Hot answers tagged paris
37
As a French native, I discovered this practice in North America. I never asked for a doggy bag in France, nor have I seen someone do it. So it is likely restaurants don't even have boxes.
You can obviously take out food from fast-food restaurants but for regular restaurants I don't think it is correct behaviour. I usually finish my dishes, I only order what ...
25
I never found the stereotypical rude Parisian I was warned about. Several people went far out of their way to help me in ways I wouldn't expect in my own city.
I did not find a great number of people outside the tourism industry in Paris that spoke English.
I did always use the French words and phrases I knew "excusez moi", "salut", "merci", and if I could ...
23
I think the best write-up I've seen on this is at Corporatetravelsafety.com:
They begin the Paris String Scam by engaging you in innocent
conversation and will usually say that they want to show you a magic
trick. Before you know it, a "string man" has grabbed your wrist or
one or two fingers and encircled it with a homemade bracelet of
colored ...
19
The cheapest, but especially most efficient way of transport to get around Paris is the Velib. You pay a fee of 1,70 EUR for a dayticket or 8 Eur for a week ticket. During the validity of this ticket you are entitled to use any bicycle from the velib network.
Source: Wikimedia Commons
The catch to really travel cheap is to change bikes every 30 minutes. ...
17
Yes, there is!
On the first Sunday of every month, almost all the main museums and art galleries are open for free.
The only slight downside is that loads of people take advantage of this, so the queues can be quite long (it took 25 minutes to get into le Musée d'Orsay today mid afternoon as a guide), and they can be very busy inside. See this question on ...
17
The metro is only €1,70 per ride, and if you buy a carnet of 10 the price is €13.30 for all 10.
Probably your best bet. I hate cycling because of the issues with locking it up, worrying about theft, and if you're in the upper arrondissements going uphill on cobblestone sounds like a miserable experience I would rather spare myself from.
The city is ...
15
I would recommend summer.
The weather is warm but not too hot, less than in Italy or Japan. See this minimum/maximum graph in Nice (in Celsius, 25°C=77°F):
During summer touristic places are open everywhere, even in the South, the warmer the better.
During summer people working in Paris leave for the South, but Paris still has a lot of activities, even ...
14
Tuesday is national museum closing day in France. Many state-owned museums are closed on Tuesdays, as are many local museums outside Paris. In Paris, most city-owned museums are closed on Mondays. Some museums are open later on one night a week, usually Thursdays. Most museums close on some public holidays but not all. There are many exceptions, so always ...
14
It's a common problem I had in South America - I really wanted to improve my Spanish while travelling as it gives you a much better insight into your travels, and can talk to locals more. But so often they'd just switch to English because they welcomed a chance to learn English themselves.
You can either do the obvious (ask them to speak French so you can ...
14
It's certainly possible to do a day-trip from Paris to London. Eurostar takes a little over 2 hours each way from Paris (Gare du Nord) to London (St Pancras) and back. In both directions you clear immigration (both exit and entry!) before boarding the train, which adds a little to the total time.
However, if you've never been to Paris before, I'm really ...
12
You would be surprised how many parisians speak English (and German btw). When I lived in Paris for two years, I volunteered to help in teaching English. Often I noticed that the level of English understanding was quite well.
In my opinion, the stereotype of "parisian arrogance", should actually be called insecurity on their proficiency in English.
Like ...
12
I went several times to this park and I never had to deal with that kind of people (I am French). They certainly target tourists so I would recommend the usual stuff I apply to myself not to be bothered in such a case.
Walk confidently, a bit fast. You know where you are going.
Do not look around or stroll in front of them. Look in front of you.
If they ...
11
There are some good opportunities, for example:
Fontainebleau (outer suburbs to the south-east, about 45 minutes by train from Gare de Lyon + 30 minutes of bus from Gare de Fontainebleau-Avon to the palace)
Vincennes (inner suburbs to the east, terminal of metro line Ⓜ①)
Chantilly (northern suburbs, about 1 hour: take a train from gare du Nord (or the ...
11
If your travel company is comfortable with cycling, Velib is the least stressful form of transportation in Paris. You pay a daily fee, which is very low, and then you can take a velib bicycle to cycle around. The first 30 minutes of each trip are always free of charge. This actually means that you can ride for free as long as you change bicycles every 30 ...
11
Paris Visite is a more expensive tourist thing, with a discount voucher book for museums, etc...
I would suggest you to get what the locals use when they need a day of unlimited travel.
It is called the Mobilis. Costs less than the Paris Visite and much less advertised; its counterpart is that you cannot use it on Orlyval and the CDG airport stations.
Also, ...
11
Regarding the eiffel tower:
Image rights / the Eiffel Tower brand
By day, the sun light and the eiffel tower are in public domain, you can take it in picture and publish / try to sell the pictures as you want.
By night, the eiffel tower artistic lighting is under copyright if it's the main subject of the picture.
I think if it's for your little blog ...
10
I speak enough French to be able to read road signs, order food, and buy things. I can read almost anything and figure it out, given a little time. (I'm Canadian.) In Paris, the street vendors who are all around the Eiffel Tower accosted us every time we went by. Umbrellas, mini towers etc etc. "Non, merci" I said every time. They would melt away and leave ...
10
Don't even try it, it may send an already obnoxious Parisien waiter over the edge. He'll likely pretend to not understand what you're saying.
European portion sizes tend to be manageable for most normal people unless you go to an American themed 'restaurant' that engages in the likes of rib eating competitions.
10
Take the Metro.
Better than a carnet if you plan to ride often, I suggest you consider unlimited-ride passes. These give a sense of freedom, "need a ride? let's go!". You an use the underground network as well as buses and light rail.
Available short-term passes that are:
Paris Visite : The tourist thing. Rather expensive, with a booklet of vouchers for ...
10
The fastest route is the Thalys train that takes 1:22 hours and is a non stop train. If you compare that to the car, you need more than 3 hours according to Google. Consequently, buses can't be any faster than cars. Another option would be flying, but a flight takes around 1 hours, without including the time for getting to the airport, security check, ...
10
Thalys is definitely the fastest way of getting from Brussels to Paris. You can buy tickets directly at the Thalys website. You can also buy them at the Belgian (SNCB) or French (SNCF) railway companies. The prices are in principle identical.
The trip by bus takes around 5 hours, to be compared to the 1h20 of the train trip. Apart from Eurolines you can use ...
9
No, Interrails works on
TGV: high speed trains, reservations are required
Thalys: high speed trains, reservations are required
TEOZ: intercity trains, reservations are required
Corail: intercity trains, reservations are recommended but not required
Artesia: high speed trains, reservations are required
Eurostar: high speed trains, reservations are required
...
9
Since the trip on the Eurostar to London from Paris is 2:22 and back is slightly longer at 2:27 it is certainly feasible to make a day trip to Paris from London. The earliest train on August 1, for example is at 07:13, arriving at 08:40; and the last return trip from London to Paris leaves at 20:55, getting to Paris at 00:17.
Tickets on the Eurostar aren't ...
9
On Hafas sites (I used the Belgian one), I found 10h41 with one change at Torino:
EuroStar Italia - ES 9630: Roma Termini (13h00) to Torino Porta Susa (16h52)
TGV - TGV 9248: Torino Porta Susa (17h35) to Paris Austerlitz, (23h51)
I got a quote on voyages-sncf.com, the french railways company: 208€ in 2nd class and 262€ in first class. For such a trip, ...
9
Cheap + Efficient = Walk!
Paris "intra muros", i.e. the area inside the ring road (boulevard périphérique, postal codes starting with 75) is relatively small. It has a surface of 105 square kilometers. On the North-South axis the largest distance is 10 kilometers and on the East-West 12 kilometers. These distances are rough estimates but give you a good ...
8
You can find information about train stations in France on the Gares en Mouvement (Stations in Motion) web site. The translation is somewhat haphazard. A left luggage facility is called a consigne (consigne automatique for automated lockers, or consigne manuelle if there's an attendant).
In Paris Nord, there are both automated lockers (acessible as long as ...
8
You can get by. Millions of Japanese do it every year. For an English speaker, French is one of the most similar. It is amazing how much communication can be accomplished without a common spoken language. For an English speaker, though, French is loaded with cognates. Out of respect and courtesy, do not assume that the French speak English. This is a good ...
8
The first thing you need to know is that French education is standardized, meaning that a Parisian is not more (or less) likely to have studied English than people out in the "boondocks." (This is in contrast to most other countries, and comes as a surprise to most people. The second thing is that MOST French people know at least a little English.
Even so, ...
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