Paro town itself is a single curving main street about four hundred metres long, lined with traditional two-storey buildings: whitewashed walls, painted window frames, carved wooden balconies overhead. The shops downstairs sell traditional textiles (kira and gho), prayer wheels, dried chillies, and the small wooden bowls and tea churns still in use across the country. Most of the buildings were rebuilt in the 1980s under royal decree to preserve traditional architectural style, but the result is convincing.
The market days — when farmers from the surrounding valleys bring produce — are the best time to walk the street, usually a Sunday morning. A small handful of restaurants and a couple of cafes sit along the road, including some of the only places in town to eat outside a hotel. The clock tower at the southern end and the gateway chorten at the north anchor the walk. Allow an hour at a relaxed pace.