h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

That's just across the road though

Plus one comment I had about Paris is that their parks (particuarly in the Tuileries and Eiffel Tower parks) need some grass. Too dusty for my tastes.

The parks are very dusty. Something else that's a bit odd about the Tuileries is their unkempt-looking formal gardens. For example, this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/laurentbourrelly/4738347717/

Chairs are arranged around this area as if it were a formal garden, but it looks just like a patch of wasteland, which it might well be; however that's not a fallen tree, it's a bronze sculpture, so perhaps it's intended to look that way.

My first reaction to the title question was "Yes, please!"

Musee d'Orsay and Louvre can be booked on line in advance, so definitely do that. You shouldn't miss them. You'll want to go to Montmartre at least twice - it's absolutely magnetic. Shame about the walking. All's right with the world if you can take that long stretch from the Louvre, through the Tuileries, across the Place de la Concorde, down the Champs Elysées to Defense, but you can also do it on the top of a sightseeing bus which might be the answer for your daughter. You can also do boat trips, of course. We jumped on one spontaneously directly at Notre Dame.

You can get a three-day ticket for the Metro in advance, online, too, or just buy one the in first Metro station you go to, so you don't have to bother about that any more. In fact, I think we had a little tourist packet where you got reductions on entrance fees to the big museums and things like the Arc de Triomphe.

I wouldn't have been able to recommend accommodation, except to say that where we stayed wasn't much cop. Mind you, the breakfast was acceptable, which is surprising for France, and the price was OK and it was a stone's throw from the Gare de l'Est where we came in and left from (TGV via Saarbrücken/Frankfurt).

Have a lovely time and I wish you good weather - although too dry and you suffer a bit from the dust people have been talking about.

Oh, and I can't remember if you can book an entrance ticket to the Eiffel Tower in advance, like the museums, but the queues were very very long there, so it would be worth it.

>You can get a three-day ticket for the Metro in advance, online, too, or just buy one the in first Metro station you go to, so you don't have to bother about that any more. In fact, I think we had a little tourist packet where you got reductions on entrance fees to the big museums and things like the Arc de Triomphe.<


Mmm, I was going to do that but initially just bought the 10 metroticket bundle at the machine in the station. turned out that was enough for us, and we were there 3 days.
If you're going to do a lot of museums then I think it's worth it (Paris Visite pass it's called BTW). In retrospect it wasn't for us and I'm glad we didn;t buy one.

I've been to Montmartre twice in my time now. Doesn't really do it for me to honest. It's certainly worth a look but I can't see the 'magic' personally. The view from Sacre Coeur is cool though.

What fascinated me about Montmartre was possibly the fact that we stopped both times for a meal, and sat outside watching the world go by. And the fact that I was terribly excited to see some original Banksy's there.

I wish I'd known about the Banksy's before. Would've beaten going through the red light district to stare at the Moulin Rouge for me.

That's one thing I don't like about the Monmartre district - Le Pigalle

My wife is unable to utter a word in a foreign language, having suffered the monstrosities of the 'Language Lab' in the 70's - possibly one of the most disastrous exercises in pedagogy of all time. Luckily my daughter's keen on French (and Spanish and Italian), so I shall have to rehearse some survival phrases with her.

I am indebted to toybox. Last year when I was going to Antibes he taught me how to ask for something they didn't even *have* when I learned French:

'Est-ce qu'il y'a un dispenseur de billets?'

(Is there a cashpoint?)

And I was proud of myself for getting the wi-fi logon details out of the secretaries at the place I was working. ('le wee-fee')