Paris in 4 days

Best seen first from the Trocadéro, then climbed: the second floor gives the clearest view over the monuments, the top a real sense of height.

An hour on the river past the Conciergerie, Notre-Dame, the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower, from Pont de l'Alma or Square du Vert-Galant.

The largest Impressionist collection anywhere, under the glass roof of a Belle Époque railway station, including Van Gogh's Starry Night over the Rhône.

The former royal palace holds tens of thousands of works, from the Mona Lisa to the Code of Hammurabi, entered through the glass pyramid.

The island where Paris began: the restored Notre-Dame, the stained-glass walls of the Sainte-Chapelle and the Gothic Conciergerie, then the flower market and the quays.

Seventeenth-century mansions and designer shops to wander without a plan, then the arcades of the Place des Vosges, the city's oldest planned square.

Up the Rue Foyatier steps or by funicular, then the Clos Montmartre vineyard, the Maison Rose and the Passe-Muraille statue in the lanes behind Sacré-Cœur.

Louis XIV's palace 40 minutes from Paris: the Hall of Mirrors, the formal gardens and the Grand Canal, then Marie-Antoinette's hamlet for a quieter contrast.