"Roaming the streets of Paris" a Paris Travel Page by Robin922

This was not one of those ‘well planed’ trips, but a spur of the moment events. So off I went, with only a carry on suitcase very lightly packed, a French vocabulary of 2 words, tons of stories I had heard, and a cheat sheet of tips I got from the forum.

I returned with a tightly packed suitcase, a vocabulary of 6 words, and my own stories and tips.

Paris is not one of those places you can see in a day or two. As matter of fact it could easily take weeks to see everything. With only a weekend, it was hard to figure out what I was going to do. I knew I wanted to see the Eiffel Tower and check out the markets however that was all I knew for sure.

What I did end up doing is wondering the streets. I wasn’t really lost, but kind of misplaced. While looking at my map, I missed my stop. This is when I discovered that you need a ticket to enter and leave the train station, and more importantly you shouldn’t leave your ticket in the machine. For more on this topic, see my tips.

Not being where I suppose to be, ended up being a good thing. While you could spend a small fortune on the tours and sights, I found that you can spend a whole week-end for almost no cost and have a great time! Walking the streets allows you to find all of those neat little places and pieces of art that aren’t on the tourist maps.

My adventure the first day started at Luxembourg and ended just blocks before the Statue of Liberty. Luxembourg is a great place to relax, nice garden, and you can have a nice snack and even make a pit stop. From here it wasn’t long before I stumbled across an antique market. While the prices were a bit steep to say the least, it was still fun to look.

From the market, I continued my journey toward the Seine, which can lead you to all kinds of great places. Six hours later, I found myself at the tower and what a sight to see! Of course I had to go up to the top, which took another 2 hours.

By now the feet were tired, I was running on empty and still had a couple of hours until dusk, so it was time to sit and enjoy dinner at one of the sidewalk cafes.

Just like what I had heard, at 10 pm the tower did it’s light show. Then I was off to the hotel to recharge.

The next day, the body was telling me it didn’t want to do a 12 hour walk, so it was trains, metro and a ride on the tour bus.

Most of all from this little ‘sampler’ trip I learned that many of the things I had been told about Paris were mostly false.

First locals for the most part were very friendly and helpful. While some of the people I did meet, either didn’t know or spoke very broken English, they still tried to commutate.

I had heard from several sources that, Americans weren’t liked. Didn’t see any sign of this.

The city is very clean.

And most of all, the restrooms relatively easy to find and clean.

Paris is a must see city, however if you take to do your homework, the trip will be much more enjoyable.