The western half of the 7th arrondissement — the old quarters of Gros-Caillou and Invalides — is the Paris of the postcards: broad avenues, the gilded dome of Les Invalides, and the Eiffel Tower rising over the lawns of the Champ de Mars. It is quiet, residential, and conspicuously wealthy, a district of embassies, ministries, and grand Haussmannian apartments rather than nightlife.
For visitors the appeal is the concentration of monuments within an easy walk, and the picture-perfect residential streets in between. The market street of Rue Cler, with its food shops and café terraces, is the neighbourhood's village heart and the best place to feel the everyday life behind the grand façades. Come for the sights and the views; the evenings here are calm.