Things to do in Paris, Paris hotels, Paris Weather and Paris city guide
Things to do in Paris, Paris hotels, Paris Weather and Paris city guide
Located in the north of France on the river Seine, Paris has the well deserved reputation of being the most beautiful and romantic of all cities, brimming with historic associations and remaining vastly influential in the realms of culture, art, fashion, food and design. Dubbed the City of Light (la Ville Lumière) and Capital of Fashion, it is home to the world's finest and most luxurious fashion designers and cosmetics, such as Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Dior, Yves Saint-Laurent, Guerlain, Lancôme, L'Oréal, Clarins, etc. A large part of the city, including the River Seine, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city has the second highest number of Michelin restaurants in the world (after Tokyo) and contains numerous iconic landmarks, such as the world's most visited tourist site the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, the Notre-Dame Cathedral, the Louvre Museum, Moulin Rouge, and Lido, making it the most popular tourist destination in the world with 45 million tourists annually.
The city of Paris itself is officially divided into 20 districts called arrondissements, numbered from 1 to 20 in a clockwise spiral from the centre of the city (which is known as Kilometre Zero and is located at the front of Notre Dame). Arrondissements are named according to their number. You might, for example, stay in the "5th", which would be written as 5e in French. The 12th and 16th arrondissements include large suburban parks, the Bois de Vincennes, and the Bois de Boulogne respectively.
Districts of Paris:
1st DistrictThe geographical centre of Paris and a great starting point for travellers. The Musée du Louvre, the Jardin des Tuileries, Place Vendôme, Les Halles, Palais Royal, Comédie-Française, and Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel are all to be found here.
2nd District
The central business district of the city - the Bourse (the Paris Stock Exchange), Opéra-Comique, Théâtre des Variétés, Passage des Panoramas, Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens and the former Bibliothèque Nationale are located here.
3rd District
Archives Nationales, Musée Carnavalet, Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, Hôtel de Soubise, the Former Temple fortress, and the northern, quieter part of the Marais can be found here.
4th District
Notre-Dame de Paris, the Hôtel de Ville (Paris city hall), Hôtel de Sully, Rue des Rosiers and the Jewish Quartier, Beaubourg, Le Marais, Bazar de l'Hôtel de Ville, Mémorial de la Shoah, Centre Georges Pompidou, l'atelier Brancusi, Place des Vosges, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Saint-Jacques Tower and Parisian island Île Saint-Louis can be found here.
5th District
Jardin des Plantes, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Musée de Cluny, The Panthéon, Quartier Latin, Universités, La Sorbonne, Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Église Saint-Séverin, La Grande Mosquée, Le Musée de l'AP-HP are located here.
6th District
Jardin du Luxembourg as well as its Sénat, Place Saint-Michel, Église Saint-Sulpice and Saint-Germain des Prés can be found here.
7th District
Tour Eiffel and its Parc du Champ de Mars, Les Invalides, Musée d'Orsay, Assemblée Nationale and its subset administrations, Ecole Militaire, and Parisian mega-store Le Bon Marché can be found here.
8th District
Champs-Elysées, Arc de Triomphe, Place de la Concorde, le Palais de l'Elysée, Église de la Madeleine,Jacquemart-Andre Museum, Gare Saint-Lazare, Grand Palais and Petit Palais can be found here.
9th District
Opéra Garnier, Galeries Lafayette, Musée Grévin, and Folies Bergère can be found here.
10th District
Canal Saint-Martin, Gare du Nord, Gare de l'Est, Porte Saint-Denis, Porte Saint-Martin, Passage Brady, Passage du Prado, and Église Saint-Vincent-de-Paul can be found here.
11th District
The bars and restaurants of Rue Oberkampf, Bastille, Nation, New Jewish Quarter, Cirque d'Hiver, and Église Saint-Ambroise can be found here
12th District
Opéra Bastille, Bercy Park and Village, Promenade Plantée, Quartier d'Aligre, Gare de Lyon, Cimetière de Picpus, Viaduc des arts the Bois de Vincennes, and the Zoo de Vincennes can be found here.
13th District
Quartier la Petite Asie, Place d'Italie, La Butte aux Cailles, Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF), Gare d'Austerlitz, Manufacture des Gobelins, Butte-aux-Cailles and Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital can be found here.
14th District
Cimetière du Montparnasse, Gare Montparnasse, La Santé Prison, Denfert-Rochereau, Parc Montsouris, Stade Charléty, Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris, and Paris Catacombs can be found here.
15th District
Tour Montparnasse, Porte de Versailles, Front de Seine, La Ruche and quartiers Saint-Lambert, Necker, Grenelle and Javelcan be found here.
16th District
Palais de Chaillot, Musée de l'Homme, the Bois de Boulogne, Cimetière de Passy, Parc des Princes, Musée Marmottan-Monet, Trocadéro, and Avenue Foch can be found here.
17th District
Palais des Congrès, Place de Clichy, Parc Monceau, Marché Poncelet, and Square des Batignolles can be found here.
18th District
Montmartre, Pigalle, Barbès, Basilica of the Sacré Cœur, Église Saint-Jean-de-Montmartre, and Goutte d'Or can be found here.
19th District
Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie, Parc de la Villette, Bassin de la Villette, Parc des Buttes Chaumont, Cité de la Musique, Canal de l'Ourcq, and Canal Saint-Denis can be found here.
20th District
Cimetière de Père Lachaise, Parc de Belleville, and quartiers Belleville and Ménilmontant can be found here.
La Défense is not officially part of the city, this skyscraper district on the western edge of town is on many visitors' must-see lists for its modern architecture and public art. Beyond central Paris, the outlying suburbs are called Les Banlieues. Schematically, those on the west of Paris (Neuilly-sur-Seine, Boulogne-Billancourt, Saint Cloud, Levallois) are wealthy residential communities. Those to the northeast are poorer communities, often populated by immigrants.
Language in Paris
First and foremost, French (le français) is of course the country's official language. Any native French person will speak French and it helps if you can speak a bit of it. In the parts of the city that tourists frequent the most (Tour Eiffel, Le Louvre, Champs-Elysées), the shopkeepers, information booth attendants, and other workers are likely to answer you in English, even if your French is advanced. These workers tend to deal with thousands of foreign tourists, and responding in English is often faster than repeating themselves in French. This is not the case for the rest of the city.
Food in Paris
Paris is one of Europe's main culinary centres. Breakfast or "petit déjeuner" at a restaurant, possibly in your hotel, consisting of some croissants, coffee and maybe a piece of fruit. But check prices carefully. The petit déjeuner at your hotel will generally cost €13-25, well out of budget eating range. A better idea may be a local café where prices are lower. Though it must be admitted, you will get free coffee refills at the hotel, while at the café you will have to pay for every cup. A 'walking lunch' from one of Paris' many food stands--a panino in the centre of the city, a crepe from a crepe stand, a Falafel pita or take-out Chinese in the Marais. Traiteurs serving Chinese food are ubiquitous in the city and good for a cheap lunch and almost all of the boulangeries and pâtisseries sell inexpensive coffee and sandwiches; often you can get a formule that includes a half-baguette sandwich, a can of soda or juice, and a piece of pastry for less than 10€.
Eating out in Paris can be expensive. However don't believe people when they say you can't do Paris on the cheap - you can! The key is to stay away from the beaten tracks and the obviously expensive Champs Elysées. Around the lesser visited quarters especially, there are many cheap and yummy restaurants to be found. The key is to order from the prix-fixe menu, and not off the A la Carte menu unless you want to pay an arm and a leg. In many places a three course meal can be found for about €15. This way you can sample the food cheaply and is usually more "French". Ask for "une carafe d'eau" (oon karaaf doe) to get free tap water.
Lots of Halal restaurants are scattered all over Paris; from Pakistan cuisine to Indian naan bread, Moroccan, Indonesian, Lebanese, Turkish baklawa to even fried chicken - all can be found in many Halal restaurants. Champs Elysées has some restaurants towards the arc, the rest are scattered all over the city. A simple Google search would find many. There is a Japanese district in the 1st arrondissement centred around rue Sainte Anne where you'll find many authentic Japanese restaurants. Paris has the largest number of Kosher restaurants in any European city. Walk up and down Rue des Rosiers to see the variety and choices available from Israeli, Sushi, Italian and others. For vegetarians, eating traditional French food will require some improvisation, as it is heavily meat-based. That being said, Paris has several excellent vegetarian restaurants. Look for spots such as Aquarius in the 14th, and Le Grenier de Notre-Dame in the 5th, or La Victoire Suprême du Coeur in the 1st just to name a few.
Accommodation in Paris
Paris hotels, almost without regard to category or price, observe high and low seasons. These differ slightly from one hotel to another, but usually the high season roughly corresponds to late spring and summer, and possibly a couple of weeks around the Christmas season. Be aware that when a hotel is listed in any guide or website this will eventually make it a bit harder to get a room at that hotel. That means that you will probably need to book ahead, especially in the high season. However, if they don't have a room they sometimes know another place close by that does have a room available. When two people are travelling together it can be a much better deal to find a hotel room than to get 2 hostel beds. More privacy for less money.
For those who are staying for a while renting a furnished apartment might be a more comfortable and money-saving option. Furnished apartments differ considerably in quality, so it is important to choose carefully. There are a huge number of websites in the business of helping you find one, but most charge a steep commission of 10% or more. Be aware that some agencies, which seem very flexible, actually do not abide by French law and do not carefully select the landlords and apartments they offer for rent. There are a certain number of guarantees, which are required in France before renting an apartment, and an insurance policy, which aims at protecting the tenants during their stay.
Transportation in Paris
The best and cheapest way to get around Paris is on foot, and secondly, using the Métro. Walking in Paris is one of the great pleasures of visiting the City of Light. It is possible to cross the entire city in only a few hours (only if you can somehow keep yourself from stopping at numerous cafés and shops). Another interesting walk in the city let you discover the top sights of Montmartre in a few hours. This includes the Sacré-Coeur, Place du Tertre, the Bateau Lavoir, the Moulin de la Galette and all the sights that made Montmartre world famous. The smartest travellers take advantage of the walkability of this city and stay above ground as much as possible. A metro ride of less than 2 stops is best avoided since walking will take about the same amount of time and you'll be able to see more of the city.
Métro (short for Chemin de fer métropolitain, Metropolitan Railway). Look for the Métro stations, marked either with a large "M" sign or by one of Hector Guimard's remarkable Art Nouveau station entrances. Metro lines are identified by their color code and line number (yellow for line number 1). RER Regional Express network used by suburban commuters anf services to airports (notably CDG Charles de Gaulle).
Since the Métro is primarily structured around a hub-and-spoke model, there are some journeys for which it can be quite inefficient, and in these cases, it is worth seeing if a direct bus route exists, despite the complexity of the bus network. A bus ride is also interesting if you want to see more of the city. The Parisian bus system is quite tourist-friendly. It uses the same single-ride Ticket t+ and Navigo fare system as the Métro, and electronic displays inside each bus tell riders its current position and what stops remain, eliminating a lot of confusion.
While the streets of Paris are generally fairly easy on novice cyclists, there are some streets in the city that should be avoided by those who do not have experience cycling in traffic and the proper mentality for dealing with it. In particular, 'Rue de Rivoli,' 'Boulevard de Sébastopol/Strasbourg,' 'Boulevard Saint-Germain,' 'Avenue de Flandre,' and most of the Quais that run along the river are especially bad during rush hours, but are at least somewhat busy at all times. While most of these do have cycle lanes, "sharrows," or other such accommodations, the sheer volume of traffic means that it may be a better idea to take an alternate route through the side streets. Traffic will also be particularly thick on the peripheral 'Boulevards des Maréchaux' (not the Boulevard Périphérique, which lies to the outside; more on this anon), and on main roads that lead to a 'Porte' at the edge of the city (eg: 'Boulevard de la Chapelle' and 'Avenue de la Grande-Armée'). If you find yourself on one of these routes, stick to the bike lanes whenever possible.
There are several excellent boat services which make use of the Seine. As well as providing easy, cheap transport to much of central Paris, excellent photo opportunities abound. You can buy a day or 3 day ticket and hop on and off the boat as needed. The boats take a circular route from the Eiffel Tower, down past the Louvre, Notre Dame, botanical gardens then back up the other bank past Musee D'orsay.
A lot to see in Paris such as :
Eiffel Tower
Louvre Museum
Arc de Triomphe
Champs-Élysées
Sacré-Cœur Basilica
Palace of Versailles
Musée d'Orsay
Montmartre
Tuileries Garden
Moulin Rouge
Centre Pompidou
Place de la Concorde
Disneyland Paris
Le Marais ( SoMa)
Les Invalides
Sainte-Chapelle
Latin Quarter
Catacombs of Paris
Champ de Mars
Musée Rodin
Tour Montparnasse
Saint-Germain-des-Près
Jardins du Trocadéro
Grand Palais
Île de la Cité
Palais Garnier
Panthéon
Pont Neuf
Conciergerie
Musée de l'Orangerie
Père Lachaise Cemetery
Pont Alexandre III
Place Vendôme
Les Halles
Place des Vosges
Pont des Arts
Canal Saint-Martin
Place de la Bastille
La Défense
Musée Picasso
Petit Palais
Île Saint-Louis
Le Palais Royal
Musée du quai Branly
La Villette
Jardin des Plantes
Cluny Museum
Parc des Buttes-Chaumont
( Paris - France ) is well know as a tourist destination because of the variety of places you can enjoy while you are visiting Paris. Through a series of videos we will try to show you recommended places to visit in Paris - France
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