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| *Travel Tips>>>Paris Travel Tips |
What can I do in Paris? It will be my first trip.? |
Travel Info What can I do in Paris? It will be my first trip.? Travel Tips Its easy enough to name tourist sights and museums. Paris is a large and ancient city with many such things to see. What you can't find in a list of places to see is the charm of Paris. That charm is the reason I keep returning despite having seen just about every "sight" in more than thirty five years of regular visits. All that introduction is to to suggest that Paris should be experienced rather than viewed. Go to the Luxembourg Gardens, sit on one of the lounge chairs that are scattered about and watch kids sail toy boats in the pond. Stroll thru the Tuilleries Gardens and find the sandy courts where older gentlemen gather to play boules (maybe someone will offer to teach you how to play). Get a good map then put it in your pocket and just wander around off the main streets. Peer into shop fronts, check out a grocery store, take in the architecture, and when you see a small cafe with no bright lights or "English spoke here" signs, just walk in and have a glass of wine. Sit a spell and watch the world go by. In the evening try Aux Trois Mailletz at 56 rue Galand (left bank) or Un piano sur le trottoir at 77 rue des Francs Bourgeois (right bank) for dinner. Both places are very friendly, relatively untouristy, and have pianos playing and people singing. Join in. Be both fearless and open minded. Meet people. Become part of the city for just a little while. Fall in love with Paris. Do that and you'll be back again and again. I know I did and I have. Others I recommend taking a trip down the Seine on a Bateau Mouch first thing. From the boat you will see lots of the main attractions, and can decide from there what you definitely want to do, and get an idea how far one thing is from the next. For example, Notre Dame Cathedral is not too far from the Louvre. So you could easily visit both on the same day (on foot) and also see lots of other interesting sites along the way. It's really nice to just be taken down the river. Bateau Mouch, don't miss it. Bon voyage. You can visit the normal tourist stops - Siene River Cruise, Tour Eiffel, Notre Dame Cathedral, Arc De Triomphe, Sacre Cour, Musee d'Orsay, Louvre, Rodin Museum, Champs Elysees, Moulin Rouge, tour Versailles (Marie Antoinette castle), Place Concorde (beheadings took place here), travel to Giverny and vist Monet's house and gardens, do some shopping, eat french food, see a fashion show (Galeries Lafayette has one daily). If you purchase a travel guide book, such as Rick Steve's, you'll get plenty more ideas and his books include well written walking tours of different areas in the city. Personal experience. I am going at the end of March and have found that buying a AAA guide book on Paris to be very helpful. It gives a daily trip tour with the times of when and where to start, how long it should take as you follow their route and even cheaper places to eat. I used one when I went to Rome and never got lost. I saw everything that I wanted to see and had a great time. I always felt safe as it warned me of places to avoid. You can get the spiral book at Barnes and Noble or any big book store. I lived in Paris for a while, and I loved it. You'll have a great time! I would not recommend the boat tours. Especially if you're going soon, it will be very cold, and it's just as easy to get a tour book and walk the route. I would recommend, of course, hitting the big tourist attractions. The Musee D'Orsay is a bit less known, but it has more modern art, good traveling exhibits, and the building is beautiful. The Canal St. Martin going up the rive droite into the 10th arrondissement is beautiful as well. The streets running its length are sometimes closed on Sundays and up in the 10th arrondissement it turns into a little street fair. If you get there at the right time, you can watch boats go through the locks. If you're looking for good souvenirs, all the way up the metro line four in Porte De Clignancourt (spelling's probably off). There's one of the biggest outdoor flea markets you'll ever find. It's only open about half the days of the week, so you may have to check for times. I know that around Christmas they ice over the second floor of the Eiffel Tower for ice skating. I don't know if they do that this late in the year, but it they do, it is a great experience. If you're an art person, take the road going to the left of Sacre Coeur to get to a small square where many of the artists of Montmartre gather. Behind the Centre George Pompideau there are always artists and musicians in the square at the back. Outside of those suggestions, pick up a Hebdominaire magazine at one of the many news stands around the city. It's very cheap and has a listing of all the special exhibits and shows around the city, movie and opera times, who's going to be at all the jazz clubs, and a lot of other "insider info." I hope you have a great trip. If you want any more specific information, feel free to email me. :) Somebody asked something similar to this not too long ago and I made them a schedule based on a week-long visit. Hope this helps! Alright well of course Paris is so huge, you can't do all of it in one week. I'm going to assume that your first day and last days count towards "travel days".... 1st day settling, last day packing up and getting ready to go home. remember that you are going to be experiencing some jetlag considering the 7 hour time difference. Day 1- travel day Day 2- eiffel tower (go early to avoid all the tourists), visit the louvre (you can't see everything but in 3 hours you can hit a lot of the hotspots) Day 3- montmarte (be careful for people targetting tourists for selling high priced junk!!!), notre dame, a stroll down the champs elysees for some shopping and a great view of the arc de triomphe, dinner at charlie birdy's off the champs elysees (cool bar!) Day 4- palace of versailles (king louis XIV)- this is a day trip in its own, come back to paris and try some pizza (all pizza restaurants are run by italians so it will be authentic and not anything like pizza hut.... think gourmet) Day 5- centre pompidou, jardin de luxembourg (park), les invalides (napoleon's tombe) Day 6- rodin museum (the thinker), shopping at les galleries lafayette, place de la concorde Day 7- travel day Make sure you take the metro, taxis are ridiculously expensive. Purchase a "carte orange" for a weeklong metro pass. Have fun and live like a Parisian, submerge yourself in the wonderful culture, and watch out for pickpockets. |
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