What's Paris like?

[nervoustraveller1]

Never been. Want to go. I'm a Londoner and have explored a lot of central London.

Please tell me, what is Paris like?

Mention of London was only to act as a reference point.

It's lovely but be aware - Saturday is when everyone goes out & about & its mental. Sunday is when they take their children out.

I would totally recommend the open top bus tour - You get to see everything & go everywhere - but don't do it at the weekend because the traffic is crazy and

I'd also recommend the Paris Pass if you want to go to some museums.

Beautiful, intriguing, full of wonderful history and art if that's your thing. 100% worth seeing. Also exhausting because you tend to walk a lot and they're not big on public benches. Metro is a bit bit pissy and inaccessible, but safe enough. Some tourist things (eg Bateau Mouches) are expensive. Wait and service staff can be rude, especially if you don't speak French. And if you do, they will correct you. Much smaller than London.

Dirty, full of beggars, lots of graffiti. Grossly overrated.

There’s some good stuff to see don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying don’t go. But it’s a shithole.

What's it like at night?

Ignore the 'I'm so cool' negativity OP. Paris has very beautiful parts, the same as any city. The architecture and galleries are lovely. Montmartre is my favourite arrondissement.

The best advice I can give is to Ignore anyone who says Paris is a 'shithole'.

Depends what you want. There are fantastic restaurants, live music bars, cocktail bars or you can just stroll.

Beautiful and iconic. But yes it’s a city with the stuff that comes with a city.

Verrrrrrrrrry expensive!

Different people will tell you different things. The absolute best advice I can give you is to watch 'Les Frenchies' on YouTube. They moved from Florida a couple of years ago but he is French, and cover absolutely everything in short, fun videos. What to do, where to stay and eat, how to avoid scammers or pickpockets and travel safely. It's all there!

I really don't like Paris. At all. Rome, though...amazing!

Like any city, it is made up of very many different areas, which are very varied in every way. There is no short answer- but anyone who says its a shithole are more than weird and wrong!

Paris is a shithole. But no more or less so than any other big city. It pretty much goes with the territory these days.

There are some fantastic things to see and do there, just as there are in London, Rome, Madrid etc that any guide book would describe better than me. I would definitely recommend a visit if you haven't been.

I absolutely loved it. We had limited time so didn't visit busy attractions like the Eiffel Tower or Louvre (just took pictures outside them 😊). Did an open top bus tour which was really good, just hopped off wherever we liked. I enjoyed the people watching, visiting art galleries, shopping in little boutiques and sitting outside cafes drinking wine. Highlight for me was dinner on a boat on the Seine, that was amazing. We also took a trip to Versailles which was mind blowing in its decadence.

I didn't find the Parisians rude, I speak schoolgirl French so maybe trying the language makes a difference. Didn't find it overly expensive either but I'm from Ireland so not many places pricier than here!

We have friends & relatives there so we have to visit fairly often, it has some lovely bars and it looks quite nice all lit up but I can’t get excited about it. It’s not my vibe.
DH has been mugged twice by the river so we avoid walking that these days. We used to usually go out in Bastille as I remember as that’s near where we often stay. These days when we visit it’s a quick in and out and we don’t do big nights anyway with DD.

Berlin is so much nicer. We also have family there and I genuinely love it there. It always feels much safer and more family friendly.

Germany is on the whole a million times nicer than France though anyway IMO. France is somewhere you drive through to get to the more interesting bits of Europe.

That said, I did enjoy ticking off all the usual tourist bits the first couple of times we went. Everyone should do that once and when DD older she’ll get trotted out to see The Mona Lisa etc.

Everyone is rude though, even the French admit that.

I love Paris. I've been a lot.
I've never had anyone be rude to me. I do speak French but no where near fluent.
It can be expensive, but there are plenty of cheaper places.
I do the metro if I need to get somewhere but otherwise walk everywhere, just wandering around is fantastic.

@AlltheFs sorry to hear about Ur DH.

My initial thought about Paris was they it was rife for pickpocketing instead of muggings.

I feel Barcelona has a lot of muggings (from what I've read about)

Paris is the capital city of a large European nation. Hence, like all capital cities, it has some wonderful bits and some awful bits, lots of lovely people and its fair share of thieving scumbags, fabulous restaurants and eateries and some rip off places you wouldn't want to visit twice, amazing architecture and its fair share of concrete monstrosities .... etc etc (same can be said for London or <insert name of any large city>) ....

Personally, I love it. Be prepared to walk a lot, wear comfortable footwear, take it as you find it and brace yourself for expensive coffee/beer/food etc.

Most big cities have pickpockets though. As long as you are sensible and try not to look like an obvious tourist you are normally fine.

It’s wonderful. Anyone saying it’s “a shithole” either hasn’t actually been or spent the entire time in dodgy suburbs, which all cities have.

I lived in Paris as a child.

Pickpocketing is definitely rife, especially around the big train stations and on the Metro. The metro and stations can be a bit of a shock - the level of homelessness/crime etc is much more extreme than in London.

But I do love Paris and continue to visit again & again. It’s a great city to explore on foot, just like London. You’ll never run out of things/shops/cafes/parks to explore. Now is also a good time to visit. From April-September it can be very overrun with tourists.

Unlike London, the big museums/galleries (like the Louvre, Musee D’Orsay etc) are not free to visit and there are often long queues - up to an hour in the summer. You need to book in advance online. This also applies to the Eiffel Tower.

I thought it was much nicer than expected. Minus an area around the train station. Lovely parks and architecture

Dh and I went for a weekend and we hated it.
Bil and his wife went for a weekend and absolutely loved it.

We found it dirty, scruffy, couldn't miss the smell of urine in the underground stations, the beggars covered in their own filth laid outside shop doors, burnt out cars dotted around streets, we were followed from the train station to where we were meeting friends, we were approached at least 5 times in 1 day by people trying to get money from you or sell you something. paid 18euro for a ham and cheese baguette,

BIL and wife stayed in a boutique hotel just near the eiffel tower, ate out in fancy restaurants, got ubers everywhere and didn't really walk around at all and had a completely different experience.

guess it totally depends on how much you want to spend too - we love city breaks for the whole city experience, Amsterdam, Rome, Barcelona we have loved every minute off. Paris we very much felt like you have to spend a LOT to get the romanticised experience.

I was considering it too I last there in my teens but I’m thinking to avoid. Love walking around the streets and just doesn’t sound that pleasant

If you go at a quiet time of day mid-week and book ahead you can get Eurostar tickets for only £50 each way.