The island in the Seine where Paris began. Notre-Dame and the Sainte-Chapelle share this sliver of land with the Conciergerie, the Palais de Justice, and the oldest hospital in Paris. Most visitors rush through to the cathedral, but the island rewards a slower pace: the flower market on Place Louis Lépine, the quiet triangular park at the western tip (Square du Vert-Galant), and the views from the bridges on either side are among the best in the city.
It is small enough to cross on foot in fifteen minutes, and joined to both banks by a string of bridges — the Pont Neuf at the western tip, despite its name the oldest standing bridge in Paris, is the loveliest. The neighbouring Île Saint-Louis, a bridge to the east, is quieter still and worth the short walk for its seventeenth-century calm.