Laura's Tips to Paris from May 2015
1. Eiffel Tower:
2. Museum pass: We didn’t use it but we should have. You can buy the pass at any time and it is not activated until you use it. When you use it be sure to start earlier in the day as it is not time stamped. SO, if you use it Tuesday at noon it isn’t good through the next day at noon. We got started late and then we thought it wasn’t worth it. Also, even if you don’t use it for enough museums to make it “worth it” even if you only use it for two museums or so it is a HUGE time saver. We waiting in line for the Catacombs tour for an hour and a half, while other people went straight to the door and got in. We also waiting for about an hour to get into the Louvre. After a while I began to realize I didn’t come to Paris to wait in line!! We should have gotten the pass. I can’t recall if this includes any sort of pass to Eiffel Tower
3. Transit: Use the subway, don’t be intimidated. It’s cheap and pretty easy to navigate. If you have trouble most stations have an information desk and they are mostly helpful. Here is where your credit card with a chip is a must (or you can use cash)! Look at a couple of options on the kiosk to find the best rate. You may want a day pass but try to figure out what zones you need (zones 1-5 go in concentric circles away from the city center). The more zones, the more expensive. Most of the time we just bought a one-way ticket out and then would walk back to our original starting point. Note: when you use the day pass, as far as we could tell, it was ONLY GOOD FOR THAT DAY! Sometimes they are based on a 24hr clock but ours didn’t work that way and when we thought we could use them in the morning until noon… we were wrong. Also, when you buy your ticket hold on to it until you completely exit the station. Most of the stations in Paris don’t require you to use the ticket to exit but it did happen to us once! You also have to use it to scan several times when you do transfers from one rail to another. The most confusing line was to the Eiffel tower… but you can do it! The “here” app (Mentioned in the general part of my travel blog) helps with route planning as well and uses the subway system and walking, as you can indicate in your profile settings in the app.
4. Leisure time: Make time to sit at a café and people watch! Also make time to lounge in a park, they are amazing.
5. Fashion while walking the city: Ladies.. pack a pair of cute flat shoes and get to walking. Yes, some gals wear heels but if you have a lot of walking to do. Many women wear flat ballet-styled shoes and you won’t feel “out of place”. Even if you use the subway there is still a LOT of walking to be done.
5. Pick pockets!! We were fortunate not to have any problems but you know it is bad when the employees at the Eiffel tower go on strike and shut down the attraction for the day because they are tired of all the pickpockets messing with tourists and they feel the police aren’t doing enough. Pack a smart bag for your trip, one that zips closed and just be smart. Don’t buy from the sketchy guys around the tourist traps.
6. Pee when its free! Unlike Belgium, whenever we entered an establishment (museum, restaurant, movie theater) we never had to pay for the restroom once inside. I’ve heard that restrooms can cost as much as 5.50 euro! Yikes! If you have to do that you mine as well go to a coffee shop and buy a coffee then use the restroom! I did not have to pay for a restroom once… but I went often even when I didn’t “need” to! I never paid for a toilette once while in France.
7. Language: Definitely learn some basic phrases. Not everyone here speaks English. When we had the privilege of spending part of one of our dinners, at a community table, with some Parisians we learned that many French do not speak very good English and are sometimes ashamed to speak out loud. Even when some of the French do speak English it is barely decipherable because the accent is so very thick. When we spoke some French people seemed to be more amenable to try to help us. They also loved that we were from Texas. Chuck Norris seemed to be a big topic of conversation as well as cowboys (just play it up!).
8. My specific recommendations given by local Parisian. (Pick up a map from the airport or train station you arrive in to find these exact names). If you can’t find all of these locations on google then you will see them on this map.
9. Places that we found on our own and really enjoyed
10. Random non-essential recommendation. If you have access to a radio be sure to tune into 98.2. You’ll get a mix of English and French songs. At night it is a lot of dance type music, to get you amped up for your night, and in the morning it’s mostly slow and sexy. After about 11am they love to tout that it is “fucking good music” over and over and over.
11. Restaurants we loved
- Buy tickets to Eiffel tower online and use your mobile device to redeem your tickets!
- At minimum you have to buy them the day before (not the day of) and then pick a time frame. I would say to buy the day before so you can better predict the weather. This will allow you to bypass the crazy lines and ensure you don’t miss the last ride to the top (like we did)!
2. Museum pass: We didn’t use it but we should have. You can buy the pass at any time and it is not activated until you use it. When you use it be sure to start earlier in the day as it is not time stamped. SO, if you use it Tuesday at noon it isn’t good through the next day at noon. We got started late and then we thought it wasn’t worth it. Also, even if you don’t use it for enough museums to make it “worth it” even if you only use it for two museums or so it is a HUGE time saver. We waiting in line for the Catacombs tour for an hour and a half, while other people went straight to the door and got in. We also waiting for about an hour to get into the Louvre. After a while I began to realize I didn’t come to Paris to wait in line!! We should have gotten the pass. I can’t recall if this includes any sort of pass to Eiffel Tower
- Note: When you go to a museum spring for the audio set! Everything is in French and I promise you won’t know what’s going on.
3. Transit: Use the subway, don’t be intimidated. It’s cheap and pretty easy to navigate. If you have trouble most stations have an information desk and they are mostly helpful. Here is where your credit card with a chip is a must (or you can use cash)! Look at a couple of options on the kiosk to find the best rate. You may want a day pass but try to figure out what zones you need (zones 1-5 go in concentric circles away from the city center). The more zones, the more expensive. Most of the time we just bought a one-way ticket out and then would walk back to our original starting point. Note: when you use the day pass, as far as we could tell, it was ONLY GOOD FOR THAT DAY! Sometimes they are based on a 24hr clock but ours didn’t work that way and when we thought we could use them in the morning until noon… we were wrong. Also, when you buy your ticket hold on to it until you completely exit the station. Most of the stations in Paris don’t require you to use the ticket to exit but it did happen to us once! You also have to use it to scan several times when you do transfers from one rail to another. The most confusing line was to the Eiffel tower… but you can do it! The “here” app (Mentioned in the general part of my travel blog) helps with route planning as well and uses the subway system and walking, as you can indicate in your profile settings in the app.
4. Leisure time: Make time to sit at a café and people watch! Also make time to lounge in a park, they are amazing.
5. Fashion while walking the city: Ladies.. pack a pair of cute flat shoes and get to walking. Yes, some gals wear heels but if you have a lot of walking to do. Many women wear flat ballet-styled shoes and you won’t feel “out of place”. Even if you use the subway there is still a LOT of walking to be done.
5. Pick pockets!! We were fortunate not to have any problems but you know it is bad when the employees at the Eiffel tower go on strike and shut down the attraction for the day because they are tired of all the pickpockets messing with tourists and they feel the police aren’t doing enough. Pack a smart bag for your trip, one that zips closed and just be smart. Don’t buy from the sketchy guys around the tourist traps.
6. Pee when its free! Unlike Belgium, whenever we entered an establishment (museum, restaurant, movie theater) we never had to pay for the restroom once inside. I’ve heard that restrooms can cost as much as 5.50 euro! Yikes! If you have to do that you mine as well go to a coffee shop and buy a coffee then use the restroom! I did not have to pay for a restroom once… but I went often even when I didn’t “need” to! I never paid for a toilette once while in France.
7. Language: Definitely learn some basic phrases. Not everyone here speaks English. When we had the privilege of spending part of one of our dinners, at a community table, with some Parisians we learned that many French do not speak very good English and are sometimes ashamed to speak out loud. Even when some of the French do speak English it is barely decipherable because the accent is so very thick. When we spoke some French people seemed to be more amenable to try to help us. They also loved that we were from Texas. Chuck Norris seemed to be a big topic of conversation as well as cowboys (just play it up!).
8. My specific recommendations given by local Parisian. (Pick up a map from the airport or train station you arrive in to find these exact names). If you can’t find all of these locations on google then you will see them on this map.
- Arc de Triomphe Etoile
- Eiffel Tour
- Louvre, then if you have time, stroll through the Jardin des Tuileres
- Jardin du Luxembourg- beautiful park to take a bottle of wine and/or a picnic and hang out on a beautiful day.
- Tour Montparnasse- an area we just walked around and found a good (indicated by how busy it was) restaurant to pop into for lunch
- Places we didn’t go but wanted to:
- Musee D’Orsay
- Sacre Coeur- supposed to have a gorgeous view of the city
- Hotel De Ville
- Notre Dame
- Place de la Nation
- Bastille
9. Places that we found on our own and really enjoyed
- The Catacombs de Paris- this place was very interesting (and I highly recommend buy the museum pass if you even remotely plan to go here). We went on two separate days and both days the line was crazy long!! Very much worth the wait though.
- Cimetiere du Montparnasse (near the catacombs)- beautiful old graveyard. Unlike anything I’ve ever seen.
10. Random non-essential recommendation. If you have access to a radio be sure to tune into 98.2. You’ll get a mix of English and French songs. At night it is a lot of dance type music, to get you amped up for your night, and in the morning it’s mostly slow and sexy. After about 11am they love to tout that it is “fucking good music” over and over and over.
11. Restaurants we loved
- Holy Belly- some of the best coffee we had in Paris. IF you are from Austin you’ll feel at home. There was a wait and it was one of the few places with a long line so order a coffee, have a seat, and wait!
- Le Relais de l’Entrecôte- Steak and Frites, Very casual for Paris, several locations, long line!
- Pierre Herme- known for macaroons (several locations)
- Partisan bar/restaurant
- Bouillon Chartier- said to be classic French quisine, very affordable, be prepared to share a table!