Having travelled to Paris a few times in my backpacking career, I could have used a bit of real world advice that may have saved me some pain and suffering. I headed to Paris after high school, full of romantic dreams ready to use my French and eat baguettes. When I arrived I realized the French were stereotyped rude because they actually were rude. Horribly rude. No one would listen to my 'French' or help me at all when I was completely lost and could not find my hostel, walking over 10kms with a 25kg backpack...that it just a small snapshot.
In this article, the author gives a rather brief overview of how to get around and some pros and a few cons. It's a pretty fluffy article if you ask me and I'm not convinced it really gives any concrete tips for first time visitors to Paris. I think the fact that the audience is American the author really should have highlighted the 'right' when to act when you arrive- say you are Canadian! The French HATE Americans among others.
Paris is a beautiful city, I would not discount that. There are so many great things to do, but I think it's important for travellers to be realistic on their first visit. If you have stacks of money to spend and can afford luxury then Paris will be a breeze for you. But for the rest of us we need to know where to go where people might be helpful, what French to know, and how to pretend to have a French accent!
One thing I definitely agreed with the author on was the fact that one might be able to overlook hitting up the Louvre. Unless you are an art fanatic it's best to avoid a huge headache. I personally didn't go in- it was overpriced (i was a starving backpacker) and the lines were insane. Everyone I spoke to said they could have not gone in-you couldn't even see the Mona Lisa because in real life it was tiny, had a massive protective cover over it, and the crowd around it was about 10 deep in every direction.
So this article in my opinion could have offered much better 'first time' insight.
http://www.latimes.com/travel/la-tr-paris-20100822,0,3185666.story
Interesting obseravtions on Paris. The other thing I would add will be whatever you do, just don't speak English!) This is something that can make the French seriously upset.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't miss Louvre though. However the author is right, I did get a headache at the end, just too much too see and too many people.