Really, there’s no excuse for visiting Paris and not seeing the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame Cathedral and the Arc de Triomphe. You should also walk down the Champs-Elysees and try to get to the Louvre too, at a minimum to stare in at the Mona Lisa. Omit any of these activities at your own risk – your family and friends might not believe you’ve been to Paris if you do. If your time is limited, then get a good overview of these by joining one of the tourist “hop on, hop off” buses which run circuits around all the major tourist attractions – some of these are even run by the local transport authorities and are reasonably cheap.
But when does “following the tourist trail” simply become being a slave to the most famous monuments of Paris? If you only stay long enough at any one point to take a couple of photographs and then head off to the next destination, you’re not having fun. Let’s say you buy the Musees et Monuments card for three days. For 72 hours you have free entry to dozens of places you’ve heard about, read about and seen on TV your whole life. You want to experience everything! But stop right there. The key is “experience.” If you simply dash in and straight back out of the Picasso Museum or spend a mere ten minutes soaking up a little atmosphere in Montmatre, you’re probably getting less than what you’ve already known from documentaries or magazine articles. Give yourself enough time to find something unique and memorable in each place. Plan ahead, pick a few museums, localities or monuments you’re especially interested in, and enjoy them properly.
Find a Convenient Hotel
Paris is not small. With two million inhabitants in the inner city and ten million in the suburbs, you can imagine the area: and this is space for thousands of hotels. Before you make a booking, make sure your hotel is in a convenient place. It doesn’t have to be in the heart of the city – unless your pockets are very deep, it certainly won’t be overlooking the Eiffel Tower – but make sure the transport options are good. The best method is to make sure a Metro (subway) station is within easy walking distance from your accommodation. Don’t just believe the hotel advertising – they always say the Metro’s nearby – check on a map or ask the hotel for specific directions and timing for getting to the Metro.