If you're lucky enough to be visiting Paris on one of the days that its public-service workers aren't either on strike or celebrating yet another bank holiday, you might decide that you want to climb the iconic metal pylon that is the Eiffel Tower. Don't.

Rather than joining one of the interminable queues, make your way to the Arc de Triomphe and climb its 284 steps. The view down the Champs Elysées and up to La Défense takes in just about every monument to the greatness of the Gallic nation from the Place de la Concorde's obelisk through the Tuileries Gardens and on to the Louvre's Cour Carrée.

If your vertiginous desires remain unsatisfied then head up to the Grande Arche de La Défense, the futuristic cousin of the Arc de Triomphe. Glass lifts will whisk you the 110 metres to the terrace for, pollution and weather permitting, a view of some of the oldest parts of Paris from its newest monument.