27 Things to Know Before Visiting Paris | First Trip to Paris

27 Thing to know before visiting Paris.

I’ve been traveling to Paris from the US fairly frequently for most of my life. My best friend lives in Paris and I’ve visiting several times with my family and on solo travel adventures.

I finally decided to put together a video of things I with I knew before travel in hope if will help other travelers get their very best Paris experience.

To make sure the information is as accurate and helpful, I enlisted the help of a new friend and Parisian tour guide SOPHIE! You can book a tour with here: https://www.leparisdesophie.com/?lang=en

She is truly magnifique and will give you an incredible Parisian experience.

All music in this Guide to Paris video is arranged and performed by David John Madore.

Feel free to share your own Paris tips and Tricks in the comments below and for more travel follow me!

Chapters:
00:00-00:47 Intro
00:47-01:55 How to navigate Paris (Getting Around Paris)
01:55-03:47 Where to Stay in Best (Best neighborhoods in Paris)
03:47-05:22 Hotels Recommendation in Paris Louison Hotel (NOT sponsored)
05:22-07:16 When to visit Paris/Best Times to Visit Paris
07:16-08:31 Sunrise and Sunset Times in Paris
08:31-09:10 Walking in Paris
09:10-10:12 Do They Wear Sneakers in Paris
10:12-11:30 How to Use the Paris Metro
11:30-11:53 Cabs, Ubers & Cars in Paris
11:53-12:57 How to Get a Cab to the Airport in Paris
12:57-14:11 Take a Food Tour (Eating Europe Montmartre Tour)
14:11-15:21 Scams and Such
15:21-16:35 Best Fondue Experience in Paris
16:35-17:54 Do You Tip in Paris?
17:54-19:02 How to Pack for the Weather
19:02-19:31 Make Sure Your Hotel Has Air Conditioning
19:31-20:00 What To Do In Paris With Kids
20:00-21:41 Which Museums To Visit in Paris
21:41-22:07 When to Visit Museums in Paris
22:07-24:17 Labor Strikes in Paris (featuring @EscapetoEverdeen )
24:17-25:07 Sundays and Mondays in Paris
25:07 -26:03 Do You Need to Speak French in Paris?
26:03-27:41 Useful French Phrases for Visiting Paris
27:41-28:16 Google Translate (download it!)
28:16-29:14 Paris Boat Tours
29:14-30:06 Touristy Things in Paris
30:06-30:38 Final Thoughts
30:38 Royal With Cheese

[Music] beu a Perry hi I’m Megan a licensed tour guide and travel content creator and I love Paris and I’ve been lucky enough to visit here several times starting from when I was 10 years old so I thought that it would be fun to put together a video about things that I wish I knew before I traveled to Paris for the very first time so hopefully this video will help you get your very best Paris experience but before we get started make sure that you click subscribe so you never miss a travel minute because I had so much trouble figuring out Paris since it’s not on a grid system like New York I decided to get an actual Parisian tour guide to help us out so this is Sophie I’m going to put her information about how to book in the comments so how do we navigate Paris so actually hi everybody bour uh the Paris system is pretty uncommon what happened is that every time you’re walking in the street you should look at the street sign but not only to the name you should look at the number above the street sign what does it mean actually this is the number of the AR and the Aris is our district okay we have 20 of them in Paris and the big specificity of the city is that actually Paris is made like a snail come which means that here we are in the first one so we are in the very center Lou is just the next block okay very center of the city and after very easy to remember it goes like this so that’s why sometime you’re going to walk and you’re going to walk for example from the 4 to the 12 and be like okay what happened but remember it’s because of the escargo my favorite place to stay in France is the six aund dismal that’s mostly because it’s where my mom and I have stayed since I was 10 years old so I have a lot of like emotional memories to it but we were talking and it seems like my impressions of the six are maybe a little bit different so I was wondering if you would talk about your favorite places to stay yeah um so basically it’s been 12 years that I’m living in Paris so I moved to like different places and I know most of the AR uh for me um the six is quite nice nice but it’s not as authentic and it’s not where the Young parisians hang out we are most of the time in the East part of Paris uh so for example in the 10 the 11 or here we are this morning in the 12 but also more North around the 181 uh 18 19 and 20 so it really depends after um for more touristy and Central uh District even if even if sorry uh let’s be honest Paris is so small that even if you’re staying at the the end of the 12 year are still 30 minutes from the city center let’s not forget that uh but I would say that L if you really want to be close to the center um it’s one of the best part of Paris to live uh it’s between the third and the fourth Aris all this part is called L and it’s h pretty nice because you are really in between the local life where we are and where most of the Travelers don’t go except if you have a guide uh and after you are next to the L very very uh quickly and to be very honest I wouldn’t recommend to stay by the Lou or by the Shan if you want to leave the Parisian experience you know what I mean if you stay two days and you want to be like close to everything so it’s good for you if you want to live like us yeah maybe prefer the east or like not the very very center I always get asked which hotels I stayed at this last time I stayed with my mom in the six at a hotel called hotel louison it is a boutique hotel every single room is a little bit different so we actually stayed in two of their rooms the last one we stayed in had a private Terrace that we could hang out on and that was really really special there’s also a breakfast that you can add on to your stay the breakfast is really delightful they have fresh scrambled eggs fresh bacon fresh pastries fruits cheeses there’s also a lighter healthier version of the the breakfast if you so desire and then every evening from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at least during our stay there were a par ofs so this is complimentary wine and light bites that you can have sometimes it’s a great opportunity to mingle with other guests or just start your evening in France so I’m a huge fan of Hotel louison another wonderful thing about hotel louison is the amazing concierge team they can help you do anything they helped us book a cab they helped us find a restaurant they helped us book a train to Leon literally the first thing we haven’t even checked in yet I’m like how do I book a train to Leon and she literally walked us through the whole process so the conier team here is amazing happy to help so you know I’ve actually visited Paris at a bunch of different seasons but of course I don’t live here so I’m curious Sophie what you think about the best times to visit so I think it depends what you are looking for okay we have uh different uh times were pretty good in Paris according to me for example if you have already be if you have already been to Paris many times August is quite interesting because the parisians are not here and the city is pretty quiet so if you are looking for quiet Paris is nice but just so you know some places are going to be closed but less people less traffic you can for example bike in the city it’s more safe for you at this time of the year otherwise we have another moment which is October or November the tourists The Travelers are not here that much so the city is quiet again in term of the weather and of like the beautiful sun today is not a good example but let’s forget about it uh usually April May and June are wonderful month for me one of my best weekend to be in Paris it’s around June 21st because we have a huge party everywhere in France called La F la music okay and we celebrate music and everywhere in France and of course in Paris we have people playing music everywhere all the bars open and make a huge Terrace you have music everywhere people drink alcohol wine or whatever but in a safe way as always um and it’s a very very cool moment together with the parishan so I would say yeah like May June is nice and also people love to to visit Paris during the Christmas times it depends if you’re really into the Christmas decorations but once again it’s going to be crowded and the last moment also to come when it’s very quiet it’s January and February nobody but don’t forget your gloves and your scarves but I’ll be here no matter what you’re going to notice that the sunset time at least compared to those in New York City are very different in the spring and summer it tends to stay light much later than it does does at least in New York City and in the fall and winter the sun sets and Rises at a different time as well so right now it is you know the end of May it is about 8:45 and this is the sky it looks like 300 p.m. in New York city so I think the sunset time is around 9:45 this time of year and then if you come in October which is the last time I came to visit the sun sets quite early it sets around you know 5:00 p.m. and it rises very late I looked it up on December 20th the sunrise I believe was 8:44 a.m. so if you come in the spring and summer you’re going to have very long days and if you come in the fall and winter expect very short days and long nights but the good thing about the long nights is you get to watch the Eiffel Tower twinkle Moore in the dark one of my favorite things about Paris is that it’s a really wonderful City for walking It’s relatively small of course if you’re really walking the full length of Paris it’s going to take you several hours to do so but in terms of the top tourist locations it’s easy to walk from one place to another if you are a walker plus I think it’s really wonderful to get to see all of the beautiful architecture and buildings you get to learn more about the city if you do so so bring your comfy walking shoes and prepare to walk and who knows you might get a surprise view of Lael the next Corner that you turn I am here in the beautiful luxemborg gardens in Paris to bring you a very important message about Footwear there are lots of people who are going to tell you not to wear sneakers when you come to Paris cuz that will make you stand out as a tourist and while at one point that might have been the case that is not the case today I have been here for 3 weeks there everybody’s wearing sneakers locals are wearing sneakers tourists are wearing sneakers I have asked our tour guides I have asked my friends who live in Paris I have asked the hotel concierges they all say yes we wear sneakers and the reason for that is you’re going to do a lot of walking in Paris it’s a great walking City and as you walk you get to see so many things and you might also be walking on uneven ground Cobblestone right now I am walking on Pebbles so if you bring your comfest sneakers that is going to make your life so much better in Paris in terms of riding the Metro or public transportation I have a full video about that especially with how it compares to the New York City subway so I strongly suggest that you check that out if you really want a deep dive into the Paris Metro I love the Paris Metro it is open I believe until 12:30 on weekdays and a little bit later on weekends now for most people probably the most economical thing to do is to buy single tickets I find buying them very confusing and you need to actually hold on to them sometimes you need to hold on to them to get out of stations but also there are Metro Police that walk around and they want to make sure that you actually bought your ticket and they will ask you to show them the ticket what I do it’s probably not the most economical in most situations but I buy a navigo pass we talk about the navigo pass in my Paris Metro um it’s a little bit more expensive I believe this was around $35 per person with the card and the weekly unlimited payment but I love that I don’t have to think about it it’s like comes in this nice plastic case so for me I just find that to be the easiest but for everyone you’re going to make your own decision about what the best way to pay for the Metro is going to be Ubers and taxis are pretty good in Paris now I’ve tried to take the metro or walk any place I had to go but the few times that I’ve needed to take an Uber either because it was late at night or I was running really late I just used Uber it showed up really fast that hasn’t always been the case in every city that I visited but thought you should know that it’s good to rely on and you might want to download that Uber app before you come speaking of car services if you’re going to Charles deal Airport into like the heart of Paris there are fixed rates depending on where in Paris you’re going to go but that’s only if you go to the official taxis at the official taxi stand in Charles deal airport there’s going to be people asking you to take a taxi if you need a taxi before you get to the official taxi stand just say no get to the official taxi stand and then you’ll have that fixed rate and the same goes for coming into or or from Paris to Charles deal there is that fixed rate at as well so you might want to call an official cab if you want to take advantage of that fixed rate this was something that was very important to my mom that I mention because she ended up getting a car service that cost over $100 to Charles deal airport and my fiance when he came in there was a fix rate of 56 to where he was going in Paris so you could literally save half of the fair by taking that official taxi to and from the airport if you watch my videos you know that I am a huge fan of taking tours I strongly suggest when you’re in Paris to take a food tour I feel every time I’ve visited I’ve taken a food tour and I learn so much I learned so much about the French culture I learned so much about where to eat and what to eat David and I just took a food tour with eating Europe we took their M food tour it was incredible no notes it was amazing I strongly strongly recommend that you take that tour we tasted so many different types of food the guide was so knowledgeable I will put that in the comments below I’ll link that in the comments below but no matter what when you come book a food tour and they do tend to sell out so that’s something that you might want to book a few days in advance oh and one more thing I strongly recommend that you book the food tour at the beginning of your trip because they’re going to do things like tell you how to order the perfect baguette and if you get to the end of your trip and book the food tour and realize that you’ve been ordering the wrong baguette all along you’re going to be kicking yourself so do this early now just taking it at all is better than no tour but I strongly recommend doing it early when you visit Paris there will be some scams even if it’s not officially scams it’s maybe just things that are making you spend your money in a way that you don’t want to spend it or feeling pressure to spend your money in a way that you don’t want to spend it right now I’m in front of sacer and there people walking around selling locks very expensive locks what they want you to do is buy those locks and then if you come over here uh they’re hoping that you will put the locks on these Gates like that you can write a little love message if that’s what you want to do on your vacation I always tell people be selfish it is your trip do whatever gives your heart Joy but just be aware that’s going to happen there’s also a lot of people walking around with little Eiffel Tower figurines if you go out to eat there might people who actually come up to you in the restaurant and hand You a Rose they’re hoping that you will buy that Rose so just you know feel free to say no if it’s not what you want to do but if it’s what you want to do if you want to buy a rose for whoever you’re eating dinner with buy that Rose and if you want to put your name on a lock and put it on a gate feel free to do that as well it is your vacation this is a refuge day fondue and this is my favorite Secret in Paris oh you need to reserve really early because it’s actually not that much of a secret dait and I just discovered it by accident I was Googling best fond do in Paris and this came up as an option we were really drawn because the pictures on like Trip Advisor had wine and beer in baby bottles so we showed up without a reservation we got super lucky we were the only people who got in all night without a reservation you had to reserve at least four nights in advance and it is such a fun experience you get fondue you get wine you get appetizers you get Kure you get dessert and it’s only $31 per person which is an absolute steal I do consider myself a fondue expert I loved the fondue we got the cheese you also have a meat option so definitely book this in advance it is so good also you can write your name on the wall the ceiling the chairs so we wrote at the Megan daily if you can find it on the wall at Refuge day fondue take a picture and tag us and let us know proof that we were there and loved it so you just finished literally every last drop of your dessert and it’s time for the check to come and you’re wondering do I leave a tip or not and this is where things get really strange at least for me as an American because in America typically the servers are not paid a living hourly wage so they’re really depending on those dining to make up that wage with their tips in Paris the servers are paid a living wage so what I am told from all of my friends who live here is that tipping is not customary now of course if you like the service you can leave a few Euro and I don’t think anyone’s going to be mad or insulted if you happen to leave a 20% tip but in general tips are not expected and there’s not a huge tipping culture here it’s going to feel really really weird because I’m so used to like needing to tip to supplement that income and again no one’s going to be mad if you do leave a tip but typically Paris does not have a tipping culture I have visited Paris in the spring the summer and the fall now especially true of the spring and the fall you’re really going to want to master layering so right now it’s the afternoon it’s in the 70s in terms of Fahrenheit but it’s going to get down to the 50s so I always bring like a jacket to put on for when it gets cooler at night and depending on what the temperature is doing sometimes I need more layers or less layers in the summertime it can get real hot like we’re talking the 100° Fahrenheit so you’re going to want to definitely bring whatever you wear when it gets really really hot and in the winter times my friends who live here say it can get very cold just like New York so you’re definitely going to want to bring a warm coat but if you’re here in the spring and the fall layers are going to be your BFF make sure that you pack those when you pack your suitcase while we’re talking about the weather the weather can change really quickly it’s been kind of manic since we’ve been here with sun and rain and sunny rain and cloudy Sun um so you might want to you know invest in a very tiny umbrella if you want to bring it with you if you are visiting in the summertime this is very important you want to make sure that your hotel has air conditioning now in the United States I feel like almost every hotel has air conditioning not the case in Paris so when you are booking make sure ask call if you have to send an email make sure that your hotel has air conditioning otherwise you are going to be very very hot and very sweaty when you sleep if you have kids you really want to take advantage of the parks all throughout Paris including the luxemborg gardens so here we have these like really fun little boats I believe that it’s $6 for 30 minutes currently to rent them um you’re given like a stick and you kind of like push the sticks around and they have areas here that are dedicated specifically just to young children as well so it’s a great place to to run around and enjoy the outdoors when you come to Paris because there are so many amazing museums in Paris it can be a bit overwhelming so I thought that I would ask tour guide Sophie what some of her favorite museums are and which one she would recommend you visit during your trip to Paris hi bour so among the big ones I would say d is very very nice to visit this is the biggest impressionist collection you can see in the world and we can go there together because I do T over there and I’ll tell you all the secrets about the paintings the other one it’s more personal um but it’s the city the architecture it’s about the architecture in Paris and in France and actually it’s just in front of the tower but nobody knows about it and I don’t know why okay uh and the other one is rantic and this one I really love it for the exhibition it’s a they are very small but also there is a garden where you can enjoy like a tea and a wonderful pastry it’s beautiful especially during Springtime and this one is a very secret so let us know uh in the comments which one you’re going to visit I also want to say that in my opinion when you visit a museum of course you can visit it on your own and you will get so much out of it but I personally always get more out of a museum if I go with a tour guide because they will make like literally all of the works of art all of the statues all of the artifacts come to life they really like inject it with like a human story so I strongly encourage you to take a tour and Sophie can give you a tour of a museum big piece of advice for when you do visit museums is try to go early in the day you really don’t want to go near closing time like if a museum says that it closes at 6:30 don’t show up at 5:30 because they will be closing exhibition they will be pushing you out you won’t get to enjoy it so you want to go earlier in the day so you ensure that you have the time to fully experience that museum this is my best friend Cara and I wanted to bring her onto the channel to talk about something that I’ve experienced a couple of times when I visited Paris but before she talks about this mysterious thing I want to let you know that you should subscribe to her YouTube channel it is called escape to everine and it’s all about about this amazing house that she bought in the over region of France and the Mysterious second house that we accidentally bought check how many houses you’re buying I mean I I hate it when I accidentally buy a second house and she’s like restoring it and she goes brok hunting and doing all of these amazing things um so make sure that you subscribe to that I’ll put that in the comments but what I really wanted Carrie to talk about are strikes I don’t tend to experience a lot of strikes that affect my everyday life in New York City but I visited Paris a few times when there were various strikes there was a Transit strike this trip before there was like a garbage strike so I’m just wondering if you could tell us a little bit about strikes and how often they happen it’s hard to say because we do have the reputation of striking all the time and I won’t say that’s untrue uh but it really can vary uh depending on what’s Happening for example uh last year we had a big uproar because macron the president was trying to change the retirement age and there were so many strikes I there were so many strikes the train company the national train company gave me money because of how many times they delayed my trains I do just want to say I feel like at least as someone who lives in the United States when I hear strikes I’m like oh no it’s going to be violent the streets are going to be crazy the streets for the transit strike were crazy because there was a lot more traffic but they tend to be like pretty calm and quiet strikes right most of the time it’s just something about the system is not working except for the time I got trapped in Germany by tractors but that was different but most of the time it’s just something that’s not working a surprising thing to know when you visit Paris is that a lot of the stores this is a chocolate shop but also you know boutiques clothing stores are closed up on both Sunday and Monday some are just closed Sunday but some are closed Sunday and Monday so if you’re planning a shopping day you really want that to be Tuesday through Saturday now my mom will sometimes plan her entire trip knowing that stores might be closed on Sundays and Mondays so she makes sure to always give herself a Tuesday at the end of the trip like a full Tuesday so she can run back and buy anything that she was thinking about so just be prepared to know that Sundays and Mondays might be a day when things are closed in my personal opinion when you visit Paris you should really try to learn French it’s okay if you’re not fluent in French or even if you’re not necessarily proficient but I have found that locals are really really receptive if you try to speak French most most locals in Paris do speak English but if you just come up to them and say hey do you speak English they might be a little taken aback and they might not bring the English out however if you say you know paru Ang that simple phrase goes a really long way now I’ve studied French since I was a kid David’s family speaks French as he’s French Canadian so if you speak French that’s even better but but you know try get dual lingo get Rosetta Stone take a class try to learn French for your trip to Paris there are some useful phrases to know I don’t have the best Paris accent so I decided to have the wonderful tour guide Sophie help me out again if you would like to book a tour with her I will put the link in the comments so Sophie if I sit down at a table in Paris and I want table water what do I order you order [Music] or is the easiest one and everybody is going to understand you don’t want to pay for the water but the water is still good and then if I am looking for an exit in the subway what am I looking for what word you’re looking for and then if I need to use the bathroom the bathroom it’s the toilet [Music] and then if I want to order a Diet Coke what do I order you order so caola and if I’m entering a place for the first time and I want to greet somebody say hello what would I say um you say of course bour and not bour so try bour means Hi how are you and then if I want to know how much something costs and then perhaps the most important one of all how do I say thank you Mercy or Mercy mercu it’s thank you very much if you haven’t learned French that’s also okay A little trick that I’ve learned When I visit countries where I really don’t speak the language or just have failed to learn the language is if I have Google translate on my phone I can always type things out English and translate it to that language of the country where I’m speak where I’m visiting and I can show that translation on my phone to whoever I’m trying to communicate with so Google translate might be your best friend any other translation app could also work as well so just make sure you have that on your phone one of my personal favorite things to do in Paris I know it’s super touristy I don’t care I love it and everybody who I take this loves it is to take one of the Cru es down the sen it’s a tour of the sen there are lots of companies that offer these my personal favorite is theet D PN I love theet D PN because they have a live tour guide a live tour guide who translates things into both French and English now if you speak a language other than French or English perhaps you want to try B mush they have a pre-recorded audio recording I think it was in five different languages I personally like gravitate towards live guides if I can but if you speak Russian or Chinese the batt mush might be a better option for you and on these River Cruises you get to understand a little bit about how Paris is laid out and you get to see everything from notredam to LEL this is maybe the most important piece of advice when visiting Paris I feel like whenever I travel to a big city there’s a lot of pressure to not do the touristy things to do all of these local Secrets off the beaten path things and those are amazing and we have done those on this trip and they have all been fabulous but you know what else has also been fabulous the really touristy things so the Olympics are coming in less than two months we just bought the Olympic mascot this is fry he is supposed to look like a fan cap I think the the locals in Paris would probably scoff at me but I love him him and this is a reminder that it’s your vacation so if you want to do the touristy things do the touristy things they are touristy people go to them because they are awesome I hope that this video has helped you get some tips and tricks for how you can have your very best trip to Paris if you’ve visited Paris before please feel free to share your favorite tips and tricks in the comments below so that everybody can benefit and if you enjoyed this video please make sure that you click subscribe because it helps me bring you more videos like this thank you so much for watching happy travels and I’ll Ro all with cheese tell