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SUP TL'ers?!!!
As I ve read a bunch of threads like this before i ll follow the same pattern.
I am coming with my gf to Paris next Sunday (exactly on 29.01.2012) and willing to stay there till Thursday (2.02.2012). This trip across Europe is our first on our own and that's why we have to arrange the whole stay ourselves.
I know that some of You dear TL'ers are from France or at least ve been to Paris so I have a few questions about your visit there.
At first the accomodation, do you have any specific recommendations about any place to stay???
I was looking for something really cheap (cause we will be spending our money mostly on Museums and Food) and found something like this:
http://www.hostelworld.com/hosteldetails.php/Hipotel-Paris-Printania/Paris/13491#availability
Else do You have any cool tips & tricks about museums and restaurants?
I know about the internet registrations for the tickets to museums to skip the queue in front of the entrance. I know about the few days travel ticket for all sites for public transport. Anything else you wish to share with me?
I WILL really appreciate any points and suggestions you make here!
Thanks in advance!!!
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went to paris with gf in April 2011. i have pics of most sites if you want to see.
- very easy to get around by walking and/or trains. they have extremely tourist friendly maps everywhere (hotels almost guaranteed to have them) that point out all the main sites. they have a 24hour bus that you can get on and off everywhere. i found it to be a waste of money, so i didnt use it. train system is superb.
- if you are buying train tickets: (1) if there is an attendant, you can use any credit card; and (2) if there is no attendant (i.e., just a machine), the machines can be finicky with credit cards that dont have microchips (most U.S. credit cards dont). so, careful to carry COINS when you are traveling late at night (after people stop working) and in areas not as highly traveled.
- you can buy multi-day and all day tickets for the train. they are much cheaper depending on how much traveling you will do by train. research, plan your day and buy them. you will save a lot.
- traveling by train from the airport to paris is easy. don't waste money on taxis, etc.
- we used tripadvisor to find restaurants and for the most part they were spot on. rick steves is also usually recommended, but we didnt use him. http://www.ricksteves.com/
- we stayed in an expensive hotel, so i cant recommend a cheap one. but generally the farther away you get from the 1-4 districts (where all the museums and main tourist attractions are), the cheaper it gets. my research told me to stay in the 5-7 districts.
![[image loading]](http://www.parisnet.com/images/parismap_new.gif)
- you will probably go to versailles. make sure you buy tickets BEFORE you get there. the line to buy tickets, and get in is fucking long (hours...). there is a place around the train station to buy tickets; make sure you find it and use it. versailles is crowded as hell; plan your trip to go on days that aren't crowded (lol, that just means 2 million instead of 3 million people)
- the TGV is awesome and easy to use. visit Lyon for food (that shit is good). dont stay in paris the whole time. mont st michel was a place we wanted to visit, but ultimately didnt because we went to nice and monaco.
- eiffel tower is awesome from the west at night (its lit up). there is a park in front of it on the east, good for picnics.
- louvre is packed. there are cheaper, and less crowded art museums to get your fix. if you time your visit right, they are free. we went to the d'orsee (sp?). go to the louvre, take your pictures of the outside, then go to a less crowded museum.
- you fucking have to drink this hot chocolate (relatively near the louvre). called l'africain. its like drinking melted chocolate and you will pass out for the day.
http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Europe/France/Ile_de_France/Paris-99080/Restaurants-Paris-Angelina-BR-1.html
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/YnNpK.jpg)
thats all i can think of off the top of my head. feel free to ask any other questions.
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I know you're aware of the museum tickets and public transport tickets but just some info in case it's helpful:
The Paris museum pass does let you skip the lines but at some places you'll have to go through security like everyone else so you might be slowed down a bit. At Notre Dame I think you'll get to skip the line there but not for the line for climbing up the tower. It's a good idea to get the museum pass either at the first museum you visit (preferably one that's quieter and has shorter lines) or you can get it at the airport. I wouldn't bother purchasing it online. As well as getting to skip lines the nice thing about the museum pass is that you don't feel like you need to stay at a particular museum for a long time to get your money's worth.
For public transport, are you aware of the "Navigo Decouverte" pass? The "week" version would be pretty much perfect for you as you are arriving on a Sunday. If you plan to use the metro quite a bit then it would be good value and also very convenient. You can find out more about it here:
http://www.livinginparis.org/buy-paris-metro-navigo-decouverte-pass/
http://parisbytrain.com/paris-train-metro-week-pass-navigo-decouverte/
Have a careful think about which zone fare would suit you by looking at the zone map then considering if you are going to Versaille and how you're getting from the airport to your accommodation and comparing that to the price of getting invidual tickets for those things:
http://parisbytrain.com/paris-transportation-zone-map/
If you have an ipod touch or iphone then the Paris metro app can be really useful for calculating routes. It can be used offline. I don't know about apps on Android etc.
Slightly related to restaurants, but have you considered having a dinner somewhere then going on a night cruise on the Seine?
There is an absolute huge amount of information on travelling in Paris, and even though you're heading off soon I would recommend doing a few hours of research. Tripadvisor.com is a pretty decent resource, especially their forum section which has threads covering every topic imaginable (such as going to Paris on a budget). It is worth your time trawling through the forums for Paris. Tripadvisor has a huge number of reviews on accommodation and restaurants too and you can sort by price. And just while I'm talking about the tripadvisor forums, there are threads on there about the alternative entrances you can use to get into the Louvre that have nearly non-existent lines. I'm not sure how busy it would be at this time of year anyway but it can be useful to know where the alternative entrances are.
Hope this helps and have a lovely time in Paris with your gf! (And if anything is inaccurate please correct me anyone)
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If you visit the Louvre bring food if you can. When I visited there the food was horrible and overpriced though that was about 8 years ago so it might have changed since then. Also, if you visit Versaille plan to have a lot of time to view the gardens. They were much more interesting than the palace itself.
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Go there!!!
-> http://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/
I so love this place, I'm almost crying just thinking of it because I miss it so much - best bookstore in the whole world <3
Also, buy food in normal Supermarkets and take it with you in a tupperwarebox or wrapped in a newspaper  It's much cheaper that way; food and drink prices are way too high if you buy it at the sightseeing places.
Don't go to Louvre on a rainy day; the water drops through the glasspyramid and it's crowded like hell.
Montmartre (Moulin Rouge, Sacre Coeur, Musée de Montmarte etc) is a must, my bestie and me spent a whole day there 
Ile de la cité is also beautiful, mainly La Sainte Chapelle behind the Palais de la Justice - I don't know where to find more beautiful windows than there:
![[image loading]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/87/Sainte-Chapelle_haute_vitrail_1.jpeg/800px-Sainte-Chapelle_haute_vitrail_1.jpeg)
![[image loading]](http://inzumi.com/images/destinations/FR_Paris_La_Sainte-Chapelle_1.jpg)
Enjoy the trip!
EDIT:
http://www.hotel-amiot.com/index_en.html
This is the hotel my best friend and me stayed at. Close to Gare de l'Est, two Metrostations right in front and a supermarket two minutes down the road. It's not really much comfort, but it's clean, the TV works and breakfast is ok if you're into croissants  Four years ago, it was about 300 € for an entire week, I don't know what the current prices are.
EDIT 2: The coffee is horrible in whole Paris except for italian coffee bars. If you're into coffee switch to tea for the time of your stay. Seriously. I didn't. -.-
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For any of the sites you are planning to visit, google Rick Steve's Paris Audio Walking Tour to check and see if he has a walking guide for the site. It's free and awesome.
Basically here's how it works. You print out the map for the site, download the corresponding mp3 to your player (all on his website), then basically he gives you the tour through your mp3 player while you follow along in real life via the map. For Paris he's got all the big sites like Versailles, Notre Dame, etc...
His tours generally last for no more than an hour, so it's not like a full-day ordeal or anything. Plus his guide is usually better than the actual audioguides on site.
Give 'em a try.
Edit: I think this was mentioned already, but BUY TICKETS EARLIER ONLINE for the attractions. Or else you will stand in the ticket buyer's line for a very long time whereas if you bought the ticket earlier you could just zoom by into the ticket admittance line. I have no clue why people don't just buy their tickets online, it cuts down the waiting time by hours.
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On January 21 2012 05:25 skyglow1 wrote:
And just while I'm talking about the tripadvisor forums, there are threads on there about the alternative entrances you can use to get into the Louvre that have nearly non-existent lines. I'm not sure how busy it would be at this time of year anyway but it can be useful to know where the alternative entrances are.
There's a ton of great information in skyglow's post but I can't emphasize this particular point enough, there are alternate lines into the Louvre that have basically 0 wait! I don't exactly know how to describe them but searching tripadvisor's forums would undoubtedly turn something up.
I lived in Paris for about half a year when I was a student, and inevitably a friend from out of town would visit one of us who was studying there, and they would want us to take them to the Louvre. So we always used what we called the "lion entrance" because it was near a couple lion statues.
It was great because some days, the line outside the main pyramid entrance would snake on with hundreds of people, like an hour+ wait...meanwhile we would go into our side entrance and wait behind maybe 2 people before we got through security
So it's definitely worth it to look that up!
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Dunno about the quality of the hotel but it's reasonably close. The more central you get, the more you'll need to pay. Which isn't necessary at all considering how good the local metro system is. You should be totally fine there.
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this is very close to the main tourist drags so you can basically walk to everything, and for the further ones, take the metro.
i forgot to mention above. there is a boat cruise. if you take the one at night it is very comfortable and you can see all the big sites from the water. everything is lit up (including the eiffel tower). its not as impressive if you have already seen everything from the ground level though, so i would do this sooner rather than later.
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Paris is kinda expensive. My advice would be just to spend as few time as possible in your hotel and spend the money you saved on nice things.
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Watch out for gypsies in crowded places.
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On January 21 2012 07:10 YourMom wrote:
Watch out for gypsies in crowded places.
I'll second that.
In Paris, you can expect that noone is gonna approach you unless they have some kind of motive for it. There'll be noone talking to you even if you look totally lost - it's just not usual here. That doesn't mean that people won't help you if you ask for advice. But if someone approaches you, they'll most likely want money or cigarettes. There's people walking around the Arc de Triomphe dropping (fake) golden rings in front of you and then pick it up, show it to you and act like you just made the biggest find in your life. They'll give you the ring but ask for a finder's fee. And they won't let go until they get it.
Same goes for children walking around with a paper, acting deaf. They'll "ask" you for a signature and you'll assume it's for some kind of petition so you'll sign. In any case, they'll want money afterwards.
So just don't react to anyone if they're approaching you. That's the best rule of thumb I can give you.
Some more random advice:
To the subject of credit cards, if you have a visa, you'll be able to pay almost everwhere. Train stations, cafés, stores - literally everywhere except for small foreigner-run grocery stores.
Metros and busses will stop circulating at 1-2 AM every day. There's night busses but they don't go everywhere. Keep that in mind.
Buy a metro ticket for zones 1&2. That's all you'll need, the suburb (banlieue) isn't worth seeing, except for Neuilly maybe. There's tickets that you can use for a whole week and they should be worth the money if you're using it frequently (10-15 rides per day). I prefer walking around but that's because I know the city. The ticket will allow you to use the bus, the metro and the faster suburb trains (RER) as long as you stay in Paris.
The sights are a personal choice. Just go see the obvious ones. If the Louvre is annoying you, go to the Musee d'Orsay which is equally amazing. If the line in front of the Eiffel Tower is too long, then just don't go up there and do something different - sometimes you'd have to wait for 3 hours - like go up the Arc de Triomphe.
That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Enjoy your stay.
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make sure you go to the catacombs under the city. bones are lined up all along the walk. it is surreal. go early because lines do form.
![[image loading]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Catacombs-700px.jpg/320px-Catacombs-700px.jpg)
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EPT
