Paris 16e arrondissement · Bourgeois west
Trocadéro & Passy
The best head-on view of the Eiffel Tower from the Trocadéro, the Bois de Boulogne, the Fondation Louis Vuitton and a run of quiet museums. Wealthy, leafy and reserved.
Best for · Families and museum-goers who want calm, green streets and the Tower nearby.
Where to eat in the 16e (2)
- Le Bistrot des Vignes€€ · Neighbourhood bistroOn a side street in the village core of Passy, a bistro that means it about homemade: wild fish, French meat, skate under sauce vierge, steak with shallot confit and frites cut on the premises. The quiet hum of lunchtime locals is the surest review the 16th offers.
- Le Tournesol€€ · Bistro / brasserieBetween the Maison de la Radio and the river, a gilded Klimt-pastiche room turning out unfussy French home cooking: leeks vinaigrette, veal blanquette, an escalope milanaise hanging off the plate. Open every day, which near the Trocadéro at these prices is itself a small mercy.
Where to stay in the 16e (5)
- Hôtel Raphael€€€ · Rooftop-bar palaceA 1925 palace off the Champs-Élysées with a seventh-floor garden terrace, La Terrasse, that holds both the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe. The corridors are hung with old masters; the roof is the open secret.
- Molitor Paris MGallery€€€ · Art Deco pool hotelThe resurrected 1929 lido at the western edge of the 16th, its two restored pools ringed by guest-room balconies that look down onto the water. A summer rooftop adds the Eiffel Tower.
- Canopy by Hilton Paris Eiffel Tower€€€ · Eiffel-view hotelA Trocadéro hotel a short walk from the Tower, with a rooftop bar that frames it cleanly and a set of rooms built to do the same.
- Citadines Trocadéro Paris€€ · AparthotelNinety-seven serviced studios and apartments with full kitchens and a small garden, five minutes' walk from the Trocadéro terrace and its head-on view of the Eiffel Tower.
- Hotel Ohm by HappyCulture€€ · HotelFifty-one rooms in the quiet residential far corner of the 16th near Parc des Princes and Roland-Garros, done in a contemporary-vintage mix with espresso machines in the rooms. Off the centre, and priced for it.
Underground & cool in the 16e (3)
- Fondation Louis Vuitton€€ · Contemporary-art foundationFrank Gehry's twelve billowing glass sails sit in the Bois de Boulogne over a building whose terraces and water-staircase are half the visit. The architecture rewards the climb to the upper decks more than any single canvas does.
- Musée de la Contrefaçon€ · Counterfeiting museumRun by the manufacturers' anti-fraud union, this mansion holds 500-odd seized fakes set beside the genuine article: counterfeit amphorae, forged banknotes, fake Rodin bronzes, knock-off bags, dud brake pads and counterfeit medicine. The pleasure is the side-by-side.
- Parc de Bagatelle€ · Rose gardenAn English-style park inside the Bois de Boulogne, built around a château the Comte d'Artois put up in sixty-four days on a 1777 wager. The draw is the rose garden — some ten thousand bushes that peak in June — with waterfalls, grottoes and free-roaming peacocks.