Get exact time
Get present weather
Your money converter
Type address for map:
Oxford AL Dictionary:
Sitemap (Index to site)
The World's My Home
UEFA Euro 2012 draw
Visiting Europe
Visiting China
Visiting Morocco
Visiting Malaysia
Online hotel booking
Anything to translate?
HOME                
Useful tips for YouTube
Your own password
Using RssReader
Using Cobian Backup
Internet/Computer tips
Useful software
Inspiring quotes/ideas
2012 Calendar/Events
Brainteasers
Just for laughs
Email spams and scams
Special characters
Six search engines
Old songs new singers
Deezer playlists
Popular English songs
Popular French songs
Sing with the lyrics
English-Malay Dictionary
Malay language course
Learn Chinese pinyin
Chinese characters
Chinese songs
Malay songs
Contact us

Paris (1)      Paris (2)      Paris (3)     Paris (4)     Paris (5)     | Useful links

  Visiting Paris (3)  


GENERAL INFORMATION:
(Latest)The Picasso Museum in Paris is still closed for renovation works and will only reopen sometime in the spring of 2013. (It had been announced earlier that it would reopen in 2012 but this is not going to be the case.)
On the first Sunday of every month admission is free to the National Museum of Modern Art at the Pompidou Centre (Beaubourg), the Louvre Museum, Quai Branly Museum and almost all the other museums.
Important information for tourists: All markets (and almost all swimming pools) are closed on Mondays while all museums (the Pompidou Centre is considered as a museum) are closed on Tuesdays. (However the Musée d'Orsay and the Musée du quai Branly are open on Tuesdays and closed on Mondays.)
If you are looking for information on the interesting places to visit when you are in Paris, go to "What to do, Where to go in Paris" as that page is intended for tourists visiting Paris. This page treats with other aspects of Paris that even the locals might find useful.

CYCLING IN AND OUT OF PARIS:
If you are interested in cycling in Paris itself with the Velib read all about it here.
But if you are more interested in cycling out of Paris and into the countryside to escape from pollution then go here for an account of how you can go right up to Meaux even from Paris on bicycle.

WHERE TO EAT CHEAPLY IN PARIS:
Apart from the very expensive French restaurants, the tourist on an average budget can eat typical French dishes at what is called a brasserie. This should not be a problem as you can easily find them if you just keep your eyes open. Many of them double up as a café with its sidewalk tables in summer. However if you are after cheap food then you probably have to eat at one of the many Chinese and Indian restaurants that you find in every street. I have come to know of a few that are really for those on a tight budget. After all they too have a right to travel!
One of the cheapest you can get is the one that sells Thai dishes in the 18th district of Paris. It's called Maison Thai (click on the name for a full description). Here you can have a full meal (white rice with two Thai dishes) for only 4.50 euros. Hot tea is provided free. It is quite a small place so don't come after one or you will have to join in a very long queue!
Another equally cheap restaurant where you can have a meal with a starter, main dish, cheese and dessert for only 5 euros is what is called a "social restaurant" and is really intended for the socially underprivileged who are able to have lunch and dinner here every day for free. Read about it here.
While eating at good French restaurants or brasseries is a "must" for most tourists, those on a tight budget will be glad to learn that they can still eat well and cheaply in an expensive city like Paris by eating at some of the many Chinese/Vietnamese restaurants in Paris. But how do you know which are the good ones? I have handpicked a few for you here.
But if it is cheap Indian food you are after, the best area to go to is La Chapelle in the 10th district of Paris. Go down at the underground station of the same name and turn to your left as you exit the station. One particular place I know of is the Coffee Anjapper restaurant at 22, rue Cail right in the centre of Little India. It serves authentic Indian dishes at quite reasonable prices.

EVENTS IN PARIS:
  • Garage sales (boot sales) in Paris. You are likely to find a garage sales somewhere in Paris on any Sunday throughout the year!  More.
  • Yearly Ganesh procession. The next procession in Paris is scheduled for Sunday 2 September, 2012.  More.
  • Chinese New Year parade. The next Chinese New Year parade in the Chinatown of Paris will be held on Sunday 29 January 2012 although Chinese New Year falls on January 23, 2012 (it's the Year of the Dragon).  More.
  • The 20 Kms of Paris run is usually held in October each year.  More.

How to pick out the pickpockets before they pick your pockets!

  (Updated on 17 June, 2011) Men, beware of some young Romanian women who get very close to you in a crowded subway train. A number of them have been picked up by French police for pickpocketing but many more are still operating.
Women and old people, look around you before you use an isolated ATM machine on the roadside. Groups of 3 or 4 adolescents have been known to hang around ATM machines unobtrusively, observing the people using them. They will give the woman ample time to key in her PIN number and amount. Then they will rush out to harass her, who more often than not, is so surprised that she would just withdraw the card and leave, not knowing that the money would be coming out after that. In other cases (where you have not chosen the amount yet) they would simply touch a figure and validate it immediately and your card would come out in a twinkling, making you think that it is safe to remove it, since you have not yet typed in the figure. To be on the safe side, always use the ATM machines inside banks rather than those on the road pavement.  

In certain lines (especially Line 2 in the stretch between "Place de Clichy" and "Barbes Rochechouart") when the metro (underground or subway) is normally packed with tourists, office-workers and housewives, the pickpockets are eternally present. They like to be near the door so it's easy for them to make their getaway. If you are picked as a victim you have already been observed even before you stepped into the tube. When the "metro" arrives they will delay until the moment when you get in to go in just after you. Sometimes they work in pairs with one of them on each side of you. A favourite trick of theirs is to stop you from walking forward and distracting your attention by pretending that their ticket dropped in front of you. If that happens to you the first reaction should be to put your hand on your own pocket or wherever your wallet/purse is. Another favourite spot of theirs is on a moving escalator. When you are about to arrive at the top, the one in front of you will slow down to prevent you from advancing while his accomplice behind picks your pocket! So do watch out! Don't let the pickpockets spoil your holiday/stay in Paris. Outsmart them by picking them out before they pick your pocket!

1st Person Narrative: Modus operandi of a Parisian conman

Hi,
I have found your pages very informative and a great help in planning my recent trips to Paris.
However, to ensure your customers enjoy their trip to Paris please will you warn them of the following:
Last weekend I had a very bad experience at the Paris terminal when queuing for metro tickets. There is an awful problem at Gare du Nord with respect to con men and pickpockets and it would be very good if you could add a warning for future travellers to your website to be on guard.
My experience was that I was approached whilst queuing for metro tickets by a smiling French man who told me I could get tickets at a machine rather than wait for the long queue. He showed us the machine, and then returned a few seconds later and offered to help get the tickets. He distracted us from looking at the screen and quickly inserted his credit card to pay for the tickets. He then told us that the tickets that had been dispensed were the multi day passes we required and that they also included travel to Versailles. He asked my wife for money for the tickets saying that they were "80" (he didn't say 80 euros or francs). As my wife tried to work out the conversion rate he helped himself to 80 Euros from her hand and gave her the tickets. I asked my wife if she realised he had taken the equivalent of £54, she didn't. I looked round but he was gone. The tickets were two 1.30 euro single metro tickets.
Our daughter told us the same had nearly happened to her at the same spot last year. My neighbour had the same happen to him and told me he knows of other occasions when his friends have been cheated in the same way at the same place.
Please add a warning to future travellers to your website - the Assistants at the station appear to be aware of what is going on but do not wish to get involved.
Kind regards
- Barry (via email)

1st Person Narrative: An Englishman in Paris

I can remember when, at about 5 pm one pleasant evening my wife and I were gazing down on Paris from the Sacré Coeur and, having four hours left before departing from CDG, she suggested she would like one last look ( and maybe a coffee) at the Left Bank.
I - being the obliging soul that I am - attempted to drive down to the Latin Quarter at the height of the rush hour. I learned fairly rapidly that the French do not believe in 'road rage'. They do not shake their fists and go red in the face and honk their horns. But the principle on which they drive is to get the front of their car in front of any others. At this point, even in the Place de la Concorde or nipping round the Arc de Triomphe, you are considered to have 'won'. This does not apply to the Peripherique, where size is all and there is no tolerance by truck drivers of wandering Englishmen looking for the next exit to Houilles – Carrières-sur-Seine !
On our earlier visits to Paris I was interested (but not surprised) to see that the majority of Deux Chevaux had a battered look. It seemed to me that they were used more as 'Dodgem' (fairground) toys, where the owners had not heeded the fairground barker to 'Not ram other cars!'
As time went on and les francais became wealthier they abandoned their Deux Chevaux for much plushier Citroens and Renaults and seemed to take a great deal more care of them (or else the body repairers were getting more skilled). Now, there are more 2CVs in England than in France. There are two reasons for this :
(1) There is no cash bonus in the UK for trading in awful old cars
(2) The 2CV is the favoured transport of particular people. According to comedian Jasper Carrot, they are only driven by Vegetarians. Certainly it is popular with people who claim that they don't really believe in the internal combustion engine but have to move their family about nevertheless.
Lastly may I pay a tribute to French motor engineers, who are, in my experience, quite incredible.
I was motorcycling in France and happened to meet three Geordies (inhabitants of Newcastle). They could not understand why they were having difficulty making themselves understood. Apart from not having a word of French between them, being Geordies I, too, had difficulty understanding their English. A Swedish girlfriend once told me some Geordie expressions are almost pure Swedish! Oh! those Vikings.
However, we reached the town of Bourg-en-Bresse and their motorcycle engine stopped dead. It was a weekend but we found a small motorcycle garage. The old mechanic stripped down the engine in a flash and pronounced that a valve guide had broken. We would have to take it to 'Le grand garage' up the road. An engineer (dressed in a white coat!) took the offending object and asked us to return in two hours, which we did. The engineer, still in a pristine overall, handed us the newly turned valve guide, shook our hands and charged them a few sous.
We returned to le petit garage with the valve guide, where the old (and very greasy) mechanic fitted the guide, ground in the burnt valves, and reassembled the engine, good as new. On a Saturday! THIS IS NOT A FAIRY TALE! I can only surmise that when you are isolated in deepest France you really have to be self sufficient. I was simply amazed and I imagine many Parisians would be, also.
- Keith Paterson (Webmaster of Silverhairs).

Useful Links For Paris

The links below are aimed at making life easier for visitors as well as Parisians (opening hours of municipal swimming pools, public libraries, City Hall's evening classes, what's showing in cinema halls, garage sales, etc).