Sightseeing in Paris

The city centre is actually surprisingly compact and the metro system makes getting around fairly easy. A good way for first time arrivals to get an idea of how Paris fits together is to take a cruise on the River Seine or ascend the Eiffel Tower and take in a sweeping view of the city. With so much to see, time management is crucial and many people opt to choose to concentrate on one or two of the arrondissements.

The nostalgic should wander around the mansions of the Marais district, past the Musee Carnavalet, 23 rue de Sevigne, 3rd; Hotel de Sully, 62 rue St-Antoine, 4th, and Place des Vosges, home to the Maison de Victor Hugo. Those interested in modern art and design should opt for the Centre Georges Pompidou, place Beaubourg, 4th; Jean Nouvel’s Institut du Monde Arabe, 1 rue des Fosses-St-Bernard, 5th; or the Grande Arche de la Defense with its high-speed glass lift offering a spectacular view of Paris. The Grande Arche, which lies along the same geographical axis as Napoleon’s Arc de Triomphe and the Champs-Elysees, was built a century and a half later. This incongruity (the modern city juxtaposed with the old) is all part of the charm of Paris.

Paris overflows with museums, ranging from the vast collections of the Louvre to the small and quirky - such as the Musee des Arts Forains, 53 avenue des-Terroires-de-France, 12th, a shrine to fairground art, with something for everyone scattered through the metropolitan area.

Repeat visitors to Paris usually end up uncovering something new, such as the rejuvenated Bercy district to the east with its green spaces, popular bars and development buzz or Belleville, with its grungy cosmopolitanism and ethnic restaurants. A new attraction is the Paris Plage in summer when the car takes a back seat and the city’s citizens relax by the Seine amidst a world of sand and deckchairs. This is only one urban escape in a city with a sprinkling of parks that offer respite from the bustle.

Passes
The new Museum Pass allows free unlimited access to more than 70 museums and monuments in the Paris region, including the Arc de Triomphe, Musee National du Louvre, Musee d’Orsay and Musee Rodin. The pass is for sale (€25 for one day, €44 for three days and €62 for five days) from tourist offices, participating museums and monuments, the main metro stations and FNAC stores. The pass allows visitors to bypass queues but does not provide free admission to special or temporary exhibitions. For more information, visit www.museums-of-paris.com

Cost of Living

One-litre bottle of mineral water: €1
33cl bottle of beer: €2
Financial Times newspaper: €2.50
36-exposure colour film: €7.50
City-centre bus ticket: €1.40
Adult football ticket: From €20
Three-course meal with wine/beer: From €20

1 Euro (€1) = £0.69; US$1.21; C$1.41; A$1.61
Currency conversion rates as of January 2006

Getting There

By Air

The city’s main airport is located 23km (14 miles) northeast of the city. There are three terminals: CDG 1 serves international flights; CDG 2 serves national and international flights; and T9 has charter flights only (national and international). CDG 1 and CDG 2 are linked by free shuttle buses. Air France coaches and RER line B (see below) link Charles de Gaulle airport to Orly airport (journey time - approximately 50 minutes).

Major airlines: France’s national carrier is Air France . Other airlines include Air Canada, Alitalia, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways, Continental Airlines, Delta Airlines, British Airways, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines and US Airways.

Airport facilities: Facilities include bars, restaurants and boutiques, post offices, newsagents, chemists, banks, ATMs, bureaux de change, insurance facilities and car parks. There is no left-luggage facility. Car hire companies at the airport include Avis, Budget, Europcar, Hertz, National Citer and Sixt.

Business facilities: Eight fully equipped meeting rooms, three offices and one VIP lounge are located within the Roissy Charles de Gaulle 1 Business Centre , accessible from the departures level near gate 34, by taking the escalators to the shopping level.

Transport to the city: The RER line B runs every eight minutes daily 0456-0014, departing from the TGV station of CDG 2 to the Gare du Nord, Chatelet-Les Halles, St-Michel and Denfert-Rochereau, where there are metro stations (journey time - approximately 30-45 minutes). Tickets cost €7.75.

Two bus services, SNCF bus de nuit , run from the airport to the city centre when the train line is closed. One service takes passengers to Gare du Nord and Chatelet, the other to Gare du Nord, Chatelet, Gare de Lyon and Gare d’Austerlitz (journey time - approximately 45-60 minutes).

The Roissybus service operated by RAPT departs from the three terminals to rue Scribe, metro Opera (journey time - approximately 60 minutes). The service operates daily 0600-2300 and costs €8.30. RAPT bus services 350 to Gare de l’Est and 351 to Nation also serve Terminals 1 and 2 (cost €1.40).

Air France coaches depart every 15 minutes from CDG 1 and CDG 2 - running daily 0550-2300 to Place Charles de Gaulle (journey time - approximately 40 minutes); a ticket costs €10. Buses also depart every 30 minutes daily 0700-2100 to Paris-Montparnasse, rue du Commandant Mouchotte, Gare de Lyon and boulevard Diderot (journey time - approximately 50 minutes); a ticket costs €11.50.

The Blue Shuttle is a door-to-door airport minibus service that is often cheaper than a taxi. Places must be reserved at least two days in advance (journey time - approximately 75 minutes). Ticket prices vary according to the number of passengers and the time of booking, the cheapest rate is €14.50 return per person, which is only available if booked at least three weeks ahead. The lowest fare available for a single passenger is €22 return.

A taxi to the city centre costs approximately €38-€43 (journey time - 45-60 minutes). The airport’s chauffeur-driven limousine service costs €105.

Orly is located 14km (9 miles) south of the city, on the A6 motorway. There are two terminals linked by shuttle (navette). Orly Sud handles mainly international flights, while Orly Ouest handles mainly domestic flights.

Major airlines: The national carrier is Air France. Other airlines include Air Algerie, Air Littoral, Corsair, El Al, Iberia, KLM, Royal Air Maroc, Royal Jordanian, TAP and Tunis Air.

Airport facilities: These include bars, restaurants, boutiques, banks, foreign exchange, dry cleaners, supermarket, pharmacy, post office and a hairdresser. There is no left-luggage facility. Car hire companies at the airport include Avis, Budget, Europcar, Hertz, National Citer and Sixt.
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Government and People of Paris

Paris is divided into 20 arrondissements (districts or boroughs), each of which has a local council and a mayor, but most of the power is held by the mayor of the City of Paris who is chosen by the city’s council. Paris and its suburbs together make up the eight departments of the Ile-de-France administrative region, which is governed by an elected assembly, chairman, and supervisor and overseen by a prefect appointed by the state.

Immigrants to France now constitute nearly 20% of Paris’s population. The majority of these are Algerian, Moroccan, and Tunisian. Large groups of Indochinese have also immigrated to Paris. About 75% of all Parisians live in the suburbs due to high costs and a high population density in the city. New towns have been built, consolidating suburban areas, and a great deal of manufacturing and other industry takes place in the suburbs.

Getting Around in Paris

Public Transport

The Regie Autonome des Transports Parisiens or RATP is an integrated, five-zone system of bus, metro and trains that is both cheap and efficient (except during strikes, which are frequent).

The 14 metro lines extend into zones one and two in central Paris. Metros operate daily 0530-0030, lines are color-coded and designated by numbers. They are also clearly signposted with the names of the terminus station. The newest addition (line 14 metro Meteor) runs from Gare St-Lazare to Bibliotheque François Mitterrand using brand new driverless trains. Free transport maps are available at metro stations, bus terminals and the tourist office.

The RER (Reseau Express Regional) suburban express network has five lines (A, B, C, D and E) covering five zones and operating daily 0500-0110 with journey times generally much faster than the metro for distances covered. The system is linked to the metro network and some SNCF trains.

The bus system is easy to use. Bus routes are numbered and stops display the buses that stop there, while a map shows all the stops on the route and the bus times. Most buses run Monday to Saturday 0630-2100; some continue until 0130. Services are reduced by approximately half on Sundays and bank holidays. Night buses (Noctambuses) run on 18 routes, Monday to Saturday 0100-0530 hourly, with a reduced service on Sunday. The night bus service cuts between place du Chatelet by the Hotel de Ville and the suburbs.

The same tickets are valid on the bus, metro and RER (within zones one and two only) but not night buses (see below). One ticket is sufficient for a single bus ride, for an RER journey (within zones one and two only) or a metro journey (irrespective of zone). One ticket allows for changes (correspondances) of lines on the RER and the metro, however, separate tickets are required for changes between buses or between bus and metro/RER. Tickets should be validated on entry and kept until the end of the journey to avoid on-the-spot fines. Single tickets cost €1.40; a carnet of ten tickets costs €10.50. Tickets, carnets and passes are all available for purchase from stations and tabacs; only single tickets may be purchased from the bus driver.

Night buses require separate tickets, which cost €2.40 each and allow one change. Weekly or monthly travel passes (see below) may also be used on night buses. A mobilis day pass costs €5 for central Paris and €11.70 for five zones including the airports. Paris Visites offer one, two, three and five-day visitors passes at €8.35, €13.70, €18.25 and €26.65 respectively for Paris and its immediate suburbs (zones 1-3), or €16.75, €26.65, €37.35 and €45.70 to include transport to the airports, Versailles and Disneyland Paris (zones 1-5). There are reduced prices for children. These are available for purchase at the airports, metro and RER stations and tourist offices.

For longer stays, the Carte Orange, with a weekly coupon (coupon hebdomadaire), for sale at all metro stations, provides good value. At €15.40, it allows a week of travel in zones one and two. There is also a monthly Carte Orange that costs €50.40 for zones one and two. Tickets covering more zones are also available. The Carte Orange reusable ticket should be validated at the metro turnstile and shown to the bus driver.

Taxis

Taxis can be hailed in the street or caught at taxi ranks (arrets taxis) found at airports, stations and close to main road junctions. A free taxi can be difficult to find, especially when most in demand - Friday and Saturday nights. A yellow light displayed on the roof shows that the taxi is available for hire; an orange light shows the taxi is in use. Taxi ranks have telephones, so if there are no cars in the rank you can call one.
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Shopping in Paris

The Parisian ideal is elegant rather than funky. Trends come and go but Paris is always at the forefront and there are few cities where you can find so many top-quality designers. These include some British designers - John Galliano at Dior, Julian McDonald at Givenchy and McDonald’s predecessor, Alexander McQueen, as well as that ever-controversial Frenchman, Jean-Paul Gaultier, with his own store near Bastille. The exclusive designer shops are in the 8th, enclosed in the golden triangle formed by avenue des Champs-Elysees, avenue Montaigne and rue François
1er and along rue du Faubourg St-Honore.

A less rarefied but typically Parisian shopping experience is to be had at the main department stores situated on boulevard Haussmann, 8th. These include Les Galeries, with its huge colored dome, and Au Printemps. Metro Temple or Republique take the bargain shopper to the cheapest department store in the city - Tati, 172 rue du Temple, 3rd (website: www.tati.fr). Cut-price designer gear can be snapped up at the Mouton a Cinq Pattes, 8 rue St-Placide, 6th. The sales sweep through Paris in January and July.

Those who enjoy intimate, friendly boutiques should head for the Marais district, in the 4th arrondissement. Rue des Francs-Bourgeois in the gay quarter sells designer kitsch, while the winding rue des Rosiers, in the Jewish quarter, has plenty of young designers whose works are displayed at L’Eclaireur. This area is at its busiest on Sunday, with many shops closed on Saturday due to the Jewish sabbath. It is ideal for a quick falafel snack, while the best ice cream is for sale at Berthillon, 31 rue de St-Louis-en-L’Ile, 4th.

The Carrousel du Louvre, under the glass pyramid in the Louvre courtyard, is a good place for shoppers to find tasteful gifts but those determined to take home plastic Eiffel Towers should head for rue de Rivoli, home to tourist kitsch. The American-run Shakespeare & Co, 37 rue de la Bûcherie, 5th, has the city’s widest selection of second-hand books in English. French books are best purchased at the city’s FNAC stores, one of which is at the shopping arcade, the Forum des Halles, 1st. Bouquinistes sell second-hand books, as well as prints, postcards and gifts, along the River Seine. (more…)