Oooh La La, Let’s go to Paris! Here are some tips to make your short visit to Paris worthy!

First off, it rains a bit.  

Bread is a food group.  Seriously. Baguettes and Croissants are a primary food group.  Find some apples right away!

What to Bring:

Your travel documents and passes.

Tiny folding umbrella.  (Though your hotel might have an umbrella for you to borrow and every corner will sell you a cheesy folding one.)

Lightweight rain jacket.

Walking shoes!  Walking socks!

Small backpack.

Scarf.  Everyone wears a scarf there.

One nice outfit for dining with closed toed shoes, and a jacket for the men.

Ziploc bags for packing snacks and for schlepping your own healthier-than-ham-sandwiches.

If you want to be a nerd, you can bring one of those lanyard-pass-holders and wear it around your neck for your metro and museum pass.  The convenience will make you happy.

If you want to do the love lock bridge, get a lock engraved and bring it with you.  Much nicer than the crappy $5 euro lock that you buy on the bridge.  Seal your love and toss the keys into the Seine River.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pont_des_Arts

To avoid sales lines, when your trip is planned you can pre-order some passes, and have them mailed to your home or office ( keep with your travel documents): All Museum Pass – VOILA!

http://en.parismuseumpass.com/

This pass allows you to use SHORTER LINES for all Museums.  Excellent purchase.  You can also get this upon arrival in Paris at the airport, but don’t forget!  Best to get this one at home before you leave.

Travel Pass that includes all days there.  Most in Paris tourist attractions are in Zone 1.  This is your Metro Pass.  (I don’t like the RAR it’s dodgy.  I only like the Metro and the Hop on Bus):

 http://booking.parisinfo.com/z6200e2x26827m466g3727_uk-ratp-transport.aspx

You can get your Metro pass at any Metro station.  So this one is easy to wait.  The pass is sort of microscopic.

How to Metro:

In Paris for the tourist stuff you will take the M1.  Find the M1 station closest to your hotel.

All Metro lines go from point A and point B based on end location (for the M1 the end locations are La Défense or Château de Vincennes).  There is no N, S, E or W like freeways in the US (i.e. 405 N or 405 S).

So in addition to which M and your stop, you will need to know which direction takes you back to your hotel. For example,  M1, stop “X”, going towards Château de Vincennes.  To return you will need M1 (the other way) stop “X”, going towards La Défense.

La Défense (one end of M1)<<<<———————————–>>>>Château de Vincennes (other end of M1)

Review the route of the M1 because it’s your tourist friend in Paris.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_M%C3%A9tro_Line_1

 Hop-on/Hop-off Bus Pass:

I’m on the Hop-on/Hop-off bus of life!

I recommend getting a Hop-on/Hop-off bus pass for the first couple or few days.  This is an excellent way to get a ride around the city and learn the lay of the land.

Bring your own single male prong headphones (your Air France headphones work well here), a snack, and water.  If you use their crappy headphones you will hurt your ears and miss the narrative because there is a lot of background noise.

Also for the top of the bus, which is the best vantage point, bring a shady hat or folding umbrella if you have one.

http://www.seine-cruises.com/paris-sightseeing-hop-on-hop-off-tour_3733

If you want to do a Seine tour, do a good one.  I would not do the basic one because it’s just pretty lame.  Find the features you like (drinking? dancing? food? photo?) and book accordingly.  The water in the Seine is not the Caribbean.

Reservations: If you want to eat at the Eiffel Tower or at George V Four Seasons, you might want to make those reservations from home.  I didn’t do either.  George V was attractive but I didn’t want a $200 salad 🙂

Reservations at Eiffel may give you some priority to use the lift/elevator at the tower (NO LINE!), which is more important than the crappy food they probably serve. I think the vegetarian meal at the Eiffel tower is a thousand year old “soft” pretzel.

George V at the Four Seasons has some healthy options, and a vegetarian menu, but this is probably one of the most expensive restaurants in the world.   If you’re gonna do it, I would reserve ahead of time.   Drool here:  http://magazine.fourseasons.com/immersive-travel/four-seasons-paris-george-v

Ok, We are Here, now What to see?:

***remember with your museum pass you have a SPECIAL LINE near the FRONT of almost EVERYTHING.  ASK ASK ASK***

Arc de Triumph & Champs de Elysees (they are the same street)

Eiffel Tower (near the Metro 6 or 12, make sure they are working).  The tower is really big, EPIC and you must also see in daytime, at dusk to night (to see the sequence of lights) and then go to the TOP. The following 3 would make a lovely day.  Start at Musee D’Orsay.  The building itself is EPIC.  Learn it’s train station history. Musee D’Orsay (start of day to avoid heat and lines).  Every Impressionist work you want to see is here on the 5th floor.  Monet, Cezanne, Dega, and more.  Also Van Gogh’s Starry Night over the Rhone and some of his other work is there too.  (Not the swirly Starry Night, the other one).

Jardin de Tuileries (bring a picnic lunch…lunchtime or relaxing afternoon).  M1 to Tuileries.  Have a baguette sandwich and espresso at the duck and sailboat pond, facing the town center!

L’Orangerie (after lunch is fine and relaxing).  This is Monet Waterlily HEAVEN and is inside the Jardin de Tuileries.  Ask around until you find it. That garden is pretty big and you might be walking right past it.

Louvre (start of day to avoid heat and lines).  A loved one told me, “The Louvre can be pretty overwhelming. Give yourself most of a day if you want to go inside the galleries and get the English audio commentary you can rent at the entrance. You can just go there and have lunch and check out the gift shop.”  Bring food as they have Starbucks and some carb-y and weak choices inside, like pasta in a box.  Louvre food is like hospital cafeteria food. Oh btw, Mona Lisa is smaller than you think!

Lock bridge near the Louvre http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pont_des_Arts

Place Vendomme (relaxing afternoon walk and window shopping).  This is just a public square.  Go stroll the square and look at those jewelry windows!

Vegan Food!  Call for reservation, Saveurs Vegethalles (M1 exit Chatelet near Louvre great Vegetarian Restaurant open siesta hours).  Click here for more information:  http://www.happycow.net/reviews/saveurs-vegethalles-paris-13798

These 2 are very close to each other:

Sainte Chapelle  (Stained Glass!)

Cathedral de Notre Dame (the climb has no bathrooms or lift).  Epic.

Shopping?  Window yes.  To buy, no.  I love shopping but not in Paris! Besides, airports don’t support overweight bags and shopping can wait until you’re home.  Most of the stores on the Champs de Elysees are franchises and the windows at Place Vendomme are super-beyond-attainable-luxury shopping.   You can find some Marches (outdoor farmer’s markets) for produce.  Make sure to see the lingerie windows, jewelry windows and bakery windows!  Absorb it but leave it there.

Climbing Day?  I enjoy climbing near the end of a trip, so I can look over all the places I recognize from earlier in the trip: Start before 9am to beat the crowded line at Eiffel for a climb, then visit the highest point, Sacre de Coeur and climb the Arc de Triumph for the sunset.  That’s a workout! Pack a lunch to eat at Sacre de Coeur…it’s a lovely place!  There is a lot of open space there.  You might even find table and chairs.

 ***Remember with your museum pass you have a SPECIAL LINE near the FRONT of almost EVERYTHING.  ASK ASK ASK***

 Night: You MUST see the Eiffel from dusk until it lights up.  Wow.  It sparkles!  Make sure you know how you’re getting home, (it ain’t Disneyland there after dark).

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There is so much more to see, and so many more museums (you will see on your museum pass foldout, which can double as a salad sandwich napkin!).

 Au Revoir!

Any Questions?

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About Michele the Trainer

Michele the Trainer is your Wellness Expert, Motivational and Wellness Speaker, Published Author, Concierge Celebrity Personal Trainer, voted Best Fitness Trainer Los Angeles Daily News 2013/2014. Michele’s success losing 165 pounds holistically and keeping it off since 1998 is very inspirational. For more on Michele: Michele the Trainer 877-409-1758

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