The Eiffel Tower
Disneyland
Paris... just click
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Medieval
sculptures on the entrance to Notre Dame Cathedral
The
Louvre museum, and its glass pyramid
Paris's river boats - for a cruise on the Seine
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Hotels
near the Eiffel Tower.
Click here 
for a choice of over 50
hotels close to the Eiffel tower |
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For best hotel rates, click here to book directly with
France's biggest chains:
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The
main Paris Tourist attractions
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► Tourist Passes for Paris:
1. The Paris
Pass (click) covers not just museums, but also
includes sightseeing
buses and other attractions.
2.
The Paris Museum Pass
allows unlimited visits to 60 museums and sites in and around Paris:
however, to make it worthwhile you would really need to take in at
least three museums a day over 2, 4 or 6 consecutive days. Given that
it is easy to spend a full day (9 a.m - 6 p.m.) in the Louvre alone -
cost 9 Euros a day - the cheapest Paris Museum Pass, at 32
€uros
for 2 days - is hard to justify unless you are planning just an hour
and a half on average per museum.
The pass is on sale at most participating museums - which means most
main museums.
TIP:
if visiting Paris in a busy tourist period, start by visiting a less
busy museum, such as the Musée Rodin, the Army Museum, or the Musée des
Arts Décoratifs. Buy your pass here, then avoid the (often long) ticket
queues for the other busier museums.
The
great advantage of
either pass is that you do not need to queue up or stand in a line to
purchase tickets. For example, even on a normal day in the
tourist season, queues can be up to an hour or more for the Orsay
museum.... |
| PARIS GUIDED TOURS |
 Paris trip offers a
range of guided tours in and round Paris, including:
– Paris Night Tours
– A range of Paris sightseeing tours
– Dinner &
Show at the Moulin Rouge.
– Dinner &
Show at the Crazy Horse 
– Guided tour of Versailles
– Da Vinci Code
Tour 
and a range of day trip excursions from Paris
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Cafés on the boulevard St. Michel in the Latin Quarter - the essence of
Paris and of France
Eating
out in Paris
There are thousands of restaurants to choose from in Paris; as well as
plenty of French restaurants, there are hundreds of Italian
restaurants, pizzerias, Vietnamese restaurants, and restuarants serving
food from just about every country in the world. There are
also
interesting French regional restaurants, serving traditional regional
dishes.
There are restaurants all
over Paris,
because Paris is very much a lived-in city. The best concentrations of
top-class restaurants in Paris are near the Champs Elysees, in the 8th,
16th and 17th arrondissements, where there are a good number of
Michelin starred restaurants. For more affordable eating, and plenty of
choice and atmosphere, try the small streets in the Latin
quarter
(5th and 6th districts), or on the Ile St. Louis.
For the best oriental cuisine, go to the Paris
Chinatown, south from the Place d'Italie in the 13th.
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Paris
offers the largest concentration of tourist attractions in
France, and possibly in Europe. Besides some of the world's most famous
musuems, its has a vibrant historic city centre, a beautiful
riverscape, an extensive range of historic monuments, including
cathedrals, chapels and palaces, plus one of the most famous nightlife
scenes in the world.
Paris is also
famous for its cafés and restaurants, its theatres and cinemas,
and its general ambiance. While there are a thousand other
things
to do in Paris apart from those mentioned on this page, for the
traveller spending just a few days in Paris , this list
offers
more than enough choice to fill the time. Note
that national museums (i.e. the main museums) are generally closed on Tuesdays - though
a few, including the Musée d'Orsay, are closed on Mondays.
Paris Museums:
The Louvre
Closed
Tuesdays
- one of the world's
great art galleries, with masterpieces such as the Mona Lisa (which is
known in French as La
Joconde),
and works by almost all the greatest painters. The Louvre is also a
major museum, with an exceptionally rich collection of antiquities and
artefacts, including Egyptian mummies, Classical bronzes, and artefacts
from round the world. Expect long queues at busy moments,
unless you have a pass.
The
Musée d'Orsay
Closed Mondays
(Paris 7- Metro Solférino) , the museum of the nineteenth century,
containg the works of the Impressionists
- Monet, Manet, Sisley, Van
Gogh, Renoir and others. 
The
Musée de l'Orangerie
Closed
Tuesdays
Located on Place de la Concorde. fine collection of Impressionist art,
notably the most famous of Monet's Water lilies series..
The
Musée d'Art Moderne,
Closed Mondays
Located at the Trocadero. The City of
Paris's
collection of modern art. And it's free.
The
Musée Marmottan, in the 16th Arondissement, with a fine
collection of Monets and other French art. The
place to go if you missed the great Paris Monet Exhibition.....
Centre
Georges Pompidou,
Closed
Tuesdays
(Beaubourg, 4° arrondissement), Large
collection of avant garde art,
housed in a very avant garde building. Open 11 a.m. to 9
p.m.,
Musée
Rodin
Closed
Mondays
7° arrondissement - museum devoted to
the
works of the great sculptor Auguste Rodin.
Musée
National Picasso, 3° arrond. Metro St.Paul - !!!
Closed for renovation until 2012. |
Main sites and sights:
- The
Eiffel tower - take the lift to the top, for a
spectacular panorama of Paris. The tower is 317 metres high, over 1,000
ft.
- Notre
Dame cathedral - one of the finest gothic cathedrals in
Europe. Climb the 400 steps to the top of the towers (included in Paris
Museum pass).
- La
Sainte Chapelle,
not far from Notre Dame. thirteenth century royal chapel, with
remarkable stained glass windows. (included in Paris Museum pass)
- The
Arc de Triomphe
- the largest triumphal arch in the world, commissioned by Napoleon.
Another place with spectacular views over Paris. (included in Paris
Museum pass)
- Montmartre,
and the Sacré Coeur. Narrow streets, filled with
artists, round the 19th century basilica on top of a hill on the north
edge of Paris.
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- Les
Champs Elysées;
one of the most famous streets in the world, a broad tree-lined
boulevard. Enjoy a drink on a pavement café, but watch the prices !
- Seine
river boats
(les bateaux mouche). Take a trip on one of the famous Seine river
boats, and see Paris from the river. Departures from the Pont Neuf. Or
use the Batobus..
daily and weekly passes from 12 to 17 Euros.
- Les
Invalides A
fine military museum, containing the tomb of Napoleon, and a remarkable
collection of historic models of French cities (included in
Paris
Museum pass).
- The
banks of the Seine - just wander along the footpaths
through the centre of the city. Free !
- The
Latin quarter; narrow streets, with lots of cafés and
restaurants, antique shops and boutiques, near the Sorbonne university.
Free!
- La Cité
des Sciences Paris 19 . Metro line 7 -
Porte de la Villette. The Paris science museum, well worth a
visit.
- Musée
des Arts Décoratifs, Paris 1°. Metro Louvre. Museum of
decorative arts, close to the Louvre.
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Some other things to see and do.....
Paris
panorama:
see Paris from the top of the Tour
Montparnasse,
the tallest office block in the city. Panoramic viewing area, and it's
the only place from which the skyline isn't spoiled by the
tour
Montparnasse...
The
Gardens of the Luxembourg; the classic Paris city park.
Off Boulevard St. Michel.
Paris
by night:
Many tour-bus operators run Paris by night tours; but there's no need
to take a tour. The lights and sights can be seen in may ways. The most
carefree option is to just stroll down the Champs Elysées and along the
banks of the Seine, looking at the lights and the illuminated monuments
that can often be seen from afar. Then there plenty of restaurants with
chairs and tables outside, where you can have dinner and watch the
world go by. Then of course there is Pigalle, Paris's raunchy nightlife
district, with its arrray of bars, cabarets, clubs and shows.
The
Moulin Rouge:
the most famous cabaret in Paris,
situated in Pigalle at the foot of Montmartre. Running since 1889.
Taking
a trip out of Paris:
The
most visited locations on the outskirts of Paris are:
1. the château de Versailles
(train from Gare Montparnasse, or RER C line from St Michel Notre Dame,
Musée d’Orsay, Invalides, Pont de l’Alma, or Champ de
Mars/Tour
Eiffel.
2: Château de Fontainebleau
- train from Gare de Lyon.
Use
the trains or
hire a car at a location on the outskirts
of Paris, to avoid having to drive in the streets of Paris.
See tips on car hire on the
outskirts of Paris.
More information on things to do
in Paris:
Visit ParisAdvice.com
the insider's guide
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Paris
underground.....
Two offbeat visits to see the Paris other people haven't seen.....
The
Paris sewer museum. (Musée
des égouts) Quai d'Orsay - (Metro Alma-Marceau) There is a whole
underground city beneath the Paris streets, and the Metro is
just
one part of it. The ancient sewerage system is a historic monument, and
it has its own museum and tour visit.
The
Paris catacombs
1, avenue du Colonel Henri Rol-Tanguy 75014 Paris
Tél. : 01 43 22 47 63
Metro
Denfert-Rochereau
Eery underground ossuary, filled with the bones and skeletons of some 6
million Parisians, removed from city graveyards between 1786 and the
mid 19th century. 2 km walk underground. 130 steps down, 83 up.
Website
Reservation
recommended
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About-France.com
- Paris for free
(See also " Paris on a budget")
There
are plenty of things to see and do in Paris, without spending a single
centime. They include;
Free
museums and collections:
- City of Paris Museum
of Modern Art, at the Trocadéro
- Maison de Balzac,
devoted to France's great 19th century novelist.
- Musée Carnavalet
- the museum of the history of Paris
- Petit Palais,
City of Paris museum of fine arts; a large collection of great master
paintings and artefacts. Located just off the Champs Elysées
- Jardin des Plantes botanical
gardens (opposite Gare d'Austerlitz). One of the world's oldest and
largest botanical gardens, open to the public since 1640! There is paid
entry for the "menagerie" section, specialised in the preservation of
endangered species. However the small pandas can be clearly observed
for free from the botanical gardens.
Père-Lachaise
cemetry,
located in the 20th Arondissement. One of the most famous cemetries in
the world. Visit the tombs of the great and famous, including Edith
Piaf, Oscar Wilde, Balzac, Jim Morrison (of the Doors),
Isadora
Duncan, Yves Montand, Alfred de Musset, and hundreds more...
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Free only on the first Sunday
of each month:
The Louvre, Musée Rodin, Musée Picasso, Musée d'Orsay and
others.
Free
monuments;
Notre Dame cathedral, other Paris churches.
Free to
wander :
Wander along the banks of the Seine, through the parks, through the
narrow streets of the Latin quarter, up to the heights of Montmartre.
And of course there's window shopping; look at exclusive or exotic
products in the fine shops in and near the Rue de Rivoli, or the
hundreds of specialist shops to be found all over Paris.
Free
travel:
Walk! But if you have a travel pass, then all your public
transport is free.
► Free tourist
attractions in other parts of France |
Links to main Paris tourist
attractions:
The Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame cathedral, La Sainte Chapelle, the Champs Elysées, The Arc de Triomphe, The Louvre, The Orsay Museum, The Latin Quarter, Montmartre, The Moulin Rouge, Seine river boats, The Pompidou Center, Book Paris
hotels |
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