Autumn Paris

October may not be the best time to visit Paris, but there are some benefits. There are less crowds than in the peak seasons and we were able to experience the crisp air and beautiful changing leaves.

This was our first trip to Paris, so we did all of the tourist-y things. We had to work around a few days of rain and one day of nasty wind, but we managed to see all of the major sights. We followed the advice of many great journals on this site and three travel books. Our hotel and central location was in the Eiffel Tower area, where we spent most of our meal times. This area proved to be a great central location and provided many great visits to the tower both at day and night.

Quick Tips:

If you plan to go to Paris in the fall, pack an umbrella, scarf, gloves, hat, jacket, and a waterproof bag. It will rain, so be prepared.

Not knowing the language is not impossible, but it can add a lot of stress to your trip. The little phrasebooks and dictionaries you can get don't help much when you don't know how to say the words or string a sentence together. Luckily we stuck to tourist sights and English-menus at restaurants. Just because your hotel claims to have English-speaking employees, doesn't mean that they WILL speak English to you. It can get frustrating, so keep an open mind.

Best Way To Get Around:

Metro, Metro, Metro. I read all about how you should walk in Paris, but frankly...you don't need to walk any more than you need to. We already had sore feet from walking as much as we did.

Buy the Paris Visite card when you arrive in the city. You can get it for 1, 2, 4, or 5 days. You can also get it for any combination of zones. The zones 1-3 card for 5 days is what we got and it was PERFECT! We never had to worry about buying any tickets, ever. You can also use your tickets for buses and the regular trains. Along with the ticket, you get discounts in various places, but none of them were worth much to us.

Paris Visite (Tourist Pass) for 3 zones - 8.38 (1 day), 13.32 (2 days), 18.29 (3 days), 26.68 (5 days) includes special services and discount for some attractions. It's also available for 5 zones (covering Eurodisney and Versailles) or 8 zones.

Directions from Gare du Nord:
Take #4 Metro to stop Strasbourg St. Denis. Exit and change to Metro #8 to final stop at Ecole Militaire.
Travel North on Avenue Bosquet. Cross over Rue de Champ de Mars, at next street, Rue de Grenelle, turn left.
Make next right on Rue de l'exposition. Hotel is #17.

This was a reasonably priced hotel in a great location (a three minute walk to the Eiffel Tower). And that is where its benefits end. After walking in the rain, we arrived at the hotel on Thursday afternoon. We were greeted with an oh-so-nice desk attendant who THREW our key at us and told us our room was on the first floor.

Nice welcome.

The room was small, which we expected. It was a fairly clean room, although the blankets and floor were heavily stained. The room was a double shower with a color TV, wardrobe, desk, chair, dresser, heater, and bathroom with a sink, toilet and shower.

The hotel is small and old, but I am not sure how old. The other guests did not take care to walk quietly up the stairs nor did they try to speak quietly as they went up the stairs. Our room was next to the elevator, which was also noisy. The weekend nights were louder than Thursday and Sunday nights. The desk attendants sometimes smoked, which made our room smell horrible! And they watched TV all night at a very loud volume level.

There is a breakfast room, although no one told us if it was included or if we could have any. One morning we asked the nicest of the desk attendants and he said we had to tell him the night before if we wanted breakfast. When we came back a few minutes later he let us have breakfast because some of the guests who had ordered it did not come down. Breakfast included a basket of croissants, biscuits, and pastries and coffee. What we didn't discover until we checked out of the hotel was that our breakfast was costing us 6 Euro per meal!!!! No one told us this at any time!! Also, the maid used her key and walked into our locked room without knocking on one occasion and made no apology.

There is some excuse for the "French Attitude" but there is NO excuse for hotel employees to be consistently rude to you! If it wasn't for the great location and low price of the room, I would have been irrate!!

The Louvre, which is famous for great works of art, is much more than just a museum. My suggestion is to enter the museum from its Metro exit. Follow the signs into the reception area and to your left and right as you enter will be queues for ticket machines. Just insert your money and avoid the ticket sellers--the lines go faster for the machines.

There are two kinds of tickets for the Louvre: permanent exhibitions and temporary/permanent exhibitions. If you just want to see the token pieces of art, stick to the permanent exhibitions ticket. It gets you into the three main galleries: Sully, Richeleu, and Denon. Each gallery has its own entrance, but once you get into one with your ticket, you can get to the other two without coming back to the reception area. You may notice that most people begin their visit at the Denon gallery (the Mona Lisa is here). I suggest going to the Sully gallery, which introduces you to the museum with a history of the Louvre and a medieval fortress. The main attractions of the Louvre are in all three galleries, but they are most notably are the Mona Lisa (Denon, on its own wall in a plastic casing, long lines to get into the room) and Venus de Milo (Sully, out in the open among the Greek statues).

The free map of the museum also points out other major pieces in the collection. Other must-sees are the Crown Jewels and Napoleon's Apartments. The Great Drawing Room is remnicent of the amazing rooms within Germany's Neuschwanstein Castle. Plan on spending hours and hours here. There is a lot to see, but it can get a bit repetative after a while. You can take a quick break in any of the cafes. Entrance fees are reduced on Sundays (5 Euro per person).

This museum was our little gem. On Thursday evenings it is open until 9:45pm. We arrived in Paris on a very rainy day and decided to go here to stay dry. If you are a fan of Impressionistic Art, this place can be like heaven for you. Famous pieces by Monet, Degas, Seurat, Van Gough, and others are on display. Famous works in the collection include: Monet's "Waterlillies," Whistler's "Mother," Van Gogh's self-portrait, and many more. The "Orsay" is not as well known as the Louvre, therefore, you might not find as many crowds here. We spent a few hours here, but for a short trip, you can spend a shorter time and still get a lot out of it. The museum has a reduced price for youths (under 26) and has a restaurant and cafeteria.

Having seen many cathedrals on our time in England, I wasn't sure that Notre Dame would impress me much. I was completely wrong. This church is honestly like no other. The atmosphere coupled with its myths and legacy make for a magical visit. Entrance to the church is free, but it will be very crowded. We recommend taking the tower tour. The price was a couple of Euro for youths and it was well worth it. You can guide yourself through both towers. When we were there, they were having a special exhibition on Victor Hugo's "Hunchback of Notre Dame," which was very interesting. The view from the walkway between the two towers allows you to view the frightening gargoyles along the edge and also gives you a great view of Paris. We were not able to climb up to the top tower (bad weather), but it is normally part of the tour. I am not sure if this is normally open, but we were also able to go into the bell room, which is the famous bell from Hugo's story. Another feature of the church is under the square. A museum which focuses on the Roman remains under the city is located under the square in front of the church. Luckily we paid the student rate, because it wasn't worth the money. The information given was dry and most of it was in French.

Another famous landmark in Paris, the Arc de Triomph is a must-see. You can take the metro right to it, climb to the street, and take the underground tunnel to the center of the massive roundabout (11 roads converge on it). The Arc commemorates fallen heros of war, included a "Tomb of the Unknown Soldier" (which is now a known soldier, thanks to DNA). You can pay a few Euro to climb to the top of the Arc for an interesting view of the surrounding area.

The Champs-Elysses is a shopper's paradise and also a nice walk for visitors. There are a lot of world-label shops and restaurants all along the street. Walking from the Arc, it is a straight walk all the way to the Obelisk and the Louvre. We munched on some Big Macs (our first beef in months) after a little shopping.

We made a mistake. We saved the Eiffel Tower for our last day, which turned out to be the most windy day in Europe for years. During poor weather the top platform of the tower is closed. Such was our luck. But since it was our last night in Paris, we had to make the best of it. One good thing about this was that the lines were not long at all. We stood in queue for about 10 minutes, bought our tickets for the second platform (6.90 Euro each) and got onto the lift.

Upon exiting the lift, we realized just how windy it was. We were repeatedly almost knocked off of our feet! The view was lovely though. We were able to recognize all of the sights which we had spent the previous days viewing. We spent our time just walking around the second and first platforms taking pictures and looking at the city lights below. It was quite cold, but we were able to go inside the shops on both floors to warm up a bit.

Besides the visit where we climbed the tower, we did visit the tower a couple of other times. So much so that we learned how to avoid the annoying peddlers below the tower! They sell miniature tower keychains and figures, flying mechanical birds, postcards, roses, and try to paint your picture. They are persistent and rude and became quite the joke with us. It was fun to sit below the tower and watch people being taken in by the peddlers! The tower is also a great place to people watch.

From www.paris.org: "Louis XV vowed in 1744 that if he recovered from an illness he would replace the ruined church of St. Genèvieve Abbey with an edifice to the glory of the patron saint of Paris: St. Genèvieve. The Marquis of Marigny was entrusted with the fulfillment of the vow after the king regained his health. The protégé of Marigny--Soufflot--was charged with the plans. Thus began the construction of the Panthéon. Situated on the Montagne St. Genèvieve, it had a commanding view of the city. The overall design was that of a Greek cross with a massive portico of Corinthian columns. Its ambitious lines called for a vast buidling 110m long by 84m wide, and 83m high. No less vast was its crypt.

The foundations were laid in 1758, but due to financial difficulties, it was only completed after Soufflot's death (1780) by his student, Rondelet, in 1789. No sooner completed, than the Revolutionaly government changed its mission from that of a church to that of a mausoleum for the remains of great Frenchmen. Twice since then it has reverted to being a church, only to become again a temple to the great men of France. Among those buried in its necropolis are Voltaire, Rousseau, Mirabeau, Marat, Victor Hugo, Emile Zola, and Soufflot, its architect. The remains of Jean Moulin - hero of the French Resistence during the Second World War - were moved here by Charles de Gaulle." We were lucky enough to visit at a time when there weren't a lot of tourists in the building. It was eerily empty, which gave us the opportunity to view the whole building at our own pace. I honestly believe that the Pantheon is the most beautiful building that I have ever seen. I highly recommend going here. Photos are allowed and the crypt is included in your entrance fee.

Now that Baz Luhrman has made this spot famous with his movie, the Moulin Rouge is quickly becoming one of the more famous sites for tourists. The Metro stop climbs to the street right in front of the nightclub, which allows for easy access in and out of what might be a bad neighborhood. The club is surrounded by seedy strip clubs and peep shows, so we didn't visit the area. There is a circular cement platform right in front of the club, which provides a good base for photography of its famous red windmill (in French, "Moulin Rouge"). You can still see a show there, but it will set you back about 70 Euro per person.

The Sacre Coeur will provide you with the second greatest view of Paris. The Metro exit leads you to a street flanked by strange shops which sell their merchandise at super-low prices. Walk up the street (you can see the church from the bottom of it), go through the gate, and you will find yourself at the church. It is a long climb to the top (something like 500 stairs) and the whole way you have to dodge those same creepy peddlers from the Eiffel Tower (except here they will try to make you a friendship bracelet). Along your way up, there are plenty of chances for a rest with the same great view ahead of you. But I must say that no matter how tired or sick you feel (I was VERY sick!) you MUST, MUST, MUST go up to the top to go into this church! It is amazing! There is a painted mural of Christ on the ceiling that is jaw-dropping. There is no photography in the church, but it isn't something that you will be forgetting quickly. The church is on a huge hill, which gets it not quite as high up as the second platform of the Eiffel Tower.

This is the famous cemetery where Jim Morrison of "The Doors" is buried. There are also some other great people buried here, including: Sarah Bernhard, Moliere, Seurat, Chopin, Oscar Wilde, and many more. It is quite an interesting place with its above-ground crypts. It reminded us of New Orleans cemeteries. We had a small map of the famous graves, but it was very hard to follow. Supposedly you can get a more precise map from the cemetery office, but we didn't see any. It is very easy to find Morrison's grave though. Just follow the other people (especially teenagers). While this visit was interesting, it wasn't worth all of the trouble getting out to Lachaise. Morrison's grave wasn't nearly as exciting as some people have made it out to be and it was hard to find other people's graves.

Take the Metro stop of the same name to a small, green, metal building. The entrance fee is a few Euro. After paying, you will proceed down a narrow, winding staircase under ground. The first few areas of the walk are just tunnels, but their eerie darkness gives you the right kind of ambience for what lies ahead. Millions and millions of bones stacked up, put into cross formations, heart formations, and piles of skulls. It is an amazing sight to behold. Unfortunately, there are always a few people who can ruin a visit, like the teenagers visiting while we were there. They picked up the bones and were just generally annoying. However, we were able to get around them and enjoyed the rest of our walk. It can get damp in the corridors and bringing a flashlight is actually a great idea.