I am going to paris for the first time next summer!!...with a friend i am so excited what should i do or see??

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Rillifane

I suggest my favorite hotel in Paris, the Hotel St, Andre des Artes.

http://www.123france.com/en/0/hotel-saint-andre-des-arts-paris_486_en/index.html

It is, as you can see from the webpage, quite inexpensive. It is perfectly located just slightly south of the Seine in the 6th arrondissement by the border with the 5th (The Latin quarter). The area is filled with restaurants, shops, cafes, and clubs. There is a street market on the next block. the oldest cafe in Paris is around the corner. Its a short walk to Notre Dame, the Luxembourg Gardens, the Pantheon, the Louvre, and dozens of other tourist sights.

Its a very simple place but clean and friendly. Besides, if you're doing things right in Paris you'll seldom be in your hotel room except to collapse from exhaustion.

Now, as to what to do.

Paris is a big city, an old city, and a city filled with political, cultural, artistic and literary hisatory. There are enough "good places" to see that you could stay there for years and not see them all. (I've been visiting Paris pretty regularly for the last 35 years and I haven't seen everything yet.)

So your question is hard to answer because to completely answer it I'd have to write a book.

Luckily, a lot of people have done exactly that and any one of these guide books is pretty much as good as another.

I know this sounds silly but being a "good" tourist is hard work and you should spend almost as much time preparing as you do actually being there.

So get at least one of those books and read it.

And while you're at it, read some of the books written by people about their experiences in Paris. there are a lot of these type of books too. Hemingway's "A Moveable Feast" is a great one but even a funny book like Art Buchwald's "I'll always have Paris" is worth reading.

Make a list of what you want to see based on your personal interests and the amount of time you have. Of course, its fine to come back to this forum with more specific questions after you have had the time to do some research of your own.

There's also a lot to Paris that is beyond the tourist sights. Its the ambience and the attitude of Paris which need to be lived and felt.

You should spend some time just strolling around the city to appreciate its architecture and to get a feel for its medieval layout, the Belle Epoch improvements of Baron Hausman, and the modernizations seen in places like the Les Halles Forum and the new Opera in the Place Bastille.

You should take a little time to just sit in a cafe in the Latin Quarter or St. Germaine and people watch.

Enjoy some of the nightlife of Paris. Not the tourist ripoffs like the Moulin Rogue or the Lido but the vast number of fantastic music venues, from the jazz joints to discos.

Eat! And be a bit courageous. Go to places that don't cater to tourists and don't have English menus. Just point to things on the menu or, better still, walk into a cafe at lunchtime and ask for the daily special which you'll almost always see displayed on a chalk board. don't worry if you don't know what it is! Try it! The worst that will happen is that you'll have a hilarious story to tell about how you got served a calve's head with cream sauce or something else too weird for you to eat.

Mainly, don't listen to the half wits who tell you Parisians are terrible people or adivse staying in a tight little tourist cocoon..

Strike up conversations with strangers, be open minded, put your map in your back pocket and just wander around, get lost, experiment, learn, take the time to really look at things.

Mainly, enjoy yourself.

eltee115

1st buy yourself the Rough Guide to Paris - it's meant for young, not too rich travelers - I stayed at a great little hotel right behind the Sorbonne called Hotel de Trois Colleges very nice, clean and reasonable - ask for room 64 - it's the biggest room they have.- Make sure you check out Versailles - it's a 20 minute train ride from the city and to die for. Stay away from the tourist traps - ask the locals where they eat and buy your water and stuff from little groceries - the hotels pad their prices ridiculously.

Xtra_curly_gurly

I just came back from France a few weeks ago. Definitely go to the Eiffel tower. There are some beautiful views of the city there. Go to the louvre. It's not just an art musuem it's also a mall with a foodcourt. Pretty awesome!!!! If your into cool churches go to Notre Dame. There's a tasty bakery down the street from there too. Ohhhhhhh and don't forget the hardrock cafe paris. Theres this guy who works there whos really cool!!

natasa_boranovic

well,it's great that you're going for a few weeks cause there's a lot to see...i was in Paris last summer for 8 days,and that's not enough!!! you should go to the Eiffel tower,Louvre,Disneyland(it's great,I was there for one day and I couldn't see everything,there's so many things,but the best is space mountain 2,you must go there),then you should go to Notre Dame Cathedral,Versailles,Arc de Triomphe,Moulin Rouge,Musee d'Orsay,Seine river cruise,you should go down the Champs-Elysees,it's great and there are good restaurants,shops,bakeries...For hotels you can go on this site www.booking.comHotels-in-Paris,there's 500 hotels,so you can see which one do you most like.Have a great time!!!

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