First, get your bearings and other Paris, France Things to Do Tips

Especially if you have not previously been to Paris, I would strongly recommend that you begin by spending a day (or maybe two) on one of the open double deck buses which will take you past most of the main tourist attractions. If you carry a city map (readily available free) you will gain a reasonable feeling for the city’s layout and of what most attracts you, should your time be limited. Later I would suggest you use the Metro for general transport – but you learn little of the city from underground!

I travelled on a “L’Open Tour”, which has multilingual headphones to give a commentary on what you are passing. They cover four routes around the city and your ticket allows you to get on and off at will, or to change between routes. You can join the system at any of their stops (most hotels will have the details) and pay the driver – with luck there will be a stop near your hotel! At a cost of 25€ for one day and 28€ for two days, it might be useful to do the full tour on the first day, then use the bus for transport on the second day.

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Phone: 01 42 55 56 56
Address: 13 rue Auber, 75009 Paris
Directions: You will find the bus stops for these tours around Paris: you can pay the driver and join the tour at any point.
Website: www.paris-opentour.com

I can thank VTer Beatchick for stressing the importance of these passes to avoid the huge queues which develop outside the main Paris attractions. I estimate that the wait outside the Musée d’Orsay would have been about two hours: with my pass I was inside within ten minutes. The queue outside the Orangerie, once I reached the outer gate (I waited in line to get there, then showed my pass), would have been over an hour – again I was there within minutes. Time is valuable when you’re travelling!

The passes will gain you entry to over 60 museums and monuments in the Paris area, so apart from the time savings you also have a monetary saving on entry costs. Note that they are undated when you purchase them, but you must put your name and commencing date on the card when you begin visits, to activate the pass. I would rate these passes as “highly recommended, almost essential”.

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Phone: +33 (0)1 44 61 96 60
Directions: For 2006 these passes are available for 2, 4 or 6 consecutive days, at a cost of 30€, 45€ or 60€ respectively. You can obtain them at museums and tourist offices, I picked up mine at the 'l'Open Tour' bus office.
Website: http://www.parismuseumpass.fr
Other Contact: email: info@parismuseumpass.fr

Built as a railway station in 1900, but unused and largely derelict from 1939, the Musée d’Orsay was finally retrieved from potential demolition in 1973 when it was declared a national monument and re-established as a museum for art of the period from 1848 to 1914. I would have to rate it as my personal favourite Paris visit, even above the newly re-opened Orangerie which is somewhat smaller. Not only are the paintings, sculptures and other artworks stunning, but the grand old building really complements them.

As I noted in my tip on the Paris Museum passes, there was a substantial queue outside when I arrived. The pass allowed me to gain almost immediate entry and, in no time, I was surrounded by some of the world’s most mouth-watering artworks. It was interesting to also see that ‘painters-in-training’ are allowed to practice their art, copying from originals. Don’t miss this place.

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Phone: 01 40 49 48 14
Address: 1 rue de la Légion d’honneur 75007 Paris
Directions: Hours daily except Mondays, 1000 -1800. Sundays and period 20 June to 20 September 0900 – 1800, Thursdays remaining open to 2145.

Métro: line 12, Solférino station; RER: line C, Musée d'Orsay station
Website: http://www.musee-orsay.fr

For some years, the Orangerie has been closed for extensive renovations. I was fortunate that it reopened only about a week before my visit.

You don’t know of the Orangerie? It was built in 1852 as a shelter for the orange trees in the Tuilleries Gardens. Because of its location, no ‘common’ garden shed would suffice, so it was built in stone to match the Tuilleries Palace (now gone). After a variety of uses, it was turned into a fine arts museum in 1921. Most famously it houses Monet’s giant “Nymphéas” (Waterlilies) paintings, but also paintings by Matisse, Modigliani, Picasso, Renoir and others of the post-Impressionist era.

When you visit, be prepared for an absolute visual banquet. The signage is in French, however it is possible to hire audioguides in about seven languages at the door.

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Phone: 01 44 77 80 07
Address: Jardin des Tuileries, 75001 Paris
Directions: End of Tuileries gardens, adjacent to Seine end of Place de la Concorde.

Hours (for individuals) 1230-1900, to 2100 Friday (closed 1 May and 25 December).
Website: www.musee-orangerie.fr
Other Contact: Metro 1,8,12 Concorde.

The Eiffel Tower was built for the Paris World Fair of 1889 and, by the early 1900s was considered ugly and unwanted. About 100 years ago it was in danger of being scrapped. It was saved only the invention of radio, and its perceived value as a radio mast. Now it has become the symbol of Paris: how times change! I won’t go on further here, as there already are many excellent tips on VT giving further details of the tower. It is visible from almost anywhere in Paris, so you will have no problem finding it. The Palais de Chaillot is probably the best location for photos, though you could try something a little different (photo 2).

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Address: Trocadero
Directions: You can't miss it!!!

If the Eiffel Tower is the symbol of Paris, the Arc de Triomph must be a close second. Commenced by Napoleon in 1806, he was long gone before it was finished in 1836. It is interesting that it remains incomplete: the original intention was to add something atop it, as with the Arc de Carrousel in the Tuilleries Gardens, but the question of what should be placed there was never resolved. Beneath the Arch is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, France’s main war shrine.

Again, this already is well covered with good VT tips. It is easily found where the major road, the Champs Élysées, finishes at the Place de Gaulle (formerly Place de l’Étoile).

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Address: Place Charles-de-Gaulle Etoile
Directions: Metro Line 1, 2, RER A : Charles-de-Gaulle Etoile

This and the previous two tips cover some of the most iconic Paris sights. I don’t claim to have any original insights on any of them: there are, after all, now nearly 900 tips on the Eiffel Tower; about 600 on the Arc de Triomphe; and over 700 on Notre Dame! So why am I writing this? Well, as the title suggests ‘you just have to see…’. When you return home, your friends and family are sure to ask about these sights and to wish to see your photos. Fortunately, it’s possible to get acceptable photographs of all three fairly quickly if visiting time is short – the tour bus I’ve suggested above will take you past all of them within a fairly short trip. Plus the Louvre and a bit more.

If you can spare a little time though, Notre Dame can be much more than the imposing façade and the trademark two large towers. I rather like the view in the main photo, taken from the left bank of the Seine, just a little upstream, as this shows well the enormous flying buttresses and the general structure of the building. If you cross to the Ile de la Cité, you can get closer to the same perspective, near the apse of the church, and see more details (photo 2). Now head around to the entrance and go in. The sheer dimensions of the building (photo 3) still are amazing, just imagine what a knockout it was when finished in the 14th century! Equally impressive are the stained glass windows (photo 4): I won’t forget in a hurry the effect of the late winter afternoon light streaming nearly horizontally as coloured rays through clouds of incense on a Sunday afternoon on our first visit. Then head down to the left (from the front) rear of the building for a small display of how it was built (photo 5): it is staggering to contemplate how such a construction could be erected with relatively simple non-mechanised tools in the mediaeval period and easy to overlook what a dominant influence it must have been on the lives of the people involved.

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Address: Place du parvis de Notre Dame , 75004
Directions: Métro: Cité; RER: Châtelet-Les Halles, Saint Michel-Notre Dame

On a previous trip, we spent a day at the Louvre and saw the major drawcards such as the Mona Lisa, Winged Victory and Venus, plus as much more of the vast collection as possible. To our surprise, having lived for years on stories of the Louvre, we found that we preferred the Musée d’Orsay. Yes, the building is magnificent; yes there are some superb artworks and antiquities; and yet, and yet…. Somehow it just did not have the same appeal. It’s probably a matter of personal preference and for you the Louvre may well prove to be one of the ‘Must See’ highlights of your visit to Paris, so don’t skip it if you haven’t been there previously.

The courtyard in the middle though, remains imposing and can be visited easily and at no cost. You will find yourself surrounded by the enormous and elaborate building, more tourists than you will find anywhere else, and confronted by I.M. Pei’s glass pyramid. The pyramid was controversial when erected and the concept sounds incongruous against the classically styled building, but somehow it does fit in: I suspect with the passing of time it is not only becoming more accepted but even iconic in the same way as the Eiffel Tower. The slightly newer inverted glass pyramid which featured (with the Louvre) in ‘The Da Vinci Code’? That’s not really visible from ground level, as it hides behind that hedged area of photos 2 and 3. Come to a point, those hedges would have made it difficult for the story’s hero to casually saunter across the glass!

Main photo: Louvre, crowds and pyramid
Second photo: Hedges hiding the ‘Inverted Pyramid’ and the road
Third photo: A clearer view of the ‘Inverted Pyramid’.

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Directions: Métro: Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre (Lines 1,7)

I’d wanted to visit this museum for years, since a friend gave it a high recommendation, but unfortunately it was closed for renovations when I previously visited Paris. This time it was open and, I’m glad to say, it was worth the wait.

The Museum was established in 1794, following the Revolution, to hold the scientific collections of the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, in the former priory of Ste-Martin-des-Champs. The original abbey on the site dated from about 1059, though the current church nave is from the 13th century and about 100 early sarcophagi were found under the floor during the recent renovations. The Museum also occupies later building additions alongside. If you have even a slight interest in technology, this museum should be one of your main destinations in Paris, though curiously it did not appear in my guide book!

The 3000 exhibits cover a tremendously wide range of developments in scientific instruments, materials, construction, communication, mechanics, energy and transport. Here you will find exhibits ranging from the original ‘standard metre’; a model of Thomas Savery's 1698 steam pump for mines, the first engine ever made (photo 2); experimental electrical gadgets from the mid-1800s (photo 3); and a brass 1642 '6 figure calculating machine' by Blaise Pascal (photo 4) – surely the equivalent in its time to the 1985 ‘Cray 2’ computer also on display here (later tip), a ‘Telstar’ satellite and a V10 Formula 1 engine. The former abbey displays a Foucault Pendulum (later tip), not far from a Blériot aeroplane and various early vehicles.

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Phone: Ph 01 53 01 82 00
Address: 60 rue Réamur, 75003.
Directions: The Museum is between the Métro stations ‘Arts-et-Metiers’ (lines 3, 11) and ‘Réamur-Sebastapol’ (lines 3,4). The first is the more convenient to the entrance.
Website: www.arts-et-metiers.net

In my previous tip I mentioned a Cray 2 Supercomputer: this photo shows it. Interestingly, while it is one of the ‘newer’ items in the museum, it struck me more forcibly than most in terms of illustrating how quickly technology is changing.

This computer dates from 1985, a little over twenty years ago. At that time, it would have been among the world’s fastest and most advanced computers, the kind of thing which would be used only by governments, research institutes and major industries and which would have cost huge sums of money. The sign mentions that it had a speed of 243MHz: you might care to check the speed of the computer on which you are reading this webpage, unless it is several years old, you are using a computer with considerably greater capabilities than this Cray and built at a tiny fraction of the price! What’s more, your computer is quite certainly much smaller – that white box on the right also is part of the package.

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Phone: Ph 01 53 01 82 00
Address: 60 rue Réamur, 75003
Directions: The Museum is between the Métro stations ‘Arts-et-Metiers’ (lines 3, 11) and ‘Réamur-Sebastapol’ (lines 3,4). The first is the more convenient to the entrance.
Website: www.arts-et-metiers.net