Paris can be overwhelming for a first-time visitor. It’s big, it’s busy and it’s home to a mind-boggling collection of museums and monuments. It can be difficult to know where to start.
France is the most visited country in the world. So it’s hardly surprising its capital is tourist hot spot, visited by millions each year.
With some practice and planning, your first trip to Paris will be wonderful experience and you will join millions of people around the world to fall in love with Paris.
Here is my first-timer’s guide to Paris including some of its hits and misses, how to get your bearings, best museums and shops and some things you need to watch out for.
Parlez-vous français?
According to official figures, more than 40 million tourists visited Paris in 2017. That’s well over the entire populations of Australia and New Zealand combined. By the way the population of Paris is estimated at 2.2 million. Parisians can be outnumbered by tourists by 20:1. It’s no wonder they get a little cranky with us sometimes.
My best advice to someone visiting Paris for the first time is learn some basic French. Sure, there are plenty of people who speak English, particularly at the main tourist attractions. If you try some broken French, a lot of people will speak English back to you. So why should you bother?
I’m convinced you get better service and attention when you make the effort to speak some French. I once saw a waiter in a restaurant speaking perfect English with a couple he was serving. A few minutes later another couple came in, walked right up to him and started speaking English without even greeting him or asking if he spoke English first. The waiter shook his head like he couldn’t understand, said “no English” and walked away.
It’s also just basic manners. Imagine if the streets of Melbourne and Sydney were inundated with millions of French-speaking visitors each year who all just expected us to know their language. We’d find it pretty annoying, right?
So, make the effort to learn the basics like hello, please, thank you and how to ask if someone speaks English first before you just assume they do. There’s plenty of websites and apps where you can learn some basics for free like Babbel or the French Experiment.
Having a crack at another language will also add to your holiday experience and no doubt give you some amusing tales to tell when you get home about your linguistic adventures.
Get your bearings
Finding your way around Paris for the first time can be a little scary. It’s big, it’s busy and finding your way isn’t super easy.
That’s where a hop-on-hop off bus tour can be helpful. Paris has a few options. These tours are a great way to get an overview of what Paris has to offer and help you work out what you want to explore. If you’re not confident with using the metro to get around (it’s quite easy really), the hop- on-hop-off buses are a good option to transport you between the main attractions.
I also recommend a trip on one of the Seine cruise boats. You get a very different perspective of the landmarks of Paris from the river. Try a cruise in the evening to see Paris lit up. It’s beautiful.
Paris hits
The Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Notre Dame: they are no doubt why you came to Paris in the first place. You have to see them. There’s no way around it.
To see these Paris attractions, you’re going to have to queue – and walk – a lot. So, two words ladies: sensible shoes.
Louvre
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you can knock off the highlights of the Louvre in a couple of hours. Couple of months more like. I heard a story once that if you looked at each of the Louvre’s 35,000 objects for just 30 seconds each, it would take you 27 days. And that’s going 24 hours straight without any rests, food or sleep.
You need to give the Louvre at least a full day. My tip is get there an hour before it opens to join the queue. When you get in go straight to the Mona Lisa before the crowds arrive. A couple of hours into the day the room holding the famous painting is packed worse than Chadstone on Christmas Eve and all you will see is a bunch of other tourists standing with their backs to Leonardo’s masterpiece while they take a selfie, “ooh look at me in front of the Mona Lisa.”
This article from the Telegraph offers some other advice on how to visit the Louvre.
Top Paris museums to see art:
Musée D’Orsay – magnificent collection of impressionist art housed in a historic former railway station. Do not miss this museum. Read my blog post on why you can’t miss it.
Musée De l’Orangerie – home to a number of Monet’s masterpieces.
Musée Rodin – housed in in a beautiful garden where you can browse Rodin’s famous sculptures including The Thinker. You can visit the sculpture garden for just €4, which I think makes it one of the best value for money attractions in Paris. It will set you back €10 to visit the mansion, which is worth it.
The Eiffel Tower
In my opinion everyone should stand on top of the Eiffel Tower once in their life. It’s probably my favourite tourist attraction in the world. There’s something just stunning about it. (Read my blog post on the Eiffel Tower).
I’m. not the only one who thinks its fab. The Eiffel Tower is not only the top spot to visit in Paris, it’s the most visited monument in the world. So, you’ve got to do it, which means another huge queue and more waiting.
In peak tourist season you can easily wait two hours to get in the elevators to the top. You can just wait and suck it up or try a couple of things to make it a bit less painful.
Again, arrive an hour before it opens. The middle of the day is appalling when all the big tour coaches arrive and deposit their guests to swarm like locusts all over the tower.
The Eiffel Tower has three entrances via elevator for visitors – one at the base of north, east and west pillars. The fourth pillar has an entrance with Take the stairs.
The queue to access the stairs is always shorter than the queues for the elevators and you get to climb the Eiffel Tower up to its second floor. I won’t lie, there’s a lot of stairs (341 of them). But you’re climbing up the Eiffel Tower. And you’re not squashed in a little elevator.
The second floor is the largest lookout point on the Eiffel Tower too and in my opinion it has better views than the highest deck at the top. The top deck is also very small and terribly crowded. You need to get in one of the elevators to get up there. You should probably do it to tick it off your bucket list. Have a look around and then go back to the second floor.
If you can, I highly recommend eating dinner in an Eiffel Tower restaurant. If you’re a millionaire, head to the famous Michelin-starred Jules Verne restaurant at the top. For us normal people, save your pennies for a meal at 58 Tour Eiffel.
Top Paris museums to discover history
Musée de l’Armée – expanisve collection of military history from medieval armour to World War II. Huge gallery dedicated to the life and times of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Palace of Versailles – if you can bear the crowds, which are horrific, Versailles is wonderful. The ultimate bling. You need to catch a train out of the city but this is easy to do.
Notre Dame de Paris
There are more queues waiting for you at Notre Dame. But this one is the least painful as it continually moves. You just need to go with the flow of the crowd and shuffle your way through. It’s not too bad. Unlike some of the big cathedrals in the UK, you don’t have to pay an entry fee to visit Notre Dame or Paris’s other main cathedral, Sacre Coer.
You do need to pay an entry fee to climb the towers of Notre Dame. I highly recommend this experience. Yeah there’s some more stairs (442 of them) but it’s good for you.
And you’ll be rewarded with what I think is the best view of Paris. It’s close to everything and not too high. You can take in Paris from the eye level of the gargoyles and chimera.
Top Paris shops
Paris is home to some of the world’s oldest and most famous department stores. Check out:
The flagship store of Galeries Lafayette for upmarket Paris chic.
Printemps
Le Bon Marché – one of the earliest department stores in Paris.
Paris misses
While there’s plenty of hits in Paris there are also some misses. In my opinion these attractions are overrated.
The Champs Elysees – a very wide, very busy road through the heart of the city. You will take your life into your hands if you try to cross it (use an underpass please). Oh, but it’s lined with shops.
They are the same shops you will find in any city anywhere in the world. Go for a walk along it to satisfy your curiosity, especially at night when the street’s neon signs are all lit up in white (the only colour allowed). You’re not likely to be wowed.
Arc du Triomphe – One of the many examples in Paris of Napoleon Bonaparte showing off. It has a fine view from the top, especially if you’re interested in watching cars driving round and round a roundabout and the occasional stupid tourist running for their life trying to cross it. (For God’s sake do not try to cross this roundabout, you will probably die. There is a pedestrian underpass. Use it).
There are much better views of Paris from the bell towers of Notre Dame and level 2 of the Eiffel Tower. You can visit the tomb of the unknown soldier under the arch for free and have an up-close look at the triumphal arch from there. Probably not worth the entry fee to climb to the top. But each to their own.
Safety and nuisances around Paris
Like any big city around the world, Paris has some dangers and nuisances to be aware of. I feel pretty safe in Paris. There are police everywhere. I the sight of police officers carrying machine guns quite alarming at first but you get used to it.
One of the biggest safety issues for visitors in Paris is pickpockets and bag snatchers. Hot spots include railway stations, on the metro, outdoor cafés and around the main tourist attractions.
For ladies, watch your handbag like a hawk – all the time. When you’re riding on the metro, keep your bag in your lap with both your hands on it. If you need to stand, be sure your bag is in front of you where you can see it rather than hanging off your shoulder where someone can put their hand in. Never leave it on the floor. Likewise, if you sit at a table in café, particularly an outdoor table, do not leave your bag at your feet or hang it from the back of your chair. Always in your lap.
For men, don’t put your wallet or your phone in your back pocket. Keep it in a zipped pocket, ideally inside your jacket. A wallet poking from a man’s back pocket in a crowded train or on an escalator is easy pickings for a pickpocket.
You also need to be wary of anyone who tries to stop you in the street and distract you. Be particularly careful around the Eiffel Tower and Montmartre.
When I was last in Paris with my partner, I spotted a man deliberately drop a ring, like a man’s wedding ring, on the ground in front of him. He then picked it up and offered it to my partner like, “did you drop this?” I immediately smelled a rat since my partner doesn’t wear a wedding ring and I saw the man drop it. I grabbed my partner’s hand and pulled him so he didn’t stop. Less than five minutes later, another man tried to pull the same trick on him. I’m convinced this was an attempt to stop and distract my partner so while he concentrated on checking if he’d dropped his ring, someone else would rob him.
Another trick I saw around Montmartre was people stopping tourists to play some game involving tying a string around your finger to perform some kind of magic trick. Don’t do it.
If you are hassled in the street by someone you think is up to no good, the best thing to do is just shout “No!” or “Go away!” at the person bothering you. They will likely run to avoid an encounter with the police.