Has your experience been the same? Or totally different. Three tourists in Paris are like the three blind men describing an elephant.
OTC medications you may won’t find in France. If you take melatonin for your jet lag or Excedrin for your headaches, you won’t find either of these two OTCs in French pharmacies. Melatonin is not sold because it hasn’t been approved. Aspirin mixed with caffeine has been banned because it’s considered to be too harsh on the stomach lining.
For some of us caffeine addicts, it’s hard to believe that anything with a little caffeine thrown in for good measure could be anything but good - but ‘Vive la difference!’ Just make sure you …
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Book a Paris Parking City Pass before you leave home. If you have no choice but to drive in Paris, you’ll want to keep parking hassles down to a bare minimum. Because most of Paris’s street parking requires payment with tickets (which you have to buy either in tabacs or at newsstands), you may find that having a prepaid parking pass may simplify your life.
There are plenty of underground parking lots in Paris (including the huge Vinci Parking chain) which will even supply you with a complimentary …
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When booking your flights, carefully pick your dates in Paris to include either the first Sunday of the month, Museum Night i (Nuit des Musees) in May or Heritage Days in September (Journees du Patrimoine). On the first Sunday of each month, a number of Paris’s museums are open free to the public (including the Louvre).
Museum Night which is an event occurring throughout Europe allows you to visit designated Paris museums free-of-charge during the evening hours.
This year’s Heritage Days (2008) was extended to an entire weekend to visit cultural …
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Paris Doors. Paris doors are unique. Many Parisian apartment buildings have digicode boxes, so if you plan on visiting friends while in Paris, be sure to ask them for their door code, but even when a building doesn’t have an automatic lock, you normally have to look for some sort of a button which will click the door open or closed. This is especially true for exiting an apartment building. The button may be located on one of the hallway walls. If you’re lucky, the button will say ‘Porte’ to differentiate it from the …
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Bringing Euros. You can buy Euros at US banks, but if you’re a member of the American Automobile Association, you can also buy Euros at some AAA branches. Buy enough Euros to get you from the airport into town, or use your credit card (with its pin number) rather than changing money at the CDG airport.
About the Euro
The Euro has been formally adopted by 15 European countries - and is used by even more. However, if you plan on going to both Paris and London, keep in mind that the UK has …
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Getting opera tickets early! If you’re heart is set on going to the opera in Paris, you’ll want to book well in advance. You can do so through the Paris opera house, or various online ticket sales such as FNAC bookstore.
If you don’t know until the last minute whether you’ll be attending, you can also try to buy tickets last minute at the Opera House (These days, most of the operas are at the new Bastille Opera House as opposed to the Garnier Opera House which is normally used for ballet performances).
Because many Parisians buy …
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Lease a car rather than rent if you plan on making an extended visit to France. If you plan on doing a great deal of driving around France during an extended visit, you may want to consider leasing through companies such as Kemwell. The advantage to leasing a car is the fact that you can put on as much mileage as you want. Also, you get a brand new car. Keep in mind that automatics are more expensive than stick shift leases and diesel-fueled cars will be more expensive to lease than gas-fueled cars.
In …
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Dress Code: Things go better with black. You can keep your packing down to a minimum by just throwing in everything in basic black. Along with your best pair of jeans - and if you have a pair of Converse trainers, throw them in the bag for good measure. Wear the clothes that make you feel good, and most importantly allow you the mobility to spend as much time out on the Paris streets. You want to be sure to bring shoes that stand up to plenty of Metro steps and treks through the …
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Using Metro ticket machines. You can avoid lines at the Metro stops by taking advantage of the automated ticket machines (If you’ve followed Tip #1). Use your credit card (with its four-digit pin number to buy a ‘carnet’ of tickets - or a set of Ten tickets which can be used at any time (there’s no date limits on these tickets) for either the Metro or buses.
Although the Metro ticket machines may look intimidating at first, use the rollers in the middle with the aid of the Validate key …
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Get your cell phone unlocked. If you have a tri-band or quad-band phone, be sure to get your cell phone unlocked well in advance of your trip. This will allow you to stop in a local phone store such as Orange/France Telecom, SFR or Bouyges where you can purchase a SIM card to use while you’re in town.
You can add telephone hours by stopping in at a tabac or a newstand and purchasing a ‘Mobicarte’ from 15 to 25 Euros. It’s also possible to rent phones in the US before you leave home. …
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