Paris Travel Blog

Though it was recently voted the world’s most popular city for tourists by none other than TripAdvisor, Paris can be expensive. All those café coffees and museum tickets add up. Savvy travellers take advantage of what’s free. And free fun in the streets may just be why Paris remains in the world...

There’s nothing better than a five-star hotel, right? Officially, perhaps not, but the bar has been raised in recent years by hotels such as the Burj Al Arab in Dubai, which is widely described as “seven-star”. Perhaps stung by this, earlier this year the first rumours emerged of a new French “palace...

As the main tourist season gets under way in the approach to Easter, today’s edition of the Paris local newspaper Le Parisien has a timely warning for visitors to Sacre-Coeur. Sacre-Coeur: Tourist trap? © Jacques Lebar / Paris Tourist Office Tourist traps plague every big city and sadly Paris is...

This Sunday, 10 April,  more than 40,000 runners will set off from the top of the Champs-Elysées for the 35th annual Paris Marathon. Paris being a relatively small city they will get the chance to see almost all its big sights over the 42.195 kilometre course. Visitors as well as locals will be turning...

Earlier this month, the venerable Michelin guide released its list of who’s in and who’s out in the French restaurant world. See our Top 10 for the list of the best of the best in Paris. As the grande dame of the restaurant world, Paris could be forgiven for not caring about what anyone thinks of...

Buskers can arouse violent reactions. Some love them, some hate them. The Paris Métro has strict rules for busking in its passageways: would-be underground entertainers have to audition and stick to specific pitches at specific times. Buskers at Pont Neuf © Paris Tourist Office / Amélie Dupont On...

OK, so you arrive in Paris, and before you do anything – even before you check in to your hotel – you’ll probably have to take a taxi. Things have changed since a teenage Vanessa Paradis (now firmly installed as Mrs Johnny Depp) asked Joe Le Taxi to take her to Barbès. Your taxi driver will not...

You can spend long, absorbing hours in Paris museums looking at wonderful paintings of French landscapes, but when, as now, spring begins to strike, the weary traveller sniffs the air and wants to explore in the open air. For fans of Vincent Van Gogh, the answer to museum malaise is a daytrip to Auvers-sur-Oise. Vincent...

Shivering a bit, I look up. The top of the Eiffel Tower is hidden in the mist. Is there any point in going up there? Especially in winter, Paris often has days like this, when low, white cloud hangs over the city. It costs extra, so is it worth going all the to the very top of the tower in this weather?...

Stand up to be counted: the last pissoir in Paris Incongruously stranded in a relatively clean and modern part of the Left Bank’s hospital district, the last pissoir in Paris seems rather folorn these days. Though tagged with graffiti and looking very disrespected, it is clean and sturdy enough and...