Paris
Transportation
PARIS
The best way to get around Paris is to use public transport, in particular
the subway, whose 11 lines take you everywhere, there are a total of 273 stations.
The Parisian metro reaches the most interesting tourist places so it is very fast and
fast move from one point of interest to another.
For tourists it is better to have a 10-journey booklet to save money .
Subway
Trains
Getting around Paris is extremely simple and pleasant thanks to public transport
punctual and efficient. Paris boasts one of the largest metro networks in the world
and thanks to this comfortable and fast means it is possible to visit the most beautiful places in Paris without
tire yourself excessively with long walks. The alternatives to the metro are the buses
surface, taxis and RER trains.
Airports
The major airlines fly to Paris, the French capital is served by three airports, Aéroport d'Orly and Aéroport Roissy Charles de Gaulle both well connected to the centre. The Aéroport de Beauvais is decentralized, charter flights operate and some low-cost airlines. Orly is the smallest and oldest airport in Paris 19 km from the city and is connected continuously by free shuttles to the car parks and RER C Pont de Rungis-Aéroport d'Orly station, the Orlyval automatic railway line connects the two terminals with the RER B Antony station.
The airport Roissy Charles de Gaulle is located 28 kilometers northeast of the city, it has three terminals and two railway stations served by trains. To move between the two airports you need to take RER line B3 to Antony station and then the Orlyval automatic line or take the bus n. 3 of Air France which connects the two airports. The duration of the connection is approximately one hour. The Paris-Beauvais airport located 75 kilometers north of Paris is used by some low-cost airlines. As regards the costs of low cost flights and stays in hotels, it is possible to consult the Web site Booking, also with flight offers departing from Malpensa Airport .
Attractions
Among the main monuments, squares, avenues and other places of interest to visit in Paris we mention , the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame Cathedral, Louvre Museum, Arc de Triomphe , Champs Elysées , Basilica of the Sacred Heart , Paris Opera , Champs Elysées , Sainte Chapelle of Paris, Latin Quarter, Montmartre, Palais Royal, Moulin Rouge, Paris Panthéon, La Sorbonne, Grande Arche de La Défense, Versailles , Catacombs of Paris , Disneyland Paris , Place de la Concorde.
Tourism
The tourist who intends to travel frequently in Paris by metro must obtain a card Paris Visite which allows you to travel without having to worry about tickets.
We remember that starting June 26, 2012, all minors will be able to travel to Paris, Europe and abroad only if in possession of their own identification document, identity card, individual passport, travel permit for minors under 15 years of age. Therefore, all entries of minors on their parents' passports are no longer valid, at the same time, these documents remain valid only for the holder until their natural expiry.
Paris is one of the European transport hubs and is served by three airports and from six international stations. The rail network is really efficient with connections flash in every corner of France. There are TGV trains for connections from Amsterdam and Brussels and Eurostar for London.
Recommended visiting periods.
The best time to visit Paris is spring during the months of March, April and May, or autumn. The month of August, on the other hand, is hot and muggy, and it is preferable to avoid long queues in the sun to enter museums or palaces to visit.
Recommended excursions
For excursions to Paris we recommend the Château de Versailles from the 17th century with its grandeur Hall of Mirrors and fountains fitted with beautiful gardens. In the northwest of Paris Giverny to see the works of the impressionist painter Claude Monet. For a fun family vacation in Paris we recommend Disneyland Paris or Parc Asterix with Asterix the Rooster and the Romans. All Paris airports are efficiently connected to the city centre, thanks to the RER and bus lines, the special Air France shuttles, as well as taxis, private transfers and shuttle buses. The secondary airport of Beauvais-Tille is also served by daily bus connections which allow you to reach the city center in about an hour.
The Arc de Triomphe was built in 1806 by Napoleon I in honor of the Grand Army. Inspired by the arches of antiquity, this emblematic monument bears the illustrious names of the nation and houses the tomb of the unknown soldier, whose flame is renewed every evening. A new museography now allows a better understanding of the history of the monument, as well as its national and international symbolic importance. From the terrace it is possible to admire, during the day and in the evening, a unique panorama of the Elysian Fields.
The best place to admire the Eiffel Tower in all its glory is the terrace of the Trocadéro located in front of it, or at its foot, in the gardens of the Champs de Mars . Born as a temporary structure on the occasion of the 1889 Universal Exhibition, the Eiffel Tower in Paris has been the symbol of Paris for 120 years! The engineer Gustave Eiffel was an entrepreneur who had already been working in the field of metal constructions for some time, specializing in the construction of bridges and also working on different projects, such as the creation of the internal armor of the statue of liberty. Contrary to what is often erroneously believed, Eiffel was not, however, the inventor of the homonymous tower, but only its financier. It was two engineers from his company, Emile Nouguier and Maurice Koechlin, who had the idea, in 1884, of building a 300 m high tower, conceived on the model of the bridge piers in which the company was specialized. Thus, the two inventors imagined a large pylon with a square base, formed by four trellis beams that met at the top, held together by three horizontal beams. To make the project more elegant, the architect Sthephen Sauvestre was called upon to transform the horizontal beams into floors and soften the pylon with the addition of four arches at the base… the Eiffel Tower was born! In the same year of the inauguration of the monument (1889), Eiffel was involved in the Panama scandal and left his business as an entrepreneur to devote himself to research and experimentation, of which the tower was the main instrument. The structure was in fact used as a station for meteorological observations, for experiments on air resistance and as a giant radio antenna.
The Champs Elysées are a pleasant stroll especially during the Christmas period, when the trees are covered in lights and a market is set up in the gardens. Furthermore, on New Year's Eve, the avenue is the main destination for many Parisians and tourists who celebrate the arrival of the new year by walking between the Luxor obelisk and the Arc de Triomphe. The avenue of the Champs-Elysées is one of the most famous promenades in the world but also one of the places in the French capital that have mostly lost the elegance and charm of the past, transforming into an area devoted to consumerism and . This long road is divided into two parts, the one next to the place de la Concorde is characterized by gardens that house four restaurants Ledoyen, Laurent, Gabriel, Elysées-Lenôtre, two theaters Marigny and Rond-Point and a pavilion dedicated to catering and entertainment Espace cardin . Starting from the roundabout known as the Rond-Point, an important traffic junction in this area of Paris, the scenario changes and a parade of buildings, restaurants and shops begins. In this area, there are high fashion boutiques, elegant car showrooms, several cinemas and the famous Lido, one of the most famous Parisian cabarets. These two very different sections of the same avenue are the result of an evolution that took place at different times. Indeed, the garden area was designed by the architect Le Nôtre in the final decades of the 17th century, to give the king who overlooked the Tuileries palace a pleasant view. The area later became the center of parties and shows and over time welcomed several pavilions, of which the most recent dates back to 1931, it is the pavillon des Ambassadeurs, current Espace Cardin. The other stretch of the Champs, on the other hand, developed starting from the 19th century, in fact in 1800 it had only eight buildings. Then, with the Second Empire, there was a building boom that made this area a "luxury" neighborhood, but only a few mansions survive from this period such as the Hotel de la Païva, at number 25. However, it is la Belle Epoque the heyday for the avenue, which, among other things, is crossed by the first underground line. At the beginning of the last century, several grand hotels were built and the trade in luxury items began to develop, with the opening, for example, of the Guerlain perfumery in 1913.
The cathedral of Notre Dame was built on the initiative of bishop Maurice de Sully starting from 1163, in place of a previous sacred building dedicated to St. Etienne. The works lasted less than a century, until 1250 and continued starting from the side of the transept up to the facade. Later, over the centuries, there were various works that completed, modified or restructured some parts of the building. Among these, the most important works were those carried out in the 19th century. During the French Revolution, in fact, there had been numerous damages done to the church, such as the decapitation or destruction of almost all the statues (especially those of the kings in the gallery of kings, on the main facade) – some of the original heads are now on display at the medieval museum of the city of Paris, that of Cluny- and the dismantling of the spire. In the 1800s, the success of Victor Hugo's novel "Notre Dame de Paris" rekindled interest in the cathedral, prompting the government to decree a complete renovation. The work was entrusted to the care of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc and Jean-Baptiste Lassus - the premature death of the latter will leave the management of the works completely in the hands of the former - who restored new splendor to the cathedral. Even the stained glass windows have been redone several times over the years: those from the 12th and 13th centuries were replaced by white glass in the 1700s and those that can currently be admired are even more recent, having been made by Jacques Le Chevallier only in 1965! The new stained glass windows have no figurative subjects and are colored in memory of the luminous atmosphere that reigned in the medieval cathedral.
The basilica of the Sacred Heart, in Romanesque-Byzantine style, is the result of a national vote promoted by the Catholic church to expiate the crimes of the Paris Commune and for this purpose the new building, built entirely with private donations, was built in the heart of the district from which the revolutionary movements had started. The white mass of the Sacred Heart has dominated Paris for a century now and is visible almost everywhere in the city, of which it has become one of the symbols. A curiosity: the stone used for its construction, that of Château-Landon, has the characteristic of producing, in contact with rainwater, a white substance (calcine) which permeates the whole building. So the more it rains, the more the building acquires whiteness! The visit of the interior is of little artistic value, while the climb to the dome is more interesting, which can be reached via 300 steep and narrow steps. But then, once you get to the top, the view is amazing and gorgeous.
Health.
In the city of Paristhere are no particular health risks, moreover France has reciprocal health agreements with other EU countries, therefore citizens of these countries will be able to use the European Health Insurance Card. For Italian citizens card has been sent home to all those assisted by the Health Service National and allows you to take advantage of free health care in public facilities of the country for most services, even if not urgent. The European Card does not cover instead repatriation in case of emergency. Each family member must have their own membership card. In case of loss, you can request one a duplicate to your ASL.
Security
As for security, in general, Paris is a safe city and harassment on the streets is rare. The so-called Ville Lumière, City of light, is generally very well lit and not there is no reason not to use the metro, which runs until 00:30 and sometimes until 1 am. The metro stations to avoid at night are, Châtelet-Les Halles and its endless corridors, Château Rouge in Montmartre, Gare du Nord, Strasbourg St-Denis, Réaumur Sébastopol and Montparnasse Bienvenüe. Bornes d'alarme are the alarm devices located in the middle of each metro or RER stop and in some corridors of the stations. Bag-snatching and purse-snatching are frequent in all crowded places, especially where tourists are, places where be especially careful are Montmartre , especially around the Sacré Coeur, Pigalle, the area of the Halles and the Center Pompidou, the Latin Quarter especially in the rectangle between rue St-Jacques, blvd St-Germain, blvd St-Michel and quai St-Michel, near the Eiffel Tower, on the Metro during rush hour. You should take the usual precautions, don't take them with you anymore money than you need and have a credit card, passport and any other documents in a pocket that is not easily accessible or in the safety deposit box of the Hotels.
Geographic location.
Located in the north-central part of France, Paris has a city center divided into two parts by the River Seine. North of the river, on the right bank, we find the tree-lined avenue of the Champs-Élysées, the Arc de Triomphe, the imposing Louvre Museum, the Center Georges Pompidou and the Île de la Cité where the Notre Dame cathedral is located. In the area south of the river, called the left bank, we find the Eiffel Tower. and the districts of Saint Germain de Prés and Montparnasse, famous meeting places for artists and intellectuals of Paris.
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