You’ve seen it come alive in movies, saw its pictures splashed across magazine pages or read about it in novels. Paris is probably a city you’re pretty familiar with even before you actually step foot in it.  There are a million and one places you want to go and even more pictures you wish to take. Here’s my guide on what are the absolute must- capture shots when you’re in the city of a thousand lights.

Eiffel Tower
Obviously. There’s no way you can visit the romantic capital of the world and not leave with at least one shot of the city’s most iconic structure. The tower is visible and looks stunning from many parts of the city, but it’s right at its foot that you truly appreciate how magnificent the Eiffel Tower is. An inter-web of steel frames stacked together and narrowing to its peak, it’s much larger than you imagine and far more awe-inspiring that you expect.

Arc de Triomphe
If the Eiffel Tower is the most prominent landmark in Paris, the Arc de Triomphe must rank second. It stands proudly at the west end of the Champs-Élysées and right in the center of Place Charles de Gaulle. It’s the meeting point of 12 straight avenues that fan from it to different parts of the city. Apart from serving as an important traffic marker, the Arc itself is a tribute to the fallen who sacrificed for France during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The monument is inscribed with the names of the French victors and generals.

Notre Dame de Paris (Notre-Dame Cathedral)
Made famous by the novel Hunchback of Notre Dame, the imposing cathedral is a sight to behold. Up close it is huge, with intricate Gothic details covering almost every inch of its façade. The Notre Dame is considered one of the best structures of French Gothic architecture and remains as one of the biggest and well-known churches in the world today. A tiered seating area in front of the church is a welcome resting spot, where you can take a break and appreciate its grandeur. There’s usually a snaking queue to enter the church to admire its interiors and the beautiful stained glass designs.  Anyone can enter Notre Dame during opening hours, and to avoid long queues, visit in the morning.

The Louvre Museum (Musée du Louvre)
The world’s largest museum, the Louvre stands as a central landmark of Paris on the right bank of the River Seine. Housed in the Louvre Palace, there are almost 35 thousand items from pre-historic times to the 21st century on display here. The contemporary glass pyramid design of the museum’s entrance is a stark contrast to its backdrop of the Renaissance, Neo- Baroque Louvre Palace. If you want to take a clear picture of the Louvre entrance without other people, you’ll have to go earlier in the morning. Crowds mushroom from mid-morning onwards.

Pont des Arts (Love Lock Bridge)
The Pont des Arts now is actually a reconstructed one, after the first collapsed in 1979 when a barge struck it. The bridge itself, a metallic pedestrian walkway is pretty ordinary, compared with the rest of the ornately decorated bridges across the city, but the locks lining both sides of the bridge makes it quite a sight. Since late 2008, locks started appearing on the bridge as visitors began putting their names on padlocks and throwing the keys into the River Seine after placing the locks on the bridge as a declaration of love. The locks have become too overwhelming in recent years, and space had run out, forcing couples to attach their locks upon locks. Back in 2014, it was estimated that there were over 700 thousand locks on the bridge, causing a safety concern for the bridge. The sheer mass of the locks has been weighing the bridge down, and workers have since been cutting off locks to ease the burden. That has done little to ease the bridge’s weight, since people continue to place locks on the bridge. There’re benches placed in the middle of the bridge, where you can rest and people watch, or just admire the sights on both sides of the Seine.

Moulin Rouge
The most famous cabaret of them all, Moulin Rouge is originally notorious for its sensual dance performances, followed by high-energy can-can dance acts. It’s nothing quite as dramatic as the Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor version, but it did help to introduce Cabarets throughout Europe. Today, Moulin Rouge offers musical dance entertainment and is a major tourist attraction. I got off the train station at Monmartre and wandered around half an hour to find that familiar windmill.  Mark it out on a map before you visit and when you’re near, just look out for a crowd taking pictures. There’s usually at least a handful of people standing opposite the building snapping away.

Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris
Perched on top of the highest point in the city, the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris, commonly known as Sacre-Cœur Basilica, is a popular landmark in Paris and a double monument for political and cultural causes. Located at the summit of the butte Montmartre, this basilica is publicly dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a popularised vision of a loving and sympathetic Christ. Its political significance stems from the atonement for the excesses of the Second Empire and the socialist Paris Commune of 1871. Built from travertine stone that constantly exudes calcite, this ensures the Basilica remains a pure white during the harshest of weather conditions and against increasing pollution. Inside the Basilica complex is a garden for meditation and reflection, made more soothing with a fountain. The Basilica is open to the public, and of you visit on the weekends, you can even join in the mass.

Monmartre
I first came across Monmartre from the film “Amelie from Monmartre”. I was fascinated with the movie and curious about the colourful, quaint and artsy hilltop place.  At the turn of the 20^th century, Monmartre was already attracting renowned artists like Salvador Dali, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso and Vincent Van Gogh.  They flocked here for its low rent and welcoming atmosphere. Today, Monmartre brims with vibrancy and still retains that artistic atmosphere. At the Place du Tertre, a square at Monmartre’s center, artists gather to paint, draw and sculpt their art pieces, showcasing their talents for the crowds that gather here from mid-morning onwards. The Monmartre area is a designated historic district that restricts too much development in order to preserve its historic character.

Statue of Liberty
This is a 35-foot replica of Lady Liberty on the tiny island of Île des Cygnes on the River Seine. It’s much smaller than its New York counterpart but no less impressive. In fact, the tinier size allows visitors taking the cruise down the river to get a good look at its excellent workmanship and truly admire its beauty. If you’re up at the Eiffel Tower, you’ll be able to spot this beauty. To see it really up-close, you can get down from the Pont de Grenelle Bridge to the little island and get right in front of it, but it’s too close for my comfort. The best view and distance is when you cruise down the Seine.

Pont Alexandre III
Connecting the Champs- Elysees quarter, the Invalides and the Eiffel Tower quarter, the Pont Alexandre III Bridge is regarded as the most ornately designed bridge in the city and is classified as a French Monument. Built in Beaux-Art style, it features two rows of Art Nouveau lamps, cherubs, winged horses and nymphs. Built between 1896 and 1900, the bridge was named after Tsar Alexander III, and was considered an engineering marvel back then. It features a six-meter high single span steel arch, which was needed to prevent the bridge from obstructing the view of the Champs-Élysée. Do take a walk across the bridge and admire its beauty.

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I’ve got friends who’d been to Paris but never ascended the Eiffel Tower. This baffles me. Isn’t that the whole point of visiting the city of a thousand lights? The common reason- the queue was too long. And with precious time to explore the city, lining up for a few hours didn’t seem wise.

My experience with the Tower was a breeze, all you need is sensible time planning.

Buying tickets in advance, or not

I briefly contemplated this, but decided against it. While I like to plan my itinerary, I didn’t particularly like to be tied down by advance purchase of tickets, unless I’m visiting a theme park and spending the whole day there. But if you are a stickler for planning, this is something you might consider. There are usually two queues to go up the tower, the ticketing queue and the actual queue to ascend. If you have gotten your tickets online, at least you can skip one queue line.

Stay near the tower?

This was what I opted for. I wanted to have flexibility of visiting the tower anytime I wanted to. At the same time, I didn’t want to deal with the disappointment of going all the way there and having to turn back due to long snaking queues. Staying nearby means I can tweak my itinerary to come back for a visit should it get crazy crowded. Also, you can probably choose a room with a view of the Eiffel, adding a romantic view to your Parisian stay.

The early bird really catches the worm

This is a no brainer. For an attraction as famous as the Eiffel Tower, there are bound to be crowds all day long, so go early. You needn’t only visit on weekday mornings to avoid the crowd. I visited the tower on a Sunday at 9am, just when it was ready to greet guests. There was surprisingly no queue for ticket purchase. The waiting line to ascend the tower only took about ten minutes.  There are two parts to going up the tower. The first offers you two options: you can either climb up twenty floors to get to the first landing, or take the lift.

At the 20^th level, you get a pretty decent view of city. Take your time to look around. You can remain here as long as you want before taking the next lift to the top. When buying tickets, you can choose between the cheaper ticket that brings you to this level, or grab the one that takes you all the way up.

Making sure everything stays in place

This is something for the girls. Regardless of the 20^th or the summit, it gets crazy windy, and that puts a dampener on having a nice picture taken. You really wouldn’t want to give your best smile at the camera, only to be ruined by unruly hair that flies all over the place, or worse, in your face. So always bring along either sunglasses, scarves, or just tie your hair up. Trust me, you’ll be thankful you remembered any one of those things I’ve mentioned.

Bring along a selfie stick

With so any visitors at the tower, and almost every one of them snapping away, it gets tough asking someone else to take picture for you. And what if the angle’s not right? Or that they didn’t capture the right lighting on your face. So many things can go wrong. With a selfie stick, you can grab as many pictures of you with the entire city as your backdrop, and the only thing you need to worry about, is your arm getting tired from holding the stick. If you haven’t got a clue what it is, a selfie stick is an extension stick that you can attach to your phone for you to capture a better picture when you take a selfie.

Once you’re at the top, don’t be too obsessed about clicking away on your camera. Take some time to really look around the city and soak in the immense beauty that lay in front of you. Spot the Arc de Triomphe with Champ Elysees running in front of it. Or the Basilica de Sacre Coeur on the highest ground in Paris.  The world cannot get more beautiful than right at the moment when you’re on top of Paris.

Have you gone up the Eiffel Tower before, how was your experience like?