I’ve been to Paris five times now and each time it’s like a different city. There’s just so many sides to Paris, and so many ways to approach it. And the thing is, each and every time I’ve loved it.
Paris is that kind of city.
So here’s an overview of the different Paris’ I have experienced. Maybe something here in my past travels will help you sort out what to see and do in Paris. Or, if you’re just like me, you will head straight to the Galleries Lafayette…
Paris, it’s that kind of city
Paris: Visit 1, the Art & Shopping Tour
This was my very first trip to Paris. I was studying art history in my home town (of Melbourne) and a friend and I decided to go to Europe during our summer break, which of course if the European winter. We arrived with our crazily overstuffed backpacks making the two biggest mistakes of new travellers: #1 carrying a backpack, and #2 thinking you had to take everything with you. Apparently they have shops in other countries, you know. Go figure!
Arriving was terrifying. I had a bit of schoolgirl French, not nearly enough to master the train system after a long flight. RER? What’s that? We did what anyone suffering culture shock should do. We wrote the address of our hotel on a piece of paper, waved it in front of a taxi driver, said ‘merci’ badly over and over, and settled back knowing we had a good chance of getting there. Money well spent. We were staying on the Left Bank in the Latin Quarter – an excellent location for discovering Paris for the first time.
And then we embarked on the ‘galleries in the morning, shopping in the afternoon’ tour. A great way to organise your day in Paris. You feel cultured and stylish all in one day.
The most incredible moment for me was seeing Picasso’s painting Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. I had just written an essay on it, and standing in front of it I realised I knew nothing. Looking at images in books gave me no idea of the size, presence, colour or texture of the work. In one incredible moment I realised that nothing replaces seeing things in the original and that I could happily spend a lot of time in Paris.
So, gallery recommendations: Musee d’Orsay, the Picasso Museum, the Rodin Museum, the Louvre of course, and booking tickets online will get you past the queues. You could spend a month exploring the Louvre, so either be targeted in what you want to see or be unemployed.
Shopping recommendations: Galleries Lafayette on Boulevard Haussman, near L’Opera Metro. It’s one of a cluster of the good department stores – do them all.
The big lesson on this trip was about coffee. Our hotel served breakfast coffee in those wonderfully huge bowls, delicious. But this was not just any coffee, this was real French café and it had my friend and I running straight to the WC – no wonder French women don’t get fat. We stuck to hot chocolate after that.
Paris: Visit 2, the Trip with the Arguing Couple
Not recommended. Paris is for lovers, apparently, so perhaps they were just regretting having agreed to meet me, the third wheel, there. But, come on, no stand-up fights in the street, guys. Not fun. (Although the Parisians seemed amused to be able to watch some street theatre that did not involve face paint.)
This was my second trip to Paris and again, I stayed in the Latin Quartier. Fast becoming a favourite. Or perhaps just familiar and therefore comfortable. You can spend days exploring just that one part of the city, wandering into churches, shops, galleries, cafes. Or along the Seine, across bridges, into little parks. Divine.
I arrived by train, Eurostar from London, cheap as long as you book well ahead. And although it takes longer than flying, all the time you save by not having to go to the airport and wait around means I actually beat the flying, arguing couple. Arriving at Gare du Nord somehow seemed simpler than trying to fathom the train from the airport on my first visit, and I easily bought a Metro ticket from the machine and found the right line. Although you might need to buy some chocolate to get change for the machine – oh, well. And the queues for tickets can be long as the machines are well outnumbered by the number of tourists who have no idea how to use them even after watching the six Parisians in front of them do it.
We all just want a croissant
This visit was a lesson in language, too. My friend had very respectfully and carefully taught herself some French phrases (and it is always a great idea to know at least the basics when travelling anywhere). The French have a reputation for not speaking English – they can, they just won’t. But they still look pained when you mangle their beautiful language.
But the lesson I learnt was that in a busy Parisian weekend café, the waiters have little patience for painstakingly pronounced, grammatically perfect French 101 and would rather you point and use scattered words of French and/or English – they’d prefer you to respect their time not their language. We all want coffee and croissant anyway, don’t we?
Paris: Visit 3, Disneyland Paris
Don’t.
Well, if you have kids or like rides, then go if you must. Or you can use it to bribe the kids to put up with your three days of culture in Paris. I was dragged there kicking and screaming for a conference when I used to write TV for a living. It was horrible (read that anyway you like…)
I will never forget the horrifying Dark Ages dinner at the awful castle-themed restaurant. I was fortunate to be sitting next to our token native Parisian so was spared the indignity of wearing the gold paper crown that could only have been designed to add insult to the injury the food was inflicting. He hissed at the unfortunate waiter handing these monstrosities to suffering diners, and our table was spared. I was unfortunate enough to joke that I’d expected better food in Paris and got my own hissing: ‘Thees ees not Parees.’
The upside came when we were given a couple of hours to visit the theme park and partake of the rides. The more subversive of us had investigated the reading material in our rooms and discovered La Vallee Village Outlet Shopping nearby. We commandeered a taxi, headed out there in the misty winter night, piled out and went our separate ways for an hour of retail bliss. I got a Christian Lacroix dress for 50 euros. Fifty euros! Now that’s one ride I don’t mind taking. Go to the mall – it’s not so far from Paris, easily accessible by train, although of course, eet ees not Parees.
Paris: Visit 4, the Fleeting Visit on the Way Somewhere Else
On this trip, I arrived by plane because, when booking last-minute travel, the cheap airlines are much cheaper than the train. I had booked a hotel on the Internet – nowadays my favourite way of organising any travel – good prices, photos, user reviews. And of course you get really specific written instructions on how to get to your hotel.
Arriving at Charles de Gaulle airport I knew I needed to get the bus to L’Opera. The signs told me it went from Stand 11. The airport is curved. I walked and walked. It all began to make less sense. But persistence is the key word in any travel and especially in Paris, and I found it eventually, helped by the fact the word Opera was printed on the road in a bus-sized box. And soon that box was perfectly filled by a bus. I paid, got on, got to L’Opera and stared around me totally perplexed. Streets never look like maps suggest they will.
And then, going against everything you have ever heard about the French, the bus driver locked up his bus and walked me up the street to where I needed to go: helpful above and beyond. And no tip required, he just gave me a smile and waved me on to my hotel. Lovely man, I salute you.
A short but great visit, targeted at a revisit to Galleries Lafayette – my hotel was chosen solely on its proximity to this mecca of stylish retail. I still regret walking away from that pair of fabulous shoes. Still, they did cost as much as my flight, my hotel, and the bus. Twice over. Even on Sale. Sigh!
Paris: Visit 5, the Impoverished Writer Tour
Most recently, I found myself lucky enough to stay at Shakespeare and Co bookshop for two weeks — for free! Again, in the Latin Quartier. I had a gilt mirrored, book-lined room overlooking Notre Dame. For free! The owners of this place, George Whitman and his daughter Sylvia, are truly good people, real patrons of writers.
Shakespeare & Co., Paris
I met great people, also impoverished writers, and learnt how to live on one baguette a day and to drink coffee standing at the bar of the café (it’s cheaper). I also learnt the art of befriending the local bakers and getting free bread at closing time.
And I learnt a lot about Paris’ network of free showers (because the bookshop had no facilities aside from a WC and a sink to brush your teeth). But what a way to get to know Paris properly. The public showers are open at different times and on different days, so I used about four of them, all within walking distance. One in particular was an absolute joy. Light and clean in a beautiful residential building. I lingered there. And then came out to see the plaque in the courtyard listing the names of all the Jews forcibly removed from the building by the Nazis. It’s easy to think of Paris as about art and food and romance, but of course it has its darkness as well.
Some of the other showers were not quite so pleasant but talk about getting to know the hidden faces of a city – both human and architectural. And how wonderful that the city provides such a service, even if housing might be an even better solution to the issue of homelessness. Still, it’s something.
I admit that some days I became a bit princess about the whole starving artist thing and went to the hamman (public bath) at the La Grande Mosquée de Paris. Here I scrubbed and warmed up. There is also a great café at the Mosque – proper mint tea, yum.
But the real joy of this trip was choosing a book each day from the shelves of my room and heading out to sit on the banks of the Seine in the winter sun and read. And watch. And listen. Now, that doesn’t cost you a thing and it’s one of the greatest ways to see, hear, smell and feel Paris.
–Philippa Burne
If you’re planning a trip to Paris, be sure to browse Viator’s list of Paris tours and things to see and do.
Source: Things to Do in Paris: From Shopping to Art
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