Old Moaner Travel

I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list

Paris

Ah, Paris the city for lovers, of romance, surly waiters, Gauloises smoking Gendarmes standing on street corners.

Grand buildings and boulevards and a magnificent river flowing through the centre - what is there not to like about the place.

Getting There

There are two main airports in Paris, Charles-de-Gaulle to the north and Orly to the south east.

Most international flights arrive in Charles-de-Gaulle and it is well linked to the city centre. The city's rapid rail system, the RER, links directly to the airport with a 25 minute journey time to Gare du Nord, 28 minutes to Châtelet-Les-Halles and 35 minutes to Denfert-Rochereau, all of which are major interchange stations with the other RER lines and Metro.

Trains depart every 10 - 15 minutes and a single journey is €11.40, Zone 1-5 travel cards are also usable.

The airport also has a mainline station linked to the TGV fast rain network.

There is a bus transfer available to the city centre, although why anyone would consider using it is beyond me as it is more expensive than the RER and takes twice as long. €18 and a 45-70 minute journey time

Taxi transfers are available for a fixed rate of €53 to "right bank" destinations or €58 to "left bank" destinations.

If arriving at Orly there is no direct rail link. A shuttle bus service links to a nearby RER station with a journey time into the city centre of 35 minutes and a fare of €6.35 or a Zone 1-4 travel card.

A direct bus link to the city centre takes between 30-60 minutes and costs €12, whilst a taxi will cost €32 to the "left bank" or €37 to the "right bank"

Arriving by train, Paris is linked to most European cities via high speed rail links, including London and Ashford via Eurostar.

Travelling by Eurostar has the advantage of delivering you to the city centre at Gare du Nord. Journey times from London St Pancras are around 2½ hours and fares start from around £29 each way although tickets at this price are limited.

Getting Around

Paris has a very extensive Metro system, it is said nowhere in central Paris is more than 400m from Metro station. The system operates from around 05:30 - 00:40 Sunday through Thursday and through to 01:40 Friday and Saturday and the eve of Public holidays.

If you plan to make more than one journey in a day then travel pass is the best idea a central Paris, zone 1-3 pass, costs €12 for one day, €19.50 for two days, €26.65 for three days or €38.35 for five days ..... bear in mind a single Zone 1-3 fare is €10 these are exceptionally good value.

Five zone cards, which include both airports, cost €25.25, €38.35, €53.75 or €65.80 respectively.

The travel cards can also be used on RER services. The RER links central Paris with the outer suburbs with limited stops in the city centre, however it can be much quicker than the Metro if doing cross-city trips.

Paris has an extensive bus service but, bear in mind like many big cities traffic congestion can be bad so they aren't really a practical means of transport.

Like most cities Paris has a range of hop-on, hop-off bus services visiting the top attractions. Several companies operate in the city with prices starting at around €30 for a day ticket if booked in advance and from around €39 on the day. Discounts available for multi-day tickets.

What To See

Of course there are the spectacular sights like the Eifel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Notra Dame (well what's left of it), Sacré-Coeur and the like but there is far more to Paris and hidden gems can be found everywhere.

In the getting around section, above, I mentioned nowhere in central Paris is more than 400m from a Metro station, however if you simply on the Metro to get around you will potentially miss so much. Just get on Shanks Pony and walk between the sights and you will find delightful tucked away squares, small cafés where you won't need a mortgage to buy a coffee.

In this review I will look at Paris area by area starting in the centre and ending just outside the city itself.

The River Seine flows through the heart of the city and, as is the case with London, taking a sightseeing cruise will give you a view of some of the main sights. For something more romantic try an evening dinner cruise.

Ile De La Cite and Ile St-Louis

Two islands in the centre of the Seine, although calling them islands is no more than a technicality as both have several bridges linking them to the "mainland" as well as a bridge linking the two islands. There is even a Metro and RER station on the Ile DE La Cite.

Semantics aside the isles have several churches including the most famous in France Notre-Dame.

Of course, following the major fire in April 2019, the cathedral can only be viewed externally and only then, from a distance.

The plan is to have the building restored in time for the Paris Olympics in 2024.

There are other churches on the islands as well as enchanted squares.

You need to be on your best behaviour here as the isle is home to the headquarters of the Police.

One of the bridges linking the isle is Pont Neuf, the oldest and, arguably, most famous bridge crossing the Seine.

The Marais

The Marais was the heart of royal France until the Revolution, when the area was allowed to decay. It wasn't until the are was declared a historical monument in 1962 that its revival began. It had now, almost, been restored to its former glory.

The area is home to The Place de la Bastille, where the revolution began. The prison has long gone and it is a traffic ridden open square, although if you look closely there are flagstones indicating where the prisons towers used to be.

The appropriately named Avenue des Frances-Bourgeois runs through the heart of the area and is lined with several museums.

The cities Jewish Quarter is located here and Rue des Rosiers has the aroma of pastrami and borscht filling the air.

One must see location is the Place des Vosges, describes as the most elegant square in Paris, although Parisiennes will tell you it is the grandest square in the world. Perfectly symmetrical and surrounded by 36 houses, nine on each side, the square used to host jousting tournaments in days of yore.

Of the many museums in this area it is probably the Musée Picasso which attracts the most visitors. The French state inherited many of his works, in lieu of death duty, when he died in 1973. Housed in a 17th century mansion the museum has examples of his works from all his various phases.

The Hotel De Ville or put bluntly Paris Town Hall is in the area and, unsurprisingly, it is a somewhat grand building. It's a 19th century reconstruction of the original 17th century building which burned down in 1871. The square in front of the building was used for public executions.

Beaubourg and Les Halles

Although Paris has thousands of old historic buildings there is also a tradition or architectural innovation with bold modern buildings appearing all over the city.

One of the most controversial is the Pompidou Centre, the eponymous modern art centre and pet project of Georges Pompidou, who succeeded De Gaulle in 1969.

He wanted to modernise Paris and was responsible for converting the nearby, derelict market area of Les Halles into a thriving modern shopping centre.

Both projects turned out to resounding successes.

The big novelty, at the time and since copied elsewhere, for the Pompidou Centre was having all the infrastructure pipework and cabling exposed in what is described as an inside out building. All the lifts and escalators are the outside as well, You can see why it was so controversial but for a modern art building it works and it is one of the most visited buildings in Paris.

The Les Halles conversion was incredibly controversial but after 40 odd years it seems to be accepted and is a popular shopping area catering from the vast megastores to small independent quirky stores.

The area has also retained many specialist food shops, butchers and markets to still give a taste of how the area used to be when it was the main market for Paris.

The area isn't all new and renovated, there are some old churches tucked away and the area is home to the Bourse du Commerce, the French Stock Exchange.

Tuileries

This area of the Right Bank of the Seine is home to magnificent gardens and one of the great museums in the world - the Musée du Louvre.

Again this shows the willingness to embrace the new with the old, as the famous glass pyramid forms the grand entrance to the museum.

The Louvre is home to some of the greatest works of art in the world with the most famous pieces being being Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, Michelangelo's Dying Slave and the Venus de Milo.

It is the Mona Lisa which attracts the most visitors and it can be identified by the mass of tourists surrounding it. Once at the front of the throng it is actually a massive anti-climax. It is behind very thick glass and it actually very small in size. Personally I would not queue to see it again.

Behind the Louvre is the Palais Royal, the former Royal Palace now mainly uses as Government buildings. The gardens of the palace are about a third of their original size but still impressive. Lined by restaurants, art galleries and specialist shops line the gardens.

The Place de la Concorde is one big square surrounded by many lanes of fast moving traffic - in the centre is an Egyptian obelisk - a twin of Cleopatra's Needle in London.

Running along the river from the Louvre is the Jardin des Tuileries, a large formal garden dating back to the 17th century and very popular with Parisienne walkers, especially on a Sunday

St Germain

On the Left Bank and the centre of the city's intellectual life and still the home of radicals and daydreaming lefties who think they can put the world to rights.

It is also home to some seriously upmarket stores line Yves St Laurent and interior designers who will probably charge you more than your property is worth just to enter their premises.

South of the area there are plenty of restaurants and cafés.

Orsay station used to be one of the main railway stations in Paris but remained derelict after its closure. Eventually, 47 years after its closure it reopened as a museum, which has become a "must see" attraction for art lovers.

Latin Quarter

This Left Bank area has long been the Bohemian area of Paris, loved by students and artists alike and home of the brief revolution in 1968, centred on the Sorbonne University, still a hotbed of loony left wing radicals.

An area of cheap shops, fast food outlets and a maze of narrow cobbled streets and small, intimate squares.

The Musée de la Prefecture de la Police is a quirky museum telling the story of policing in Paris from the middle ages to the present day. Exhibits range from arrest warrants for revolutionaries through to some pretty nasty weapons used by police over the years.

A moving section tells the story of the involvement of the police in the resistance movement and subsequent liberation of Paris.

La Sorbonne is the main part of the University of Paris and was originally a theology college. It was also home to the first printing press in France.

The Panthéon is a grand church built on the orders of Louis XV after recovering from a serious illness in 1744. He must have been incredibly thankful because it is a stunning building.

The Latin Quarter is definitely an area o explore on foot or sitting outside a café people watching or discussing politics with a local.

Jardin des Plantes Quarter

The area takes its name from the massive royal gardens that used to be here.

Rue Mouffetart is home to a bustling daily market and worth a visit and some of the nearby streets and alleyways have barely changed since medieval times.

There is an Arab cultural centre in the area and adjacent is an open air sculpture park.

Some of the main hospitals of Paris are located here as well.

Luxembourg Quarter

An upmarket area of Paris where locals aspire to live. Centred around the Palais du Luxembourg , green spaces abound and the pace of life is certainly less frenetic than the city centre.

Montparnasse

In the early 20th century Montparnasse was very much an artistic and literary centre, in the latter half of the century it developed into a business centre, which it remains to the present day. With a lot of international companies based here there is very much an international feel to the area.

However, there is more to the area than businesses.

One of the quirkiest attractions in Paris, or indeed anywhere, has to be the Catacombs.

Les Halles used to be the main burial site in Paris but it was dirty, overcrowded and unsanitary, so in 1786 a monumental project was commenced to relocate the skeletons and rotting corpses.

Their destination, excavations in Montparnasse, where the remains of over 6,000,000 bodies are kept along a series of tunnels.

It is an awe inspiring experience and some visitors to find the experience too much, personally I found it absolutely fascinating and intriguing.

For more conventional burials the Cimetiere du Montparnasse is one of the main cemeteries in Paris and is the final resting place of people as diverse as Jean-Paul Satre, Simone de Beauvoir, Saint-Saéns (the composer), Alfred Dreyfus and André Citroen (of car fame).

Dominating the skyline is the Tour Montparnasse a 56 story tower block, the tallest in Europe when it opened in 1973. The viewing gallery on the top gives a great panoramic view of Paris and a different one to the usual stereotype panoramic view as seen from the Eiffel Tower. On a clear day, admittedly very rare with the traffic pollution, you can see 25 miles (40km)

Invalides and Eiffel Tower

Absolutely the most desirable part of Paris, with Art Nouveau houses dominating and home to most of the international embassies.

The Eiffel Tower, the iconic symbol of Paris, dominates the skyline and despite massive queues is still a popular destination. Whilst the views from the upper stages are brilliant by day, they are absolutely stunning by night. If you're feeling energetic it is possible to climb to the second stage by stairs, quicker than queuing for the lift. Visiting the third stage the lift is the only option and it gets crowded.

The tower is not the only attraction in the area ..... the Champs-de-Mars are magnificent gardens leading from the tower to the magnificent Ecole Militaire.

The Invalides area, centred around the Hotel des Invalides, has some stunning gardens and is home to the Musée de l'Armee. The Dome church is the final resting place of Napoleon.

One surprising area is the Village Suisse, a mock Swiss village built for the Great Exhibition of 1904. After the exhibition it became a centre for second hand traders before eventually being taken over by antiques dealers, who still remain.

Chaillot Quarter

Crossing the Seine to the right bank and opposite the Eiffel Tower we find the Chaillot Quarter, an opulent area of grand mansions, many of which are embassies. the Avenue du Président Wilson is home to the highest concentration of museums in Paris.

The Trocadéro was the site of the Great Exposition and is now a stunning garden area. It is also the spot where most visitors will get their first view of the Eiffel Tower and probably the spot where most photos of the tower are taken.

As I said there is a major concentration of museums in the area, with no fewer than a dozen covering themes as diverse as mankind, maritime, radio and Armenia.

Champs-Elysées

Undoubtedly the most famous street in Paris Stretching from the Arc de Triumph to the Place de la Concorde, the Champs Elysées is he most visited streets in the world.

A massively wide street and an adventure to cross (use an underpass it's safer) one of the clichés of visiting Paris is sipping a café on the terrace of a café along this street.

By all means do this if you must but it will cost you a fortune and you pay more for drinking outside on the terrace.

You can get a coffee for half the price in any of the streets off or parallel to this one and get less hassle from surly, aloof, waiters and, in all probability, a better view. With the added bonus you may get to chat to a local, which you won't on the Champs because the cafés are full of bloody tourists.

Leading into the area is Pont Alexandre III, the most beautiful and most photographed bridge in France .... adorned with Art Nouveau lampstands, resplendent with cherubs, nymphs and winged horses. If you have seen pictures of an iconic Parisian bridge anywhere the chances are it's this one.

At one end of the Champs is the Place Charles de Gaulle, also known as l'Etoile, basically a huge roundabout and when I say huge I mean huge with 12 roads radiating from it - it is massive fun to drive round, provided you are a confident driver .... with four or five lanes of traffic and traffic joining and leaving in all directions.

In the centre of the roundabout is another Parisian icon the Arc de Triomphe, built by Napoleon to celebrate his victory in the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805. At 50m (164 feet) tall the roof is open to the public for viewing, offering great views down the grand boulevards radiating from l'Etoile.

The Arc is the centre of national celebrations in France and under the arch itself lies the grave of France's unknown warrior.

Opéra Quarter

The Opéra quarter in Paris roughly equates to London's West End, with shops, theatres and businesses and is a magnet for tourists.

The area is named after the Paris Opera House, a mish mash of styles ranging from classical to baroque, nonetheless an impressive building.

Nearby the magnificent La Madeleine is a church built in a Greko / Romanesque style wouldn't look out of place in Athens or Rome.

The are is also home to Les Grande Boulevards, eight wide streets running from La Madeleine to the Place de le République and home to the grand stores and elegant houses

Montmartre

Montmartre, built on a hill, with narrow streets and squares is synonymous with art and even now artists ply their trade, watched by visitors.

Standing atop the hill is the beautiful, pure white, Sacré-Coeur, financed by two businessmen who vowed to build a church if Paris survived a Prussian siege in 1870. Paris survived and, as a result, this beautiful building appeared.

Close to the church is the Place du Tertre, the square where artists and visitors congregate - be alert for pickpockets and con artists.

Historically the area was a working class area but is much more gentrified now.

Walking round the streets of Montmartre is a delight and a great way wo while away a morning or afternoon.

The Rue Pigalle is the heart of the "adult" night life in Paris and although not as seedy as it used to be you need to keep your wits about you. The Moulin Rouge, famous for its can-can dancers is situated in the Pigalle area.

Further Afield

So far we have looked at the city centre but there is plenty to see slightly further afield.

Travel west from the Arc de Triomphe, along the Avenue de la Grande Armée, past Porte Malliot and you will reach La Défense, a massive new business area, the French answer to Canary Wharf. Although a business area there are plenty of interesting buildings and loads of restaurants and cafés.

Also to the west of the city is the massive Bois de Boulogne, a huge expanse of parkland where Parisians flock for rest and relaxation. There are plenty of walks and cycle routes and loads of places to picnic.

The Bois is also home to the delightful Longchamp Racecourse.

The area does change at night where it is home to ladies of the night plying their trade.

North of the city s mostly residential with little to attract visitors, the only possible exception being Parc Monceau, which has something of a British feel to it.

By contrast, travelling East there is loads to see.

Edith Piaf, is as iconic a French entertainer as you can imagine and it will be little surprise to know there is a museum dedicated to her.

The Chateau et Bois de Vincennes are well worth a visit, the chateau itself is impressive and the gardens impressive.

If you are in Paris and on a limited budget hotels in this area are cheaper than central Paris and only a 20 minute Metro ride from the centre.

The Parc de la Villette is on the site of the old livestock market is now a science park, with the highlight being a very impressive science museum. There is also a museum of music on the campus as well.

The Cimietiére du Pére Lachaise is the final resting place of many from the arts including Edith Piaf, Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison, Ffédéric Chopin, Sarah Bernhards and Marcel Proust.

20 miles east of the city is arguably the biggest attraction of the lot, especially for children and the young at heart - Disneyland Paris.

Let's face it, there isn't anything I can really say - it is Disneyland - OK there is a Gallic touch but if you have been to any of the US complexes you will feel at home and if you don't speak French it's no big issue.

For Brits who cannot afford to fly to the big US parks this is a more than acceptable substitute - you can even get trains direct from London to the park itself.

So that just leaves the south of the city.

Parc André Citroren is just one of three parks adjacent to the Seine and is the most contemporary. It has a diverse range of attractions ranging from formal gardens through to wildflower meadows. Relatively undiscovered it is a great place for an escape from the hustle and bussle of the city.

Last, but by absolutely no means least we come to the Palace of Versailles.

it is no great secret that I am no fan of walking round historic buildings but there are some exceptions and this is one of them.

The sheer scale is enough to boggle the mind but the opulence and bling would make an Essex resident green with envy.

looking at the frankly, at times, OTT luxury you can, perhaps, understand why the peasants revolted.

The Hall of Mirrors, which used to host state banquets is something to behold.70m long with thousands of mirrors lining the walls.

Or how about the Queen's bedroom where a Queen giving birth was a spectator sport?

Palace and Gardens of Versailles aerial view

If looking at French bling isn't your thing (did you like the poetry there) then have a look at the gardens.

The French are famed for their geometric formal gardens and the gardens here set the gold standard. As well as the formal gardens there are parks and woodland areas, not forgetting several ponds and lakes and did I mention a canal?

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