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PARIS !
Paris
is Europe's most fantastic city, a place that can be
visited on a day
trip from London, but a city that has everything to keep the traveller
for far longer than that.
Museums, theatres, shops, fantastic historic
monuments, a beautiful riverscape, Paris is a city that has it all!
About-France.com
helps you plan your visit to Paris, and get the best out of your stay
in the French capital. |
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This
web guide is being constantly
developed. If the information you are looking for is not here now,
come back again later. .
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Making
the best use of Paris public
transport.
Like most cities, it is not a place to visit by car.
Parking can be an expensive nightmare (though less so than London), and
the city has a great public transport network, with a fast underground
network that stretches well into the suburbs.
Paris has an excellent public transport system;
the bus network, the
metro, the RER (express transit metro), and of course plenty of taxis.
Taxis in France are ordinary vehicles with a taxi sign on the roof, not
special vehicles as in London.
Visitors who plan to use lots of public transport
in Paris may find that the best or cheapest
solution is to take a visitor's pass, "Paris
Visite", though this is not necessarily the case
(see below). The paris Visite passes are available on a 1, 2, 3
or 5 day basis,
and cover all types of official public transport in the central area or
central area and suburbs, depending on the option chosen.
The main Paris passes:
There
are several different "passes" available for visitors to Paris, and it
is a good idea not to get the wrong one, as this will mean either
paying too much or else getting less than you bargained for.....
The main
passes are:
- Paris
Visite - giving unlimited use of the metro / RER / bus
network for a given numer of days. Prices
start
at €8.50 for a one day adult pass or 14 €uros for 2
days (Spring 2008).
Full details in English, plus downloadable
Paris Metro and public transport maps from the Paris
Transport website,
- Paris
Pass - giving free use of public transport and admission
to
some 60 monuments / museums in and around Paris - though NOT the Eiffel
Tower. Prices
start at 85 €uros for two days.
- Paris
Museum
pass - giving unlimited admission to some 60 monuments /
museums in and
around Paris, excluding the Eiffel Tower. Prices start at 30
€uros for
two days.
TIP: Buying a Paris Visite
transport pass + a Paris
Museum pass for two days will cost 44 €uros, much
less than the
85 € cost of the Paris Pass. The Paris Pass does however
include some
other attractions, such as sightseeing buses.
Other
passes:
- Hop-on
hop-off sightseeing bus pass for les Cars
Rouges, open-top guided tour buses linking nine major
sites; a two-day pass costs just 22 €., and can be bought on
the bus. An alternative is Cityrama, where a 2-day
hop-on hop-off pass costs 32 €, and covers four
different routes.
- The
"Batobus" and travel on the Seine.
The Batobus
are river buses that
go up and down the Seine from the Eiffel tower to the quai de
Montebello (near Notre Dame). There are 8 stops in all. A day
pass in 2008 costs 12 €, and a 5-day pass costs 17 €
per
adult.
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PASSES are not
necessarily the cheapest solution ...
If you plan to use the metro or the bus less than
six times in a day, opt
for a "carnet" (pronounced
Car-nay). This is simply ten standard tickets at a reduced rate
(€ 11.10 for ten in March 2008). Carnet tickets have no date
limit, and can be shared among members of a group. If you have some
left over at the end of your stay, keep them for next time. They are
valid on buses, the metro and the "RER" within the cental area, and on
metro and RER journeys allow as many changes as you want.
Note:
Neither a standard ticket nor a central Paris pass are valid on the RER
for travel into the suburbs, and
notably for travel to Charles de Gaulle or Orly airports. For
such destinations, you must buy a specific ticket.
Specific destination tickets and carnets are
available
at all metro stations, and from automatic machines. Carnets can also be
bought in main French railway stations in and outside Paris.
Finding your way in the metro.
This is no problem. Using the maps available,
check the line number and terminus station of each line you want to
take. If you need to change routes, follow the "Correspondance" signs
on the platform and through the foot tunnels; these indicate the line
numbers and the termini. Just follow the right one.
Budget
Paris:
If
you
are spending, say, just three days in Paris, and don't have too much
cash to spare, here are some tips to make your dollars or euros or
pounds go a bit further......
Do.....
- Book
your hotel in advance so you have time to get a good rate.
It is possible to find a two-star
hotel or a one-star hotel double room for under 70 €uros a
night. Click here to
find a budget hotel and check out rates.
- Use
ordinary public transport - and buy yourself or
yourselves a "carnet"
of tickets.
- Visit
the great free attractions of Paris - Notre Dame
cathedral, Montmartre, the banks of the Seine, wander along
the Champs Elysées and more. There are also free museums and
more, and some major museums are free on the first Sunday of each
month. See the Paris tourist
attractions page..
- Eat
your main meal at midday - when many restaurants offer a
full meal for less than 12 €uros; Chinese and Vietnamese
restaurants are particularly good value. Take something simpler in the
evening.
- Check
out the list of free concerts in parks and churches,
specially in summer.
- View
Paris from on high by touring round the "metro
aérien", the elevated metro (particularly lines 2 and 6)
which circles round inner Paris, above the boulevards, at second story
level. A normal ticket is all that is needed.
- Drink
at the bar. Many Parisian cafés charge less for
cutomers who stand at the bar than for those who get served at a table.
Don't....
- Take
a coffee or a beer at a pavement café on the
Champs Elysées, or any other tourist trap.
- Take
breakfast in your hotel, unless they are charging less
than 6 €uros
- Eat
in glitzy boulevard restaurants in the evening;
- Use
taxis for short trips
- Try
to find a hotel when you arrive; book one in advance.
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Paris Airport connections
If you arrive in Paris by air, use public transport to get into central
Paris; unless you can squeeze five passengers into a taxi, it will
certainly
be cheaper.
Charles
de
Gaulle Airport:
Terminal 1.
(British airlines, US carriers, etc.) Take the airport shuttle to
"railway station". Once you reach the station (5 minutes) buy ticket/s
for central Paris on the "R.E.R." (the express regional
network) . Ask for Paris zone urbaine, pronounced Paree, zone
yure baine.
See
tips and further
information below.
Terminal 2.
(Air France and partners). The train
station is in the terminal. Follow the signs for Gare TGV / Railway
station.
Once you reach the ticket office for "RATP" (Paris urban transport
network
/ RER/ Metro) buy ticket/s for central Paris on the "R.E.R." (the
express regional network) . Ask for Paris zone urbaine, pronounced Paree,
zone yure baine.
See
tips and further
information below.
Useful
info: the Paris CDG train-station is served by direct TGV
high-speed trains
linking directly with most French cities: Lille, Lyon, Marseille,
Besançon, Dijon, Tours etc.... Check times! This is far
easier than taking the RER into Paris, then carting your luggage
through to a mainline train terminus.
Orly
Airport
Take the "Orlyval" light transit shuttles. These take you directly in
8 minutes to the RER (express suburban train) station at Antony. Here
you
connect to RER line B for a direct and rapid train journey into central
Paris. You can also take the Orlybus shuttle direct from the airport,
the
bus route terminates at Denfert
Rochereau metro station in the southern part
of central Paris
General Paris transport tips:
TIP - passengers
arriving at Charles de Gaulle:
do not take the slow trains that stop at all or most stations into
central Paris. Check on the departure board over the platform. Slow
trains are slow, and fill up at all the stations in the northern
suburbs - among the less desirable of Paris suburban areas.
So wait for a fast train (one out of two for much of the
day); you may wait ten minutes longer, but you'll reach Gare du Nord
only about 2 minutes behind the slower train. Fast trains are often
non-stop to Gare du Nord, others have one or two intermediate stops
only. Once into central Paris, fast trains stop at all stations. You
will probably need to change once in central paris; your ticket will
take you through to any central destination.
On your way in to Paris, note the futuristic "Stade de
France" (French national football stadium) on your right as you pass
St. Denis.
TIP - If you
arrive by
air in Paris for a day trip, buy the 1 day "Paris visite" visitor pass
for zones 1-5, which includes the airports. that way you also have
unlimited
hop-on hop-off public transport during your day in Paris
TIP - Changing
trains at "Chatelet"
metro hub. Chatelet is the biggest interconnection station on the Paris
metro system: three main RER routes cross here, notably B (for
the airports) and A (serving the Gare de Lyon and Disneyland). If you
are
changing from a southbound "B" train to a south/east bound "A" train,
(for
instance, coming from Charles de Gaulle airport and heading for Gare de
Lyon or Disneyland, a common combination), just cross the platform. The
same goes if you are taking these routes in the opposite direction (for
example coming from Gare de Lyon and heading for Charles de Gaulle
airport).
Nothing could be simpler!
For other changes, follow the indicator boards, having noted
which RER or metro routes you want.
TIP - Your ticket.
Always keep your ticket until your journey is finished,
even if it is just a single journey ticket. If you use the RER in the
central urban area of Paris (which you can do, of course), you will
need to put your ticket through the machine both to get onto the
platforms and again to get out of the RER area.
Click here for Paris tourist
attractions guide
: Eiffel tower, Notre Dame, the Louvre, Montmartre, Moulin Rouge, and
much more
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