The 11 Best Things to Do in Paris, According to ‘Castle Impossible’ Hosts Daphne and Ian Fig
The intrepid expat renovators live just 15 miles from the City of Light. When they’re not working on their 500-year-old home, this is how they make the most of the magical French metropolis.
Jean-Lionel Dias
Ian and Daphne rent out the château's already renovated, massive ground-floor spaces for weddings and other events; they rehabbed this intimate space up in the bell tower just for the two of them.
Daphne Fig has a lifelong relationship with Paris: As a girl, she’d travel from California to France to visit her beloved grandfather at Château de Lésigny, the historic property outside the city that he’d purchased in the 1980s, and revel in all things French. Daphne’s husband, Ian, is a Francophile of a much more recent vintage: He got up close and personal with the city when her grandfather passed in 2020, she inherited the historic estate and they relocated to France to carry on its restoration.
Now firmly settled in and committed to reviving the château, an ongoing labor of love they share with viewers on Castle Impossible, the Figs can pop out to Paris whenever they like — or, you know, whenever they can catch a break from the every-penny-of-their-life-savings-consuming, full-time high-wire act of rescuing a 500-year-old, 133-acre estate. No pressure to optimize those date nights, right? Read on to find out what R&R in one of the most romantic cities on Earth looks like for them — and how they tell visitors to make the most of their time in Paris.
Stroll Through the Jardin du Luxembourg
Planned and constructed beginning in 1612 at the behest of France’s Queen Marie de Medici — whose name might ring a bell, as she was the bosom companion and royal patron of Leonora Dori Galigai, the ill-fated owner of Daphne and Ian’s home who’s been suspected of hiding a treasure on its grounds before she was beheaded — the 25-hectare gardens and its kaleidoscopic cultural programming are open to the public. Daphne strolls its manicured grounds, visits its kiosks for ice cream and notes that it’s the “perfect place to enjoy a book.” She and the gardens go way back: “My grandmother used to take me to the main fountain where all the children would practice pushing a sailboat from one end to the other,” she remembers. That tradition at the octagonal Grand Bassin began in the 1920s, and 21st-century kids can now rent miniature motorized boats of their own at the pond — with Marie’s magnificent palace as a picture-perfect backdrop.
Bruce Yuanyue Bi / Getty Images
Once an opulent home for French royalty, the Palais du Luxembourg is now the seat of the French Senate.
'Castle Impossible': Is There Secret Treasure Buried in the Chateau?
Ian and Daphne Fig dig into doomed Leonora Dori Galigai’s story as they renovate her former home. After all the politics, “witchcraft” and cold-blooded murder, here’s what they’ve uncovered about her fortune.
Sample the Cafés
Daphne doesn’t have a single favorite café; instead, she looks forward to what she calls “the joy of finding new cafés every time we go to Paris.” Prior to COVID lockdowns, there were an estimated 13,000 open-air terraces for sipping and people-watching in the city, and thousands of additional outdoor spaces opened during the pandemic. Thanks to a decree from Mayor Anne Hidalgo in 2021, they’re now permitted to return each year between April and November. As Deputy Mayor Olivia Polski put it, “Paris is the city of cafés; they are part of the French art de vivre.”
Artur Debat / Getty Images
Seasonal "summer terraces" in large public areas — as opposed to smaller outdoor seating areas like this one, just outside an indoor dining room — must close at 10 p.m. each evening.
Hunt for Treasure in the Marais
Painstaking renovation work aside, transforming 20-plus historic interior spaces to honor their centuries of history entails epic feats of shopping — and Daphne favors taking care of business in the Marais, a cobblestoned district on the Seine’s right bank in the 3rd and 4th arrondissements. “It has the best shopping for vintage and concept stores,” she explains. Its architectural gems, museums and galleries, fashionable boutiques and oh-so-chic bistros are spectacular as well.
Pierre Laborde / Getty Images
The Marais, or marsh, was built on swampland drained in the Middle Ages, and it's grown into one of the most varied collections of historic buildings in Paris.
Soak Up Museum Exhibits — or Strike a Pose
It’s easy for Daphne to keep her head in the game when she’s looking to tell new but appropriately elegant stories with the château’s renovated look: “There is never a lack of inspiration from the great artists and touring exhibitions in Paris!” The Louvre is hardly a hidden gem — it welcomed around 8 million visitors in 2024 — but it’s well worth purchasing timed tickets and braving the queue, and it’ll reveal something different to you each and every time you go. “The first time I went to the Louvre with Ian,” Daphne recalls, “he pretended to do all of the poses from the Greek statues with a cellphone. It made phone interactions so much more dramatic and made me laugh so hard I was crying.”
Pawel Libera / Getty Images
The most famous of the Louvre's Greek statues, some of which are pictured here, is the mysterious Venus de Milo, found on the Greek island of Milos (hence her name) in 1820. An arm and hand holding an apple, carved of the same Parian marble, was found near the rest of her, which is one of the reasons she's called Venus (who was often depicted holding apples). No marble cellphones similar to Ian's were found in the area, however.
The breathtaking Musée d’Orsay is several centuries younger than the mighty Louvre (it opened in 1986 as opposed to 1793), but it’s earned its own place in Daphne’s and other art-lovers’ hearts. Housed on the Left Bank, just across the Seine from the Jardin des Tuileries (which is beside the Louvre, if you’re contemplating a museums-and-gorgeous-gardens crawl), it occupies a former train station built for the Paris Exposition of 1900 and boasts the jaw-dropping architecture of a public building designed specifically to blow the world’s collective mind. It has lots of elbow room, thanks to its original purpose, and an unrivaled collection of 19th- and early 20th-century French art, including the world’s largest collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist work.
Dinodia Photo / Getty Images
The Musée d'Orsay is the second most popular museum in Paris (behind the Louvre) and receives just under 4 million visitors each year (which, coincidentally, is how many people the Louvre was modernized to accommodate when it was overhauled in the 1980s).
To combine art appreciation with a bit of forest-bathing in the Bois de Boulogne, a green space that’s twice as big as New York City’s Central Park, follow in Daphne’s footsteps to the Fondation Louis Vuitton, a Frank Gehry-designed museum and cultural center that’s a nonprofit project of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, the multinational luxury conglomerate (so yes, that Louis Vuitton). In addition to hosting blockbuster exhibitions by artists like Mark Rothko and David Hockney, the sculptural structure has the fascinating distinction of being the only world-famous aesthetic mecca that owes its showstopping, billowing-glass-sails shape to city building restrictions related to the two-story bowling alley that once occupied the space where it now stands.
Soltan Frédéric / Getty Images
The Fondation Louis Vuitton stands at the Bois de Boulogne’s north edge beside the Jardin d’Acclimatation, an old-school amusement park that’s open every day of the year.
Sip and Sun Yourself at a Bistro
As much as Daphne extends her appreciation to Parisian cafés as a general proposition, it’s pretty tough to pin her down when it comes to favorite midday meal destinations — she’s just a pro-bistro gal across the board. “The French bistro is made for this,” she says. “Just pick a terrace in the sun or a window with a view. You’ll never get it wrong if you enjoy wine!” One caveat, based on personal experience: “Just don’t try [to] order a Caesar salad. Or do. It will never be what you expect!”
Alexander Spatari / Getty Images
The world’s first eatery referred to as a restaurant opened in 1765 on Paris’ Rue du Louvre; prior to that time, the word “restaurant” referred to a flavorful soup that restored your strength.
Indulge in a High-Concept Dessert
“There are amazing restaurants all over Paris, but my go-to [neighborhood for dinner] is the 11th or the 9th arrondissement,” Daphne says. She’s partial to desserts that punch way above their weight, regardless of the pretensions (or lack thereof) in the eateries presenting them. “It’s absolutely incredible how many ways a chocolate mousse can be reimagined,” she explains. A particular peak end-of-meal experience? “We ordered a tarte tatin [apple pie] and it came as a whole caramelized apple filled with cream and a baked crust in the form of flower-petal chips, like a rose stemming out of the apple … and this was not supposed to be a fancy restaurant, it was just their dessert of the week!”
Mitch Diamond / Getty Images
The French take their sweets seriously: In 2018, one supermarket offered jars of the chocolate-hazelnut spread Nutella at a 70% off sale price and caused what were described as "riots" all over the country (as reported in an article entitled "La Guerre Pour du Nutella," or "the war for Nutella").
See the Sunset From Sacré-Coeur
When the golden hour approaches, Daphne heads to the Basilique du Sacré-Coeur de Montmartre, perched 430 feet above the Seine atop the tallest hill in Paris. “It has the most gorgeous view of the city, and on Fridays and Saturdays they typically have live music and it’s just the most wonderful place to watch the sunset with friends and a little picnic,” she says. “And then to meander down the streets on the other side.”
Eloi_Omella / Getty Images
First proposed in 1870 by the Bishop of Nantes, Sacré-Coeur was completed in 1914, then consecrated in 1919 at the conclusion of the First World War.
Wander Along the Canal Saint-Martin
If you’ve sighed at the romantic waterside backdrops in Amélie (the quirky French rom-com that inspired an impressive number of moviegoers to experiment with bangs), you’re familiar with the Canal Saint-Martin, a charming, 19th-century waterway that extends from the Seine to the Bassin de la Villette and features picturesque pedestrian paths, five wrought-iron footbridges and an impressive array of bustling bars, bistros and parks. ”It’s a wonderful walk with some nice spots to get a beer or kombucha, and sometimes there’s dancing,” Daphne says. “My friend and I joined a salsa class there once and we danced well into the night!”
Gerard Puigmal / Getty Images
The canal is drained and cleaned every 10 to 15 years, and the items removed when its 90,000 cubic meters of water recede are consistent sources of fascination. In 2001, canal detritus included ammunition from World War I, gold coins and washing machines (plural).
Live It Up at the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte
Strictly speaking, the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte isn’t a Paris destination; it’s about an hour southeast of the city (and accessible by public transportation). That said, when one now privately owned and lovingly restored historic château owner gives another props, that stamp of approval feels significant, non? “They do really fun events where you can dress up to walk the gardens, candlelit dinners and ice skating in the winter,” Daphne says. Daphne and Ian don’t have any plans to, say, invite skaters to their moat at Château de Lésigny (as far as we know), but historic homes are full of surprises.
John Elk / Getty Images
Vaux-le-Vicomte is owned, restored and operated by three brothers whose ancestor bought it at auction, when it had been empty and neglected for about 30 years, in 1875. In 2013, as one brother later told an interviewer, “I began to think, ‘Isn’t it time to come back down to earth and save what needs to be saved — this big château that has been in my family for almost a century and a half? So I came back and learned.”
How to Watch Castle Impossible
Castle Impossible airs on HGTV Tuesdays at 9|8c through June 17, and is available to stream on Max and discovery+. Stay up to date with the latest news on #CastleImpossible at HGTV.com and via @HGTV on Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok and Threads. Follow Daphne and Ian on Instagram @thewildfigs.
