12 Essential Paris Travel Tips

so you're ready to come to paris you book your flight you know where you're going to stay but when it comes to the little details there's still a few things that you need to know to make this dream vacation the best that it can be so in this video we're going to share with you the 10 essential things that you need to know before you come to paris and to make your life easy we've created a la francis guide to paris it's a free download there's a link in the description where we're sharing with you the best restaurant we tries the bakeries and basically all the details that we've covered in our videos so print it and bring it with you you'll be glad you did so you ready to go i'm ready all right let's go let's go [Music] there are thousands of places to eat in paris and there's some things you should know about them not all of them serve food all day french people eat lunch between noon and 2 p.m and dinner starts at seven so if you're looking for a sit down meal outside of those hours find a cafe or a brasserie with service continue and in france continuous service doesn't mean 24 7. there are a couple of places like pied cochon that do have continuous service 24 7 but continuous service usually means between noon and 11 pm it's also good to know when the locals eat because the peak hours are really from 12 30 to 1 30 so if you show up before that or after that you can avoid crowds and long lines and french menus already include tax and service you don't have to add anything to that [Music] here's the next tip if you want to avoid long lines at all the tourist attractions it's much better to buy your tickets online for the first available time slot in a day because if you don't you're gonna wait like 16 90 minutes some places up to three hours to just get inside and if you have limited time in paris you don't want to waste your time waiting in line to get into an attraction the best thing is to buy your tickets way in advance and take our recommendation buy the one available the earliest time in the day now another way to avoid the long lines is to buy a guided tour from a reputable vendor with an appointed time so you'll skip the line through a guided tour and then you'll get in and out much faster that way and we have placed some links for your convenience in the description for some of the biggest attractions in paris and the next tip is people often ask us should they rent a car when they come to paris so our friendly suggestion is no don't rent a car in paris the driving rules are different here the roads are congested it's difficult and expensive to park and honestly you'll get around faster on foot or bike and the metro system is safe and super efficient if you prefer to travel by car taking a taxi or uber is a great option and make sure that if you take a taxi that it's a real taxi and you can recognize that because they have the taxi sign on top of the car also not all taxis in paris take credit cards so if that matters to you just make sure you ask before you start the ride and if you prefer to have a private driver you can find multiple options in viator and we're gonna put a link in the description for you book the private driver and they'll be there waiting for you with a sign with your name and when you arrive in charles to go after being in a plane for nine ten hours it's good to have someone waiting for you with a sign so that could be a good option too i know paris is the center of fashion and you want to look your best when you're here but when you're planning you should pack for both practical and pretty think about these three things when you're packing shoes temperature and transitions first and foremost protect your feet fancy shoes are great but you don't see parisian women wearing them running around town plan on wearing comfortable shoes you're going to do a lot of walking and not just walking uphill walking lots of stairs and cobblestone streets and while cobblestone streets are charming they can be hard to walk on and they're really hard on the body even wearing sneakers my feet and legs and back often hurt for days if you find yourself on cobblestone streets look for a flat area just trust me on this one next paris is about the same latitude as toronto dressing in layers is important any time of year you'll often see parisian women wearing a scarf or a light sweater even in the summer because you can get cool breezes and it even gets chilly when the sun is blocked so pack something you can use for a little extra cover up if you need it and lastly when you're out seeing the sights you may get caught up in what you're doing and the day runs into the evening because in summer months it might stay light until after 10 pm so think about packing something that can transition your daytime outfit to your night on the town the public transportation system in paris is amazing and super easy to use you have the metro and the rer and the buses that are going all over paris including the suburbs and you can use the same ticket to jump from the metro to the rer without any additional fee the metros and rer are mostly underground and run just about every three to five minutes buses are a great way to get around and see the city along the way now you can use google map to find the best routes and where to get your ride just ask for a metro station near me or direction to the eiffel tower and tap the public transportation icon and you'll get what you need for more information about using the metro check out the video that we did on how to buy tickets and how to use the metro system speaking french will make your trip to paris even nicer but we can't teach you everything you need to know quickly but i can teach you a few words that'll help you out while you're here the most important word you need to know is bonjour it's more than just saying hello or a light greeting it's a symbol of respect and anytime in a store when you're talking to anyone you will start that interaction with bonjour and then you can ask whatever it is you need to ask so if you're in a store at the hotel anywhere you go start with bonjour which of course brings us to how do you say thank you merci is thank you if you bump into someone excuse him wah silvu play please or is goodbye and then a couple of other little ones that i found important is sorti which means exit and formula de journee which is the menu when you go someplace and you buy a combination of a meal a suite and a beverage and of course there's jetem which means i love you for anything else you need to communicate we recommend google translate you can either type or speak a word or phrase into your phone and it'll either show you or speak it in french and the same is true if you want to understand what someone else is telling you in french have them speak into google translate and you can see or hear whatever they want to tell you in english google translate is your friend and on that note vol voir paris is safe but it's a big tourist destination and like all tourist destinations you're gonna have pickpockets and people that are trying to take advantage of distracted tours now there are a few things that you should be aware of specifically in paris the first one are the pickpockets and you should expect to have pickpockets everywhere you have a lot of tourists so lelouv the eiffel tower the sacre coeur notre dame that's where they're usually going to be the other thing that you want to pay attention to is your mobile phone a mobile phone that is sitting on the table and a cafe terrace can easily be snatched by someone and by the time you realize they're long gone and finally your thing that you will see in most tourists takes place is young ladies that are taking a survey for some cause that they're telling you like you need to sign and we need your name and then they're going to ask you for a few euros one two five euros and all these are scams none of these are legal surveys they're looking to take advantage of kind-hearted tourists that will sign and give a few euros but know that your money is actually not going to any of those causes they're basically ending up in their pockets now one of the things that i want to emphasize is that paris is very safe for big city all you need to do is pay attention to your surrounding just be careful just pay attention just make sure that your stuff and your belongings are closed in and you'll be just fine [Music] if you're renting an airbnb or a vrbo your trip to paris is going to include grocery shopping the good news is that there are many supermarkets small grocers and weekly or bi-weekly fresh markets all around buying fresh produce bottled water or ready-made items is easy to do and some of the major grocery chains are careful careful express monoprix friend pre and the bio sebone stores are organic stores so anything bio is organic and a few things you want to know is that stores do not offer free shopping bags so if you don't bring one you can buy one for about a euro the taxes are already included in the price of everything one kilo is just a little over two pounds milk and eggs are not in the dairy department and if you're looking for wine cheese booze or anything you can find it in the grocery store but there are also from rodgers or cheese stores and a wine store or a cavist if you want a higher quality of wine and all over paris you'll find a store called nikola which is all about wine you'll find them anywhere the next step has to do with your mobile phone data depending on the carrier that you have in the u.s or wherever you're coming from in the world your phone may or may not work when you arrived here in france but if you want to stay connected on the go and your phone doesn't work the way your carrier said it would buying a french sim card may make sense for you the best solution that we found is to go to an orange store which is the equivalent of atnt or verizon in the us and you go in there with your phone and as long as it's unlocked they'll sell you a sim card for 40 euros that will give you data calls and text for your entire stay and it's valid for two weeks and that sim card that orange will sell you will work not only in france but everywhere in europe [Music] if you get sick or need medicine in paris the place to go is a pharmacy grocery stores and smaller markets may sell toothbrushes and shampoo and q-tips but they do not sell things like aspirin antacid allergy medicine or any other kind of medicine in france a pharmacist is a professional and they can offer remedies and that's the place to go some may speak english but be prepared to use google translates to communicate if need be you'll recognize the pharmacies by the large green crosses and they're often blinking and by the way in the u.s this may look like a weed store it is not a weed store in france this is not amsterdam in france marijuana is illegal and they take it seriously so if you were thinking about that just don't you'll probably regret it [Music] the next tip has to do with the power outlets they're not the same as they are in the u.s or england or probably south africa or australia so you don't want to get here and be surprised you can charge your phone or laptop and while it's likely that the hotel may have a lender you can count on that so before you travel get yourself a power adapter that is going to work in france or in all the countries that you're going to go throughout europe now the french one looks like this if you didn't bring one with you you can buy one at a store like snack it's the equivalent of barnes and nobles or darty that is the equivalent of best buy now what you'll find in some restaurants and in all the hotels is a usb power adapter so that makes your life easy but don't count on that some hotels may not have the usb and you'll need to have the adapter [Music] when it comes to bathrooms the rule in paris is go before you leave your hotel or restaurant like seriously if you need to go go if you might need to go go because they're not easy to come by when you're out and about it's not reasonable to expect stores and other places to have a bathroom and there are paid public toilets in the touristic areas but that doesn't mean you're going to have the right change or that you're going to like the experience or that they're in working order and if you find yourself in this situation don't try to double up because the door will pop open if you try to sneak in a second person on the same coin what antoine and i usually do is stop in a cafe order a cup of coffee at the counter use the bathroom and for a little bit more than you would have spent in one of those public toilets you go in a nice place and they get the business you get a clean bathroom it's the best way to go but the best rule is if you see a restroom don't pass it up use it and as a bonus tip a lot of people are asking us where is the best place to stay in paris so we made a video called the nine best places to stay when you're in paris where we're telling you the vibe of the area the restaurants the hotels and everything that has to do with each area so you can pick the best one for you [Music]

Channel: Les Frenchies

Views: 425,152

Keywords: visit paris, places to visit in france, things to do in paris, les frenchies, les frenchies travel, best food in paris, paris travel tips, paris food tour, paris tips, paris essential tips, paris travel guide, what to do in paris, paris travel, paris travel video, paris tourist guide, paris city guide, visiting paris, visiting paris for the first time, tips for visiting paris, where to stay in paris, paris vlog travel, where to stay in paris for the first time

Id: EVyHHzkW_Ro

Length: 13min 14sec (794 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 16 2022