Although the dynamics of the urban tourism phenomenon are widely studied and tourism flows toward certain destinations are considerable, we paradoxically know rather little about what precisely tourists do in cities. Even in a city like Paris which receives much media coverage worldwide, tourists' urban practices and the ways in which they combine activities in time and space are not well known. This research is based on qualitative methods employing semi-structured interviews with foreign tourists, and was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, tourists' travel plans are used as an analytical framework for urban practices. We distinguish between two types of touristic plans according to the relationships they maintain with the tourism sector's dominant practices and mediators, as well as those of the Paris metropolis itself. Specifically, autonomous and thrifty backpacking practices are contrasted with organized tourism managed by tour-operators. In a second phase, this analysis is confronted with more rigorous empiricism. First we demonstrate that these supposedly different travel configurations cannot resist the symbolic and spatial polarization Paris itself. Next, we stress the importance of the duration and/or number of trips in the specialization of urban practices. Finally, we highlight the active role of pedestrian mobility and of public space in the discovery of the city