These pages offer advice on visiting Paris, information about the city that’s hard to find elsewhere, and the like. Some of it is good stuff to know, some of it is historical, and some of it is just my (somewhat informed) opinion–where to buy the best macarons, non-touristy souvenir ideas, and the like.
January 15th, 2020: To make your way around Paris during the current transportation strike, download the Citymapper app, available for iPhone and Android. It includes information about which lines are operating, and when, on any given day.
Making your way around:
- Renting a car in Paris: don’t do it.
- How to get from the airport to the city
- Metro etiquette
- Metro information
- Choosing a map
- Learning some French:
- Podcast (beginning to advanced): Coffee Break French
- Videos (mostly intermediate): Learn French with Pascal
- Web site (all levels): Lawless French
- CDs (mostly beginning): Pimsleur
- Very thorough, structured courses with both audio and written materials–high quality, and free, but not a short-term project: Foreign Service and Defense Language Institute courses
Understanding Paris:
- Interacting with waiters
- Hustles (bad)
- Hustles (good)
- Shopping
- Toilets, public and otherwise (I haven’t actually written this one–would it be useful to someone out there? If so, leave a note in the Comments section.)
- Sewers and smells
- Beggars
- Churches
- Why not to bother worrying about terrorism
Things to do, places to go:
Buying stuff and eating:
- Non-touristy souvenirs
- Macarons
- See the post above about how to have pleasant interactions with waiters
Zipf's Law 