salsa, Afro-Cuban and Brazilian music. Concerts take place three to seven nights a week at 9pm, with the second set ending at about 1am. Tickets can usually be purchased at the door.