Paris Warning or Danger Tips by Norali

Be aware that Parisian drivers are crazy... bla bla bla... OK, I am not here to tell that. I've seen worse. lol

My concern is about pedestrians crossing everywhere, even when lights are red. I don't compare with a country like Madagascar where noone respects traffic lights (only 5-10% of drivers would). I rather compare with neighbouring Belgium. Drivers who are used to more disciplined pedestrians should be aware about local practices in Paris.

Parisians just cross the streets when they don't see any car coming whatever the lights are: be they red, orange or green. Of course, if one drives fast and passes the green lights without seeing the faultive pedestrians, that wouldn't be pleasant.

Wouldn't it better to have a stay without an accident in Paris? I would have suggested to drive slowly but if you do that, people would hoot at you. They are nervous too. It's a big city, really hectic... My solution is to use the very efficient public transportation and respect the lights. :)

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It is not about sthg I consider dangerous, rather a simple warning. Parisian museums use to be big...

Lately, I went seeing those beautiful collection pieces at Musée Guimet. 4 hours were not enough to see half of the gatherings. The museum being dedicated to Far-Eastern arts, it is true that we had to take time to plunge into the mysteries of this unknown (to us) string of Asian cultures. So, who is not used to hinduism, buddhism, tantrism principles and plans to see this museum should better aim low. Four hours was the max I could go on and as the aim was about having fun, we took it easy, laid-back. Hurrying up to "do" all the pieces? No way! Although Musée Guimet is not that big compared to other Parisian museums, we decided to split the visit in two: the first visit was to see the India, Pakistan area, Cam, Khmer, Thai, Indonesian and a bit of China whislt another visit is planned to see the second part (on Japan, China ...). Yeah! Paris in some near future, again ! Well, by then, I hope to have learnt more by reading about the subject.

Still... I faced similar situations in other museums too though themes there were more familiar to us (one exhibition on impressionism in Grand Palais and another visit to louvre far far ago). Yes, you'd better aim low esp. if the theme is rather unknown to you. The real thing is that the first visits use to be the "eye-opening" part, the second ones are easier to grab... and the third (if any) would be for any temporary exhibition on the subject. Probably, a pre-visit reading would be handy since explanation was merely given. I could use the audio-guide but it was not enough.

We aimed too high ;-) the whole Guimet gatherings (not that big) with a temporary exhibition (Japanese estampes and éventails) for an afternoon: that was too much... and we wanted to have fun and keep our brains healthy... Mission possible :-)

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A warning for who arriving at Gare du Nord.

Don't use the automatic ticket seller (the one with a roll to choose your options). Leave it for Parisians, they know what to do there.

First, you'd spend some time queuing to find your credit card doesn't work there (not GB neither Belgian bank cards). Also, if you decided to pay cash, you may waste your time. I did it in Sep. 2004, the machine took the cash and gave no ticket. Did it again in Aug. 2005, seems there is a real problem with this machine since it just didn't accept our coins. Some people in front of us had similar problems, other not. Skip it ! As many of locals know about it, esp. the bums and the "golden-toothed" lady who offered us their help, it was not with a surprise that I saw them selling their tickets to the people at the end of the queue. Tried to sell them to us as well when we found out we had to queue up twice but we hadn't taken their tickets: much more expensive ! They have to make profit, of course. It's a business... Yeah! it's a system... You thought you'd make your way with the automatic machine and could manage to skip the whole queue at the other line where someone is selling metro tickets at normal prices. But eventually, you'd spend more time queueing twice (happened to us..errr... twice). First, at the ticket seller machine then to be served by a ticket seller (person).

Skip the roll-machine and the "facilitators". Just head to the queue where you would buy your ticket (well, take a "carnet of 10" for the whole day.. or more.. depending on your program)

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