In 2019, just a few weeks before Notre Dame went up in flames, I passed through the city, walking along the Seine from Bercy to Centre Georges Pompidou and then Gare du Nord. Comme l'Habitude, I got my ice cream at Berthillon (Cassis!) on Ile de la Cité. But I didn't really have any sites to hit or visit, it was just me strolling around town.

Having been repeatedly as a kid and adolescent, I have ticked off most of the must sees (Louvre, Tour Eiffel, Les Invalides, Notre Dame) and plenty of other sites. But Paris being Paris and the options endless, I still have places in Paris on my bucket list. For instance, I never went to the Musée d'Orsay. The Le Corbusier sites near town would be nice. And when researching this post I saw some Art Deco buildings I definitely want to see. But I like coming back to Paris, so I have never make a dedicated effort to finish up the town.

The inscribed area is not all of Paris, but a stretch of the city running along the banks of the Seine from Ile St Louis (Eastern most) to Champ de Mars (Western end point). Some components extend away from the banks of the Seine, specifically (East to West):

• Louvre, Jardin des Tuileries, Petit & Grand Palais
• Hôtel des Invalides
• Champ de Mars, Tour Eiffel, Palais de Chaillot

Smaller sites of note on the banks extending away from the Seine are:

• Hôtel de Ville
• Place du Châtelet
• Musée d'Orsay

As you may notice, several of Paris' key sites are not included as they are too far from the Seine. Montmartre, Champs-Élysées, Arc de Triomphe, Centre Georges Pompidou, ...  I could go on forever. And this already points to the weakness of the inscription: It's artificially limited. From the tip of Ile St Louis you can see one of Mitterand's grand projects, the Institut du monde arabe, which is just outside the core zone. The Tour St Jacques, itself a WHS, is also left out, even though, it's just a block off Ile de la Cité. The Champs-Élysées starts behind the Tuileries at Place de la Concorde... I could go on forever to illustrate the arbitrary nature of the chose core zone. And it's not as if the inscribed area is a historic consistent set itself, with structures ranging from medieval times (Notre Dame) to modernity (Pyramide).

Personally, I would have favored an inscription of most of central Paris. Thanks to the efforts of Georges-Eugène Haussmann in the 19th century and several kings and presidents before and after, it feels like everything in Paris is part of living piece of art. I say living as the city constantly evolves, nowadays when the next Président or mayor tries to leave a mark on the city.

If you want to slice the city up, e.g. in smaller sites akin to Berlin, London or Seoul, I don't think using the Seine as a slice is not the most helpful. Some ideas for the French Unesco commission from my part:

• Medieval Paris: Louvre, Notre-Dame, Basilica of Saint-Denis, ...
• Revolutionary France: So many important revolutions happened in Paris. Bastille, Commune, ...
• The Reshaping of Paris by Napoleon III and Haussmann for its impact on urbanism: Les boulevards. Les Palais.
• Works of Gustave Eiffel: Tour Eiffel combined with other examples.
• Art Deco which originated in Paris: Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (the first Art Deco building), Basilica of Sacré-Cœur, Montmartre, Piscine Molitor, ...
• Birth of Impressionism: Montmartre, Musée d'Orsay, the bars of Lautrec.
• Modern Architecture: Louvre, Centre Georges Pompidou, La Villette, Institut du monde arabe, Bercy.

And I haven't even made a real effort here. There is probably some key industrialist site in town. And some Roman ruins, too.

While You Are There

As you can see, there is so much to see in Paris that I can always go back and find a new treasure. The last time I visited, though, the crowds including tourists had increased to a hard to bear level for me. Maybe, it's just a sign of me being older. Still, going up to first level of Tour Eiffel via the stairs never required a reservation when I was little. I think it does now.

If you want to get out of Paris, most of Northern France WHS is within reach (Reims, Amiens, Le Havre). My last two visits to Paris were me passing through, arriving from some site hunting at Le Havre/Rouen and Montbard/Dijon. Limiting myself to Paris and Ile de France, you should visit Versailles. There also several Le Corbusier ticks in/and around Paris plus several tentative sites.