Back in the centre you find a huge arena in a nice area called Bercy. Check out who’s playing or what kind of events there’ll be during your stay. We had an unforgettable concert with the Red Hot Chilli Peppers!! Try to book well in advance for acts like that, but there will be certainly something available you like. There are some monthly magazines written in English announcing local events and highlights.

Surprise yourself by finding completely different possibilities instead of running around the crowded places, trying to see everything and being ripped off! Discover the city relaxed, and by doing it the local way, you will know it better than each "usual" tourist.

Quick Tips:

When you go to restaurants, do yourself a favour and avoid the tourist spots and multilingual menus. Dare to go off the beaten passes (I know it’s not easy in Paris) and find the spots of the locals, you just have to research a bit or try to meet some locals (at the skate for example) and ask them.

Also, there are always running exhibitions in not often mentioned places, like the current and very recommendable "Margrite" exhibition we visited by discovering it randomly. Inform yourself (the golden rule)! Your book doesn’t know about the current events. If you visit museums, take only one a day. Choose well and take your time, you will get much more out of it than by getting a head ache by sticking to your "I-want-to-see-as-much-as-possible" plan.

And for the Louvre, look for one theme or quarter, it’s too HUGE to "enjoy" everything even in three days!!

Best Way To Get Around:

Don’t be scared now of leaving the centre, but remember it’s still a multi million metropolis. Something else you can’t mention enough is your clothes. Try not to look like THE tourist, get your usual home Gear, hide your camera and map, and try to work out your ways and metros before you go.

Try to learn some basic words! It makes a difference and you’ll be more able to explore the city without this "I feel like a tourist" feeling (everybody knows and hates it). There’s nothing wrong with it, but it will make a difference some people just don’t know.

The only thing you have to do is get up in the morning and clear up your sleeping space. During the day you should find two hours to work in the shop. That’s the only thing he asks you for one night. Maybe it sounds weird and it’s not very comfortable, but it’s something you haven’t done before in your life I’m quite sure won´t happen too often again either. You’ll meet other interesting people, some of whom have already stayed in Paris for quite a while and they will give you information you wouldn’t find in a guide.

The baguette is usually from the bakery next door and the coffee is like the one you know from home. You’ll find places like this around each RER station, try to get one not too close to it. You will enjoy this breakfast and it’s a good start before you go to the local markets I recommended before.

We had no starter this time. We ordered pizzas and we have been really surprised about the quality and the size of them. In fact, we ended up discussing which pizzas were better, the ones we had in Italy or these ones. The desserts we ordered were evil - tasty and fresh. In addition 0,5 bottle of wine we paid 34 Euros for two persons including everything else (dishes, service, and tips), which is really reasonable for the center of Paris.

We left the restaurant stuffed and very satisfied with both the food and the service. I recommend it during the late evening when the locals start to go out as it feels more lively and creates this special atmosphere not every restaurant is able to create.

This system is partly older than the metro, it’s a huge tunnel system covering the entire area of the historic centre. It caused a lot of problems in the past, not only because it weakened the towns surface and randomly caused breakdowns (once a whole street cracked down), but also because people discovered it for their adventure and some even lived or hid there for some reason.

The officials tried to close the entrances to this system. There’s only one part open for the public and it´s really worth seeing. It’s the part where former officials of the town (18th century) decided to help out with the current graveyard problem. They ordered to collect the bones from the graveyards and piled them up in the catacombs. They did this in a certain order: you can recognise which historical graveyard belongs to which part, also famous abbey’s and monastery’s graveyards have been removed. They piled them up in orderly fashion, each type of bone together. It looks totally unreal, it’s hard to imagine that these are the former Parisians who built and made the city. They also formed pictures, warnings, and messages out of the bones in the piles, which makes the sight even more grotesque.

You don’t have to be afraid about safety or your health, it’s an official tourist sight run by the Parisian officials. I really recommend to go there, just because you won’t forget it and it’s another important part of Parisian history, one people just like to ignore. You find the Catacombs not far away from the assembly hall. Try to find out the opening times, they are quite short and change between seasons. The entrance was 4 Euros last time, but this year all prices went up, so I guess you’ll have to pay more. Take a torch and a strong flashlight in case you want to take pictures.