Note that most
museums and galleries are closed on either Monday or Tuesday. Most
ticket counters close 30 - 45 minutes before final closing.
Also consider the ParisPass also a pre paid entry card + queue
jumping to 60 attractions including The Louvre, The Arc de Triomphe,
as well as a river cruise, open top bus tour, cycle hire and allows
free metro & public transport travel.
All national museums are open free of charge on the first Sunday of
the month; note, however, that this may mean long lines and crowded
exhibits. Keep away from Paris during Easter week. It's really
crowded. People have to queue up at the Eiffel tower for several
hours.
A good listing of almost everything to do in Paris are the 'Pariscope',
the 'Officiel des spectacles', and the much hipper 'Zurban' , weekly
magazines listing all concerts, stage plays and museums. Available
from many kiosks. Unfortunately their website is of no use at all.
If you prefer a web version, you can visit Cityzeum, with maps of
Paris, audio tours to download freely and more than 2000 visit and
entertainment points.
Paris is one of Europe's culinary centers. The restaurant trade
began here just over 220 years ago as of this writing, and continues
to thrive. It may however come as a surprise that Paris isn't
considered the culinary capitol of France, rather some people prefer
the French cooking found in small rural restaurants, outside of the
city, closer to the farms and with their focus on freshness and
regional specialties. Even amongst French cities, Paris has long
been considered by some people as second to Lyon for fine dining.
There have been other challenges in the last 20 years or so as
restauranteers in places like San Francisco and Sydney briefly
surpassed their Parisian forebearers, again with an emphasis on
freshness of ingredients but also borrowings from other cuisines.
Parisian cooks didn't just rest on their laurels during this time,
rather they traveled, taught, and studied, and together with Paris's
own immigrant communities have revitalized the restaurant trade.
Today you can find hundreds of beautiful restaurants with thoughtful
(or just trendy) interior design and well-planned and executed
cartes and menus offering a creative mélange of French and exotic
foreign cuisines. It's safe to say that Paris is once again catching
up with or edging ahead of its Anglophone rivals.
Of course there are also some traditional offerings, and for the
budget conscious there are hundreds of traditional bistros, with
their sidewalk terraces offering a choice fairly simple (usually
meat centered) meals for reasonable prices.
For the uninitiated it is unfortunately possible to have a uniformly
poor dining experience during a stay in Paris, mainly because many
attractions are situated in upscale areas of town, and that mass
tourism attracts price gougers. It is frequent to hear of people
complaining of very high Parisian prices for poor food and poor
service - because they always tried to eat close to major tourist
magnets. Try to go eat where the locals eat.
Many restaurants are tiny and have tables close together - square
meters are at a premium and understandably restauranteers need to
make the most of limited space. In some cases, when the restaurant
is crowded, you may have to sit besides strangers at the same table.
If you disagree to it, go to a more upscale place where you will pay
for increased room.
Trendy restaurants often require reservations weeks, if not months
in advance. If you haven't planned far enough ahead, try to get a
reservation for lunch which is generally easier and less expensive.
Paris
Hotels
For an easy-to-manage eating budget while in Paris, consider:
breakfast or "petit dejeuner" at a restaurant, possibly in your
hotel, consisting of some croissants, coffee, and maybe a piece of
fruit (this typically costs around $5 to $10 depending on the area).
Get a 'walking lunch' from one of Paris' many food stands--a panino
in the center of the city, a crepe from a crepe stand, a falafel
pita or take-out Chinese in the Marais. Traiteurs serving Chinese
food are ubiquitous in the city and good for a cheap lunch and many
patisseries sell inexpensive coffee and sandwiches. All these are
cheap (about the same as breakfast), easy, and allow you to maximize
your sightseeing and walking time while enjoying delicious local or
ethnic food. For dinner, stroll the streets at dusk and consider a
20-to-40-Euro prix-fixe menu. This will get you 3 or 4 courses,
possibly with wine, and an unhurried, candlelit, magical European
evening. If you alternate days like this with low-budget,
self-guided eating (picnicking, snacking, street food) you will be
satisfied without breaking the bank.
If one of the aims of your trip to Paris is to indulge in its fine
dining, though, the most cost-effective way to do this is to make
the main meal of your day lunch. Virtually all restaurants offer a
good prix-fixe deal. By complementing this with a bakery breakfast
and a light self-catered dinner, you will be able to experience the
best of Parisian food and still stick to a budget.
Special thanks to Wikipedia
and its authors.
