Paris guide - About-France.com (2024)

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DiscoverParis - Olympiccity 2024

►IMPORTANT- COVID-19 information for Paris.Parisisopen for tourism. Visitors entering France areadvised to be inpossession of a health pass, though this is not required, and will notbe checked at points of entry into France.

Parispasses : choose the right one for your needs

Confused ? Betweenthe GoCity inclusive pass or the ParisCity Pass or ParisMuseum pass orParisVisite or other options or buying tickets à la carte ??
To compare the passes, the prices and what isincluded just click here

Important:Paris passes do not include the Eiffel tower except as part of apackage; but visiting the Towerwithout a booking in busy holiday periods will mean at best standingfor ages in a long line, at worst disappointment.
See bestsolutions for pre-booking your visit on our Eiffel tower page

A very short historyof Paris

PARIS ! City of lights, city of love, and one of the mostvisited cities in the world.

Paris is acity with a proud and very ancient history. Originally founded in thethird century BC, on an island in the middle of the Seine, it was thecapital city of a tribe known as the Parisii, who gave it their name.
In Roman times, the city expanded beyond theislands in the Seine, and became known as Lutetia.
During the decline of the Roman Empire,northern France was overrun by a Germanic tribe called the Franks,whose new kingdom - part of the Holy Roman Empire - becameknown as West Francia,with its capital at Paris.
In the early Middle Ages, West Franciabecame France,and Paris grew in importance as a European city. By the12th century, when NotreDame cathedralwas built on the largest of theislands in the Seine, Paris was thecapital of one of the most

Notre Dame Cathedral - as it was until 15th April 2019, andas it will be again.

powerful kingdoms in Europe, and itsimportance as an international city has never waned.
Many of the great buildings of Paris,such as the Louvreand the Panthéon,date from the 17th and 18thcenturies when royal power in France was at its peak. Yet the "shape"of modern Paris was largely determined in the mid 19th century, when aradical city-planner, Baron Haussmann, was given the job of opening upthe old city with its narrow twisting streets. Haussmann designed acity criss-crossed by broad tree-lined boulevards, flankedby spaciousapartment buildings – which is essentially the Paris we knowtoday. TheEiffel Tower wasadded for the Universal Exhibition of 1889.
Though the city walls are long gone, centralParis is now known as "Paris intra-muros", or Paris within the walls,which is the area with almost all the main tourist attractions.Where there once stood city walls, there is now the"boulevard périphérique" or inner ring road,clearly visible on themap. Beyond that the moderncity of Paris extends in all directions.
On this andother pages, discover theAbout-France.com visitor guide to Paris, providing you with all youneed to know when planning a trip to this magnificent city.

Paris info and pages onAbout-France.com

• ►Generaltips on getting round Paris
• ►How to best use public transportin Paris

• ►Main Parismuseums and attractions and other sights
• ► Paris tourist attractions map- Interactive
• ►Parisvisitor passes: Compare passes: price, content, pros& cons
• ►The Eiffel Tower
  

• ►Where to stayin Paris -the options
• ►Visiting Parisin the springOr for Christmasshopping
• ►What's where? The quarters of Paris
• ►Paris for free... Even theLouvre is freesometimes !
• ► Paris on a tight budget -make the Euros go further.
• ►A week inParis - asample schedule
• ►Parisairport guide
• ►Pariswith young children
• ►Car hire inParis
• ►Monet in ParisWhereto see great works by Monet and the Impressionists
• ►The About-France.com choice ofgoodvalue hotels in Paris
  

IMPORTANT:Eiffel Tower :Noneof the Paris passes include a lift/elevator ride up the Eiffel Tower. (Onepass offers a second level Eiffel Tower ticket onfoot.... but asecond level ticket is only € 10.50 on foot, or €16.70 by lift/elevatoron the official EiffelTower site !) Access to the top of the tower must alwaysbe purchased separately, or as part of certain specifictours. It cannot be bought once you reach the second level.Buy your ParisCity Pass or your TheParis Passonline, then buyEiffel tower ticketonline from the official site. See EiffelTowerinformation.

GETTING AROUND IN PARIS

Likemost Frenchcities, Paris is notaplace to visit by car. Parking can be an expensive nightmare (thoughless so than London), and the city has a great public transportnetwork, with a fast underground or subway network that stretches wellinto thesuburbs.

Public transport

The public transport system includes buses, the underground andoverground metro, some modern tramlines, andthe RER (regional express rail).
If you plan to use public transport, it may makesense to buy one of the passes that includes it.
For more information about using the excellent public transport networkin Paris, seebelow.
Formore ideas on keeping down your travel costs, visit the BudgetParis page.

Tourist transport :

In addition to hop-on hop-off tour buses (see tourist passes),there is a range of other travel options for tourists. Apart fromtaxis, other more picturesque options include pedicabs and rickshaws,tours by historic 2CV (the iconic littleFrench car), Segwaytours, bike tours and walking trips.
There is also a city-wide bike share system knownas "Velib". How to make use of this system is explained on the Budget Paris page.

Makethe best use ofPublic transportin Paris 2024

Paper tickets forindividual journeys on Paris public transport have been largely phasedout.

In 2024.....
It is still possible to buy single journey paper tickets from machinesinstations - cost 2.10 € each.
It is no longer possible to buy the old "carnet" of ten printed ticketsat a reduced rate.
You can buy a carnetof 10 e-tickets, to be used from your phone, at1.69 € per ticket (€3.20 during the Olympic period)... if you know howto do this sort of thing.

More simply: buy ashort-term travelcard,giving unlimited travel for the days and areas chosen.

Visitors to Paris have two travelcard options.

• Thesimplestof these is a PARIS VISITE CARD,which can be bought online, or else at any Paris metro or RER station,main train station or airport.. Pricesstart at €14.90for one day (zones 1-3), €24.30 for 2 days,and go up to €81.80 for unlimited travel anywhere on the network for 5days.
• Cheaperbut more complicated to set up are different Paris NAVIGO PASSES. Two of these areavailable for visitors
  

  a) The easiestnavigo pass for tourists is the NavigoEasy pass. This can be bought at any metro or RER station.The card costs 2 €, and can then be loaded (by machine or at a counter)with "T" tickets, either single tickets at €2.15 each, or a "carnet" or10 single journey tickets at the reduced rate of 17.35 € for 10, and/ora daily Navigo pass,costing from €8.65 for 2 zones, to €20.60 for all five zones.. The passis not personal, no photo is needed, but two people travelling togetherwill need two passes.
  b) For the Navigo Découverte,a passport photo (size 25 a 30 mm) is needed. The pass can be bought atany Metro or RER station. The card itself costs 5€, then it can beloaded from a machine or counter with day, week or month passes.. Theday rates are as for the Navigo Easy pass; a week pass costs€30.75 (all zones), and a month card is €86.40 (all zones)
  

Changing:Just one important point to note: while you can change metros or changebuses on a standard journey ticket, you can't change from a bus journeyto a metro journey, or vice-versa.
Though the Metro ismainly an underground system, several parts of the network are aboveground, and offer an interesting way to see Paris from well abovestreet level.
Note:Neither a standard Paris metro ticket nor a central Paris pass arevalid on the RER for travel into the suburbs, andnotably for travel to Charles de Gaulle or Orly airports. Forsuch destinations, you must buy a specific ticket.
Specific destination tickets and carnets are available at all metrostations, and from automatic machines which accept credit cards.Carnets can also be bought in some main French railway stations outsideParis.

Findingyour way in the metro.
This is no big problem. Using the maps available, check the line numberandterminus station of each line you want to take. If you need to changeroutes, follow the "Correspondance" signs on the platform and throughthe foot tunnels; these indicate the line numbers and the termini. Justfollow the right one. The RATP (Paris transport authority) providesfree maps which are usually available in hotels, metro stations andother places.

Travellingoutside Paris: use the trains or hire a carat a location on the outskirtsof Paris, to avoid having to drive in the streets of Paris.See tips on car hire on theoutskirts of Paris. Click here for travel to and from Paris airports

GeneralParis transport tips :

TIP - Train orbus from the airport: Generallyspeaking, the RER trainservice is fast, and cheapest. See Parisairport guide.

TIP -If you arrive by air in Paris for a day trip, buy the 1 day "Parisvisite" visitor pass for zones 1-5, which includes the airports. thatway you also have unlimited public transport during yourday in Paris

TIP - Changing trains at "Chatelet"metro hub. Chatelet is the biggest interconnection station on the Parismetro system: three main RER (Regional Express Rail) routes cross here,notably B (for theairports) and A (serving the Gare de Lyon and Disneyland). If you arechanging from a southbound "B" train to a south/east bound "A" train,(for instance, coming from Charles de Gaulle airport and heading forGare de Lyon or Disneyland, a common combination), just cross theplatform. The same goes if you are taking these routes in the oppositedirection (for example coming from Gare de Lyon and heading for Charlesde Gaulle airport). Nothing could be simpler!
For other changes, follow the indicator boards, having noted which RERor 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 thecentral urban area of Paris (which you can do, of course), you willneed to put your ticket through the machine both to get onto theplatforms and again to get out of the RER area.

TaxisThere are plenty of taxis available in Paris, though pricesarehigh by world standards (less than Los Angeles, but more than SanFrancisco). There is also an Uber platform for Paris.

Buses and metros:With a day ticket, you can take buses and metros as much asyouwant. If using a single ticket, you can in theory youget asingle ticket and explore the inner Paris network all day.

Click here for Paristouristattractions guide: Eiffel tower,Notre Dame, the Louvre, Montmartre,Moulin Rouge, andmuch more