Louvre
No guide is complete without a section with the best tips to get to know a city. Therefore, and like our guide is no exception, here go some tips that will certainly improve your trip to the city of light.
George Pompidou
Museums
– Something I can advise you to do, that will for sure make your trip to Paris much better, is to buy the Paris Museum Pass; this pass allows you to enter in more than 60 museums around the city, including all those I talked about in our Guide, and with it you don’t have to wait in lines, and you can visit the museums for a much more accessible price than if you buy the tickets separately.
It can be bought in several places in the city, from kiosks, Fnac stores, tourist information centers, or even in the places to visit, like Louvre, Musée d’Orsay, George Pompidou, Panthéon, among others.
It has several options, it all depends of the amount of days you’ll spend in the city: 2 day pass for 42€, 4 day pass for 56€, and a 6 day pass for 69€.
Sacre-Coeur
Transportation
– If you’re going to use a lot the public transports, namely the subway, the best is to acquire the public transports pass, it works by areas, and so the prices vary, but it gives you access to the subway and the train (RER), saving you time, because you can buy it right from the start and therefore not needing to always be buying tickets.
This pass can be bought in the transport stations. If you opt for it, you should bring a passport picture and buy the pass for a week, or more (depending on how much time you’ll be there).
– If you decide not to buy the pass, the ideal is to buy several tickets at a time (10, for example) that will allow you to not having to buy a ticket at every situation. Of course the way I described Paris to you, it can easily be done walking, even because I organized by close areas in each day, but it also depends on where you’re staying and of how much you’re willing to walk!
l’éclair de génie
Restaurants/cafés/pastry shops
Paris is an expensive city, don’t be fools to think it’s not!
But everything can be circumvented and adapted to the amount we want to spend, right?
Restaurant Allard
– For example, if you want to walk around and visit the maximum of the city, not losing much time with lunches and dinners, nor spend a lot of money, nothing better than going to the supermarket (the best is a good cheese store and a good delicatessen store) and to the bakeries and buy the wonderful French baguettes and something to go with, and whenever you are hungry you can always stop in one of the amazing gardens and be delighted with your snacks.
– If on the other hand you want to take some time to discover the gastronomy, and you even like good restaurants, and more expensive, but you can’t spend a lot of money, I can give you an excellent tip, visit those same restaurants during lunch hour, because most of them do lunch menus at a much more accessible price, for example, Les Bouquinistes of Guy Savoy (see), the Septime (see), the Ze Kitchen Galerie and many other restaurants, with or without Michelin stars, create lunch menus with prices from 35 to 60€.
Les Bouquinites
– Heads up, in several Parisian areas, mostly at the most famous, like Avenue Champs-Elysées, the prices at the cafés and restaurants are super high, and the quality rarely meets the price. Similar to any big city, and the business of serving tourists, there are simple ideas not to be fooled easily: if there are employees at the door inviting you in (forget about it!), if there are menus in more than 2 languages at the door, (forget it)! The good ones, usually frequented by Parisians rarely pass the French. If the offer goes from Italian food to French, passing through Spanish and American (forget it!).
– The big chain restaurants and the bistros of the most touristic areas are not a great option either, in fact, there’s a big controversy in France because many restaurants use microwaves instead of stoves and ovens, and just heat frozen foods, unforgivable in one the world capitals of gastronomy.
– You must also consider that at the cafés, usually you pay a price to take out, a higher one if you seat on the counter and an even higher one if you dare to seat at the terrace (but some terraces are really worth it).
La grand Cascade (*Michelin)
– You must visit at least one great restaurant in Paris, from the most accessible tide of Bistronomie or the 3 Michelin star restaurants.
Tourist hunting
Although I consider Paris to be a pretty safe city, there is always some care you should have.
– An information I consider important is relative to beggars, don’t confuse the homeless with organized groups of beggars.
Something that always happens to me in Paris is to be addressed by east emigrants, mostly ladies that try to fool me with several scams:
– The ring scam – they come to a person saying they found a ring on the floor near you that will then be yours and the idea is to ask you money after.
– The bracelets scam at Sacré-Coeur – there are dozens of people (usually men) along the main stairs of the Basilica that will try to put a bracelet on your wrists and require money for it. Move along and opt for stairs with less people.
– Signatures scam – near museums like Louvre you’ll find a few people asking for signatures to help kids in Africa, it is another scam to end up asking you for money or even steal your personal documents.
– Besides this, at the public transports be very careful with pickpockets, close your pockets very well and the ladies’ bags always on your front.
See the Guide “Paris in 7 Days”. (Day 1) (Day 2) (Day 3) (Day 4) (Day 5) (Day 6) (Day 7)
Text: Cíntia Oliveira | Photos: Flavors & Senses.
