Paris Travel Guide 2021

Travel

by train: Eurostar from St Pancras, London to Gare du Nord, Paris

https://www.eurostar.com/uk-en

When arriving at Paris Gare du Nord, turn left and follow signs down to the Metro

You can join the long queue at the ticket office, or just carry on to the much quieter ticket machines about 100 metres further on

by air: British Airways from Heathrow to Charles de Gaulle
Catch the RER B from the airport - a single ticket is €10.30

Hotel

Holiday Inn Express, Paris-Canal de la Villette, 75019

https://www.ihg.com/holidayinnexpress/hotels/gb/en/paris/parlv/hoteldetail

great views over the canal basin, free breakfast, close to Parc de la Villette & Cité des Sciences

5 minutes from Laumiere on line 5, which comes straight from Gare du Nord, or 5 minutes from Riquet on line 7 

there are supermarkets between the hotel and each station, or for a larger shop, use the Monoprix at Castorama only 5 minutes away. There's a great little bakery at the end of the bridge over the canal.

Hotel Georgette, 36 rue du Grenier-Saint-Lazare, 75003
http://www.hotelgeorgette.com/en/
a boutique hotel with tiny lobby and breakfast bar, very welcoming, individual rooms (we were in the attic) with lots of comfort
1 block from the Pompidou Centre and 5 minutes from Chatelet Les Halles transit hub
supermarché G20 literally across the road, watch out for cycling menaces

Getting around

Navigo card: https://www.transilien.com/en/page-tarifs/the-navigo-decouverte-card 
You need a passport photo, but a black and white photocopy of your passport photo will do (try the basement of shopping centres for photocopy stores).

You can then add a one-week season, which runs Monday to Sunday, and is WAY cheaper than a 5 or even 3 day Paris Visite pass. Get it for 5 zones and it will get you back to CdG airport, Disneyland Paris, Versailles, Fontainebleau, etc (but not Paris Orly)

Paris Visite ticket: http://www.ratp.fr/en/visite-paris/english/preparing-your-trip-tickets-and-travel-passes-designed-you

1, 2, 3 or 5 days (not 24 hour periods, but actual dates, can purchase in advance)

This is very much a tourist ticket, so more expensive than just a travel pass

Metro, bus, RER, funicular at Montmartre, SNCF Transilien

small discounts at Arc du Triomphe and other sights

get Zone 1-3 as this covers everywhere apart from Versailles and Disneyland – it’s cheaper to buy separate tickets to those

best iPhone apps:
SNCF Transilien https://www.transilien.com/en/page-editoriale/check-out-our-apps

RATP https://www.ratp.fr/en/apps/ratp-app
RATP Next Stop Paris https://www.ratp.fr/en/apps/next-stop-paris

Museum passes:
Paris Pass: https://www.parispass.com/

Paris Museum Pass: https://booking.parisinfo.com/il4-offer_i148-paris-museum-pass.aspx

These both offer entry to 60 museums and monuments free for 2, 4, or 6 days (Sundays usually free anyway)

You do not need to queue to go into the museum (well, only with other pass holders!)

It is not valid for temporary exhibitions, so if there’s something you particularly want to see, you may have to pay full admission anyway

Note that some museums are shut on Mondays and others on Tuesdays, so check carefully.

Tourist Information

https://www.parisinfo.com/
There is a tourist office near Opera at 25 rue des Pyramides, also at Hotel de Ville, 29 rue de Rivoli, and in the Louvre Caroussel shopping mall at 99 rue de Rivoli
There is also a small welcome centre in Gare du Nord

Food

Les Cocottes de Christian Constant

135 rue Saint Dominique, 75007, 72 blocks from Eiffel Tower

http://www.maisonconstant.com/les-cocottes/en/

Fantastic tiny restaurant serving every dish in a Staub cocotte (ceramic dish) from starters to puddings

Cafe L'Industrie
16 rue St Sabin, 75011
https://cafedelindustrieparis.fr/en
Real French cooking, cheerily served - we recommend the duck rillettes and the boeuf bourguignon

Cedars
101 avenue Jean-Jaures, 75019
http://cedars.fr/
Lebanese restaurant, just across the canal from the Holiday Inn Express

Trois Fois Plus De Piment
rue Saint-Martin 184, 75003
https://troisfoisplusdepiment.fr/en
Sichuan cuisine with a bite, always with a massive queue outside - must be good!

Sightseeing

Louvre Museum

Rue de Rivoli, Metro Palais-Royal–Musée du Louvre

http://www.louvre.fr/en

The ultimate Parisian art gallery. There’s too much to see in a day, so plan your visit on the website and pick an artist or period to track down
Nice cafés, and a shopping mall (see below)

and nearby, 
L'Orangerie
Jardin de Tuileries, 75001
https://www.musee-orangerie.fr/en

Classic art by Monet, Renoir, Cézanne, Modigliani, Matisse, Picasso and more
Eurostar tickets give you 2-for-1 entry, or use your Museum Pass

Musée D’Orsay

1 Rue de la Légion d'Honneur, RER Musee d’Orsay or Metro Solferino

https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/accueil.html

An amazing building, and an art collection split into the high art (Roman-style nudes) and the low art (Impressionism and working-class nudes)

Eurostar tickets give you 2-for-1 entry, or use your Museum Pass

Notre Dame Cathedral

Place Jean-Paul II, Metro Cité, RER Saint-Michel-Notre-Dame

https://www.notredamedeparis.fr/
closed for repairs

Wandering through the Ile de la Cité and Ile St Louis:
Confiserie Moinet, 45 rue Saint-Louis en l'Île
https://confiserie-moinet.fr/
lozenges made with Vichy Water from a firm that's been around since 1852
Conciergerie, 2 boulevard de Palais, on Ile de la Cité, Metro Cité

http://www.paris-conciergerie.fr/en

A royal palace used as a prison during the French Revolution, with a recreation of Marie Antoinette’s cell

Sainte-Chapelle, 10 boulevard de Palais, 75001
http://www.sainte-chapelle.fr/en/
This church is famous for its stained glass. As it's part of the government and justice buildings, the security is very tight, so the less bags you have the better.

Paris Plages (riverside beaches), July to August

along the Seine, and at Porte de la Villette, near Metro Stalingrad or Jaures

https://en.parisinfo.com/discovering-paris/major-events/paris-plages

café, dancing, lanterns, showers, deckchairs, petanque, pedalos

Eiffel Tower

Metro Trocadero and walk across Pont d’Iena, or one of the RER or Metro nearby

https://www.toureiffel.paris/en

buy tickets online to avoid ridiculous queues, it’s definitely worth getting tickets to the top

Rodin Museum
77 rue de Varenne, 75007
http://www.musee-rodin.fr/en
This museum has beautiful gardens and a nice café, plus some outdoor sculptures and a display of how Rodin's sculptures of heads developed. In the building, Hotel Biron, you learn about its history and the other artists who lived there, including Jean Cocteau, Henri Matisse, Isadora Duncan and Clara Westhoff.

Bateaux Mouches boat trip

https://www.bateaux-mouches.fr/en/cruise/boat_tour

Boarding and landing are at the North-East corner of Pont de l’Alma
There are lots of other boat companies who would be glad of your custom

Paris Canal trip
https://www.pariscanal.com/cruise-seine-canal/

9.45am from Musée d'Orsay, or 2.30pm from Parc de la Vilette
A relaxing and instructive sightseeing cruise of 2h30 along the Canal St Martin through a series of locks and swing bridges, and through a low tunnel into the Seine

Sacre Coeur

Metro Anvers

http://www.sacre-coeur-montmartre.com/english/

A beautiful church at the top of a very steep hill! Climb if you want, or use a Metro ticket on the funicular, or take a bus to the top.

Maison Européenne de la Photographie

5-7 rue de Fourcy, Metro Saint-Paul

http://www.mep-fr.org/english/

The French equivalent to London’s Photographers’ Gallery, with a variety of exhibitions. Free on Wednesday evening.

Pompidou Centre

Place Georges-Pompidou, Metro Rambuteau

http://www.centrepompidou.fr/en

Great views from the top, a permanent collection of modern and contemporary art, and guest exhibitions
bookshop Librairie Flammarion: https://www.librairieflammarion.fr/

Institut du Monde Arabe

1 rue des Fossés-Saint-Bernard, near Pont de Sully, Metro Jussieu

https://www.imarabe.org/en

A beautiful building, with exhibitions and displays from Arab cultures

Arc de Triomphe

Place de l’Etoile, RER line A and Metro Charles-de-Gaulle-Etoile

http://www.paris-arc-de-triomphe.fr/en/

Always worth a climb in order to see Haussmann’s city layout of radial streets beneath you

nearby café: Le Grand Carnot, 32 Avenue Carnot, Metro Argentine

Pantheon
place du Pantheon, 75005
http://www.paris-pantheon.fr/en/
Open 10am to 6pm, but the gates close promptly at 5.15pm
The second site of Foucault's Pendulum (the first was the Observatory in Montparnasse) for physics fans, demonstrating the rotation of the Earth. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foucault_pendulum The Pantheon is now a burial site for the great and the good of the glory of France, and has a very sombre atmosphere. 

Musée des arts et métiers
60 rue Reaumur, 75003
https://www.arts-et-metiers.net/musee/visitor-information
This site has the original Foucault's Pendulum, which has shuttled between the Pantheon and here over the years. It is also a science museum, with old instruments and astronomical tools, and temporary exhibitions about modern scientific methods.

Tour Montparnasse
33 avenue du Maine, 75015
https://www.tourmontparnasse56.com/en/
A view 200 metres above Paris, with a café and gift shop, no surprise there! Access the lift from the Rue de l’Arrivée side, round the corner from Gare Montparnasse and the Metro line 4 Montparnasse-Bienvenue station.

Shopping

Carrousel du Louvre

https://www.carrouseldulouvre.com/en/homepage

The entrance to this underground shopping centre is on the rue de Rivoli, along the north side of the Louvre, next to the archways leading through to the Museum courtyard

It has an international food court with good deals

Top shop: Delfonics, the best Japanese stationery - http://delfonics.fr/top.html?lang=en
Also good: Comédie-Française Theatre Studio - https://boutique-comedie-francaise.fr/content/4-nos-boutiques which has a bigger shop across from the Rue de Rivoli in Place Colette

Artazart

83 Quai de Valmy, Canal St Martin’s West bank

https://artazart.com/

Almost every craft, artist and design idea seems to be in this extensive design bookstore

Westfield Forum des Halles
101 Porte Berger, 75001
https://fr.westfield.com/forumdeshalles/stores
large shopping mall with FNAC, Gap, H&M, Herschel, Monoprix supermarket, MUJI amongst others

Day Trips

La Défense

RER line A and Metro line 1 to Grande Arche de La Défense

This cluster of modern skyscrapers has its own charm, and is worth visiting as the equivalent of LA’s Downtown or London’s Docklands

When outside, you will see a domed shopping centre CNIT to the North, and Les 4 Temps to the South. Both have lots of high-class shops. They have rest areas where every seat has its own power socket, so take your charger and replenish your phone while you chill.

https://fr.westfield.com/en/les4temps/homepage

To the East is a view all the way to the Arc de Triomphe. To the West is the Grand Arche, which sadly since 2010 has been closed to the public, but is impressive in its scale.

Restaurants nearby include our recommendations Vapiano and Chipotle, as well as many other cafes and international cuisine.

Palace of Versailles

http://en.chateauversailles.fr/

get a ticket valid to Zone 4 or 5, and take RER C to Versailles Rive Gauche – the trains often have Versailles-inspired decoration!

There are 2 other stations using SNCF Transilien: Versailles Rive Droite (from Saint-Lazare and La Défense) and Versailles Chantiers (from Montparnasse) – all are within 10 minutes walk of the palace

Though it means an early start, if you can get there by 9am you will avoid the queues. Arrive after 11am and you will have a long wait. Though rucksacks are meant to be checked in, after security just show them to the cloakroom attendant and you should get waved through. Food and drink are not meant to be allowed but checking is perfunctory.

See the apartments first, which will take a few hours. In the gardens, there are cafes and toilets, on each side, just past the steps and the fountain, at the edge of the hedging.

If you have time after your visit, the town of Versailles has many interesting buildings.

https://en.versailles-tourisme.com/visiting-the-city.html

Fontainebleau
https://www.chateaudefontainebleau.eu/?lang=en
Take the train from Gare de Lyon for Montargis Sens, Montereau or Laroche-Migennes
Departs xx16 arrives Fontainebleu-Avon station xx55 (the return train is at xx03)
from the platform bear right and cross the bus station to stop #1 for bus #1
Get off in the town and enjoy the market and historic buildings https://www.fontainebleau-tourisme.com/en/welcome/
When you're ready, walk to the chateau and visit the only palace that has been inhabited by all the crowned heads of France from the 12th to the 19th centuries. 8 centuries of royal presence, 34 kings, 2 emperors, 1,500 rooms. It's really big for Napoleon fans as well.
It only takes 30 minutes to walk back to the station through the gardens and along the wooded paths, or you can take the bus.