Paris

Public Transport

The Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens (RATP) (tel: 3246; www.ratp.fr) is an integrated, five-zone system of bus, métro and trains that is both cheap and efficient (except during strikes, which are frequent).

The 14 métrolines extend into zones one and two in central Paris. Métros operate daily 0530-0030, lines are colour-coded and designated by numbers. They are also clearly signposted with the names of the terminus station. The line 14 métro Météor runs from Gare St-Lazare to Bibliothèque François Mitterrand using modern driverless trains. Free transport maps are available at métro stations, bus terminals and the tourist office.

The RER(Réseau Express Régional) suburban express network has five lines (A, B, C, D and E) covering five zones and operating daily 0500-0110 with journey times generally much faster than the métro for distances covered. The system is linked to the métro network and some SNCF trains.

The bussystem is easy to use. Bus routes are numbered and stops display the buses that stop there, while a map shows all the stops on the route and the bus times. Most buses run Monday to Saturday 0630-2100; some continue until 0130. Services are reduced by approximately half on Sundays and bank holidays. Nightbuses(Noctambuses) run on several routes, Monday to Saturday 0100-0530 hourly, with a reduced service on Sunday. The night bus service cuts between place du Châtelet by the Hôtel de Ville and the suburbs.

The same tickets are valid on the bus, métro and RER (within zones one and two only) but not night buses (see below). One ticket is sufficient for a single bus ride, for an RER journey (within zones one and two only) or a métro journey (irrespective of zone). One ticket allows for changes (correspondances) of lines on the RER and the métro, however, separate tickets are required for changes between buses or between bus and métro/RER. Tickets should be validated on entry and kept until the end of the journey to avoid on-the-spot fines. Tickets, carnets and passes are all available for purchase from stations and tabacs; only single tickets may be purchased from the bus driver.

Night buses require separate tickets, which allow one change. Weekly or monthly travel passes (see below) may also be used on night buses. A mobilisday pass is available for central Paris and for five zones including the airports. Paris Visites offer one, two, three and five-day visitors passes for Paris and its immediate suburbs (zones 1-3), which can include transport to the airports, Versailles and Disneyland Paris (zones 1-5). There are reduced prices for children. These are available for purchase at the airports, métro and RER stations and tourist offices.

For longer stays, the Carte Orange, with a weekly coupon (coupon hebdomadaire), for sale at all métro stations, provides good value. It allows a week of travel in zones one and two. There is also a monthly Carte Orange. Tickets covering more zones are also available. The Carte Orange reusable ticket should be validated at the métro turnstile and shown to the bus driver.

Taxis

Taxis can be hailed in the street or caught at taxi ranks (arrêts taxis) found at airports, stations and close to main road junctions. An available taxi can be difficult to find, especially when most in demand - Friday and Saturday nights. A yellow light displayed on the roof shows that the taxi is available for hire; an orange light shows the taxi is in use. Taxi ranks have telephones, so if there are no cars in the rank you can call one.

Tariff A applies during the day. Journeys after 1900, on Sundays, bank holidays and in the suburbs are more expensive (tariff B). The most expensive rate (tariff C) applies for the suburbs and airports at night and districts outside Paris during the day. There are additional charges for pick-up and various other situations, including extra passengers, luggage and waiting. Tipping is not compulsory but drivers expect around 10%.

Taxi numbers are displayed at the ranks and listed in the yellow pages. These include Alpha Taxis (tel: (01) 4585 8585; www.alphataxis.fr), Taxis Bleus (tel: 0891 701 010; www.taxis-bleus.com) and Taxis G7 (tel: (01) 4739 4739; www.taxisg7.fr).

Driving in the City

Driving in central Paris is not advised. Most hotels do not have garages, parking is difficult (illegally parked cars are towed away) and traffic jams (embouteillages) are frequent. While the average speed in the métro is 27kph (17mph), the average road speed is 18kph (11mph) and even slower during the rush hours (Monday to Friday 0730-0900 and 1700-1900).

Parking prices vary throughout the city but are in the region of €2-5 an hour, for a maximum of two hours. Most legal street-side parking spaces are marked‘payant'; coins of €0.20, €0.50 and €1 may be used for the pay-and-display parking machines (horodateurs). Paris also has numerous underground and covered car parks in the city centre, costing around €2.50 per hour or about €15 for periods of 12-24 hours. These include the Arc de Triomphe, place de la Concorde and near the Forum des Halles. Many municipal garages close at around 2300 and some are closed on Sunday. The only good news is that parking is usually free on weekends and on weekdays before 0900 and after 1900.

Car Hire

The minimum age for car hire varies from 21 to 25 years. Drivers must have held a national driving licence for at least one year. It is usually requested that the cost is paid for with the driver's credit card.

Major car hire companies include Avis (tel: (01) 4418 1054; www.avis.fr), Budget (tel: (01) 4587 08 23; www.budget.com), Europcar (tel: (01) 3044 9384; www.europcar.fr), Hertz (tel: (01) 3938 3000; www.hertz.fr), National Citer (tel: (01) 4438 6045; www.citer.fr), and Sixt (tel: (01) 4438 5552; www.sixt.fr).

Bicycle Hire

There are over 200km (125 miles) of cycle lanes in Paris. Various maps and cycling guides can be found in bookstores and at some cycle shops. Bicycle hire companies include Paris à Vélo C'est Sympa, 37 boulevard Bourdon, 4th (tel: (01) 4887 6001; www.parisvelosympa.com) and Paris Vélo, 4 rue du Fer-à-Moulin, 5th (tel: (01) 4337 5922; www.paris-velo-rent-a-bike.fr).

Vélib is Paris's city-wide bike hire service. The first half hour is free, with low charges thereafter. The 800 stands mean you are never more than 300m (1,000ft) away from picking up one of the 20,000 bikes (tel: (01) 3079 7930; www.velib.paris.fr).

Introduction

Parisians are almost as passionate about their culture as they are about their restaurants. The French government takes art and culture very seriously, pumping money into the arts, supporting French cinema against Hollywood imports, and embarking on extravagant grands travaux (large projects), such as the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, quai François-Mauriac (tel: (01) 5379 5959; www.bnf.fr). The Opéra Bastille (see Music below) opened in 1989, on the bicentennial of Bastille Day, although the merit of its architecture and the quality of its productions have since been questioned.

Major venues, in addition to those detailed below, include the Palais des Congrès, 2 place de la Porte-Maillot, 17th (tel: (01) 4068 0005; www.palaisdescongres-paris.com), for opera, ballet and pop-star performances, and the enormous Palais des Sports, Porte de Versailles, 15th (tel: (01) 4828 4010; www.palaisdessports.com).

Tickets for concerts of all kinds can be purchased at FNAC Forum des Halles, 1 rue Pierre Lescot, 1st (tel: (01) 4041 4000; www.fnac.com), or FNAC Musique, 2 rue Charenton, 12th (tel: (01) 4342 0404). There is also the Carrousel du Louvre, 99 rue de Rivoli, 1st (tel: (01) 4316 4747 or 7272 1700; www.carrouseldulouvre.fr), located directly beneath the Louvre, or Virgin Megastore, 52 avenue des Champs-Elysées, 8th (tel: (01) 4953 5000; www.virginmega.fr). How ever long the queue, ticket touts at the Opéra and concert venues are to be avoided due to high prices and the prevalence of worthless fake tickets. 

Music: The Paris Opéra (tel: 0892 899 090; www.opera-de-paris.fr) performs ballet and opera at the Opéra Garnier, place de l'Opéra, 9th, and Opéra Bastille, place de la Bastille, 12th. Large opera productions are also performed at the Châtelet Théâtre Musical de Paris, 1 place du Châtelet, 1st (tel: (01) 4028 2840; www.chatelet-theatre.com). The varied programme at the Cité de la Musique, at La Villette (www.cite-musique.fr), is strongest in contemporary music and home to the internationally renowned Ensemble Intercontemporain (www.ensembleinter.com). It also features ancient music, jazz, chansons and world music. The Citéhas an important venue at the Conservatoire National de Musique, 209 avenue Jean Jaurès, 19th (tel: (01) 4040 4545; www.cnsmdp.fr).

A series of orchestras, including the Orchestre Colonne ( www.orchestrecolonne.fr), Orchestre Lamoureux (www.orchestrelamoureux.com) and Orchestre de Paris (www.orchestredeparis.com) are based at Salle Pleyel, 252 rue du Faubourg-St-Honoré, 8th (tel: (01) 4561 5300). Other prestigious venues for classical music include the Salle Gaveau, 45 rue de la Boétie, 8th (tel: (01) 4953 0507), Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, 15 avenue Montaigne, 8th (tel: (01) 4952 5050; www.theatrechampselysees.fr), and the Théâtre Musical de Paris, 1 place du Châtelet, 1st (tel: (01) 4028 2840; www.chatelet-theatre.com).

Theatre: The Comédie Française, 1 place de Colette, 1st (tel: (01) 4458 1515; www.comedie-francaise.fr), is the national theatre, renowned for its production of the classics. Théâtre National de la Colline, 15 rue Malte-Brun, 20th (tel: (01) 4462 5252; www.colline.fr), plays contemporary French drama. New talent is sought out at fringe theatres, such as Guichet-Montparnasse, 15 rue du Maine, 14th (tel: (01) 4327 8861; www.guichetmontparnasse.com) and the Bouffes du Nord, 37 bis boulevard de la Chapelle, 10th (tel: (01) 4607 3450; www.bouffesdunord.com). The Odéon, 1 place de l'Odéon, 6th (tel: (01) 4485 4000; www.theatre-odeon.fr), hosts foreign-language productions.

Dance: The main ballet venue is at the Opéra Garnier (see Musicabove). Major productions are also held at the prestigious Théâtre de la Ville, 2 place du Châtelet, 4th (tel: (01) 4274 2277; www.theatredelaville-paris.com), where the works of high-profile choreographers, such as Karine Saporta, Maguy Marin and Pina Bausch, are frequently shown. The theatre has another venue, Les Abbesses, with the same contact details at 31 rue des Abbesses, 18th. The Théâtre Musical de Paris (see Music above) hosts ballet companies from abroad.

Film: The first public film screening ever (‘Le train entrant en gare') was shown by the Lumière brothers in Paris in 1895. Today, Paris remains an important cinema capital - in any given week, over 300 films are shown. Hundreds of movies have been shot in Paris since then, but the most recent one to cause a stir was TheDa Vinci Code (2006), starring Tom Hanks and Audrey Tatou, in which the Louvre features prominently. The scenes of the interior of the Ritz, incidentally, were filmed in a mock up room in a UK studio, with all the furnishings brought in from Paris). There is no English-language cinema in the city; however, most films are shown in the original language, with French subtitles. UGC have a major presence in Paris with the city's largest (18-screen) cinema UGC Ciné Cité Bercy, 2 cours St-Emilion, 12th (tel: 0892 700 000). There is also a 16-screen UGC Ciné Cité Les Halles, place de la Rotonde, Nouveau Forum des Halles, 1st (tel: 0892 700 000). Although the multiscreen UGCsand Gaumontsare on the increase (many based on the Champs-Elysées and in Montparnasse), Paris is still teeming with small art house cinemas, clustered in the 5th and 6th arrondissements. Among these are Le Champo, 51 rue des Ecoles, 5th (tel: (01) 4354 5160; www.lechampo.com), near the Sorbonne, and Racine Odéon, 6 rue de l'Ecole-de-Médecine, 6th (tel: 0892 689 325), known for its all-night showings. Some cinemas are worth seeing just for their decor - one such is kitsch Le Grand Rex, 1 boulevard Poissonnière, 2nd (tel: (01) 4508 9358; www.legrandrex.com).

Amélie or Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001), directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (of Delicatessen (1991) fame) and Moulin Rouge (2001), directed by Baz Luhrmann, were both set in Montmartre and took box offices worldwide by storm. Paris, je t'aime (2006) is a filmic tour of the city, consisting of 18 short films of the capital's 20 arrondissements. A stellar cast including Gérard Depardieu, Nathalie Portman and Marianne Faithfull worked with celebrated directors such as Gus Van Sant and the Coen brothers.

Literary Notes: The written word and those uttered during long cafe discussions on the Left Bank have done much to create the mythical Paris that visitors still hunt out today.

Victor Hugo's historical novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831) is set in 15th-century Paris and his Les Misérables (1862) in the poverty-stricken Parisian underworld. Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast (1964) depicts the bohemian Paris of the inter-war years. Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer (1934) and Tropic of Capricorn (1939) portray a sexier city. A more reflective image is portrayed in Anais Nin's interlocking works. For Nin, Paris allows the development of her sexuality and (perceived as equally sinful) creativity. George Orwell describes the poverty of the 1920s in Down and Out in Paris and London (1933).

Traces of literary heroes and heroines and their fictional creations are sought throughout the city - in the lingering smoke of the Café de Floreand Les Deux Magots, boulevard St-Germain, 6th, where the existential discussions between Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus and Simone de Beauvoir used to rage. James Joyce used to drink at chic Le Fouquet's, 99 avenue des Champs-Elysées, 8th, while such luminaries as Jean Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire and Oscar Wilde frequented Le Procope, 13 rue de l'Ancienne-Comédie, 6th. Ernest Hemingway dined at the La Cloiserie des Lilas, 171 boulevard du Montparnasse, 6th, still popular with the publishing world, and Samuel Beckett's favourite haunt was Le Select, 99 boulevard du Montparnasse, 6th.

The place of literary pilgrimage par excellence is the Père Lachaise Cemetery, presumed resting place of medieval lovers Abélard and Héloïse. They lie in good company, along with the great 17th-century playwright Molière and fable-teller La Fontaine, Oscar Wilde, Sarah Bernhardt, Champollion, Delacroix, Ingres, Géricault, Bizet, Balzac, Proust, Colette and Edith Piaf. Contemporary poet, singer and icon Jim Morrison was famously buried here in 1971. Heather Reyes' Zade (2004) is set in Père Lachaise. Ellie Nielsen's Our Own Piece of Paris (2008) is a light-hearted account of a couple's attempt to buy the type of idyllic Parisian apartment so many visitors dream of owning in only two weeks.

© Columbus Travel Media Ltd.