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The About-France.com guide to Paris:  getting round Paris, main tourist attractions  and other things to see and do.
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About-Paris 1:   Public transport and the Paris metro system
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About-Paris pages Paris airport connections Paris transport tips Budget Paris
The quarters of Paris Main Paris tourist attractions Paris hotels The Velib bike hire system
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.

Staying in Paris
Check out the Paris Hotel Guide page.

Planning your trip to Paris
Check out the About-France.com "Week in Paris" page: a six-day programme that will help you get the most of your week in the French capital.

Making the best use of Paris public transport.


Art nouveau metro station signLike most French cities, Paris 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.
     The public transport system includes buses, the underground and overground 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.
     For more ideas on keeping down your costs, visit the Budget Paris page

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  89 €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.
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.

    PASSES are often the easiest solution, but not necessarily the cheapest  ...

USING THE METRO and Buses 
paris metro If you plan to use the Paris 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 2009). 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.    
     Though the Metro is mainly an underground system, several parts of the network are above ground, and offer an interesting way to see Paris from well above street level.
   Note: Neither a standard Paris metro 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 which accept credit cards. Carnets can also be bought in some main French railway stations 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. The RATP (Paris transport authority) provides free maps which are usually available in hotels, metro stations and other places.


Paris Airport connections

Paris has two airports, Charles de Gaulle (CDG) to the north and Orly (ORY) to the south.
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.
Click this link for a photo-tour of the journey from CDG Terminal 2 to Cental Paris

Explore1c

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


In an emergency in Paris:

24 hr chemist / pharmacies:
 a) 84, av des Champs-Elysées 75008, tel
 0145 62 02 41
b)  6, place Clichy 75009, tel
 0148 74 65 18 .

English-speaking pharmacies:
British Pharmacy 
62, Avenue des Champs-Elysées
75008 Paris
0143 59 22 52

British-American pharmacy,
1 rue Auber, 75009
0142 65 88 29

English-language crisis line;
SOS-Help
Daily 3 pm - 11pm
01 46 21 46 46

Ambulance:
Call/phone:  15

Hospitals:
Hertford  British Hospital: 3, rue Barbès, 92300 Levallois-Perret
Tel 0146 39 22 22

American Hospital of Paris
63, Bd Victor Hugo
92200  Neuilly-sur-Seine
0146 41 25 25



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