History
Paris has for centuries been one of the centers and magnets of the world. When the Romans conquered it in 55 B.C. it wge on the Seine islands, inhabited by the Parisii tribe. It grew in Roman times and became the capital of France at the beginning of the Middle Ages.
Since then Paris has been the European center of religion and politics, learning and arts, quickly overtaking Rome and only yielding to New York after the Second World War. Sorbonne is one of the oldest universities in the world and for centuries the most famous one.
Paris is rich in monuments from most periods of its history. In spite of that it has not rested on its laurels. It is also famous for modern and avant-garde design, as can be seen at the Louvre pyramid, the Centre Pompidou and the Défense.
Life
Paris is the city of elegance and style. People conduct themselves in the streets as kings and queens. Elegance is everywhere, from hotel and restaurant decoration to everyday clothing. What would be considered casual elsewhere would be considered shabby and vulgar in Paris. The clean and efficient and stylish Metro is a symbol of the classy status of Parisians.
Parisians consider themselves to be citizens, discussing politics, design and cuisine as eloquently as ancient Roman orators, balancing the abandon of the south and the restraint of the north. They are proud and self-sufficient, and consider themselves to be equal to anybody, including kings and popes. On foreigners this often wrongly translates as haughtiness.
Paris is a lively city of liberal inhabitants. Its nightclubs are world leaders. Its vibrant sidewalk cafés constantly evoke fond memories in the minds of visitors to Paris. The home team and visitors hang around in cafés, squares and streets to kill time and observe fellow humans. Champs-Élysées and the boulevards Saint-Michel and Saint-Germain are the main centers.
Sights
Paris is the most beautiful metropolis in the world, crammed with famous churches and palaces, squares and avenues. Its center is the largest tourist city in the world. There are five kilometers as the crow flies from Arc d’Triomphe to Notre Dame and from Montmartre to Montparnasse. In no city center has the traveler more things to cover.
Not only does the city boast of centuries of basilicas and mansions, plazas and boulevards. It also excels in the necessities of life for travelers. Nowhere is a greater conglomeration of excellent restaurants and hotels, some of them even at a reasonable price. It is based on the natural culinary artistry and architectural taste of the Parisians.
Canada
35 Avenue Montaigne. Phone: 4443 3200. (B3).
United Kingdom
16 Rue d’Anjou. Phone: 4266 9142.
United States
2 Avenue Gabriel. Phone: 4296 1202. (C3).
Accident
Phone: 15.
Ambulance
Phone: 15.
Complaints
When you start complaining, every true Frenchman suddenly stops understanding English.
Dentist
Phone: 4337 5100.
Fire
Phone: 18.
Hospital
Centre Médical Europe, 44 Rue d’Amsterdam, tel. 4281 9333 is inexpensive. American Hospital, 63 Boulevard Victor-Hugo, tel. 4641 2525, and British Hospital, 3 Rue Barbés, Levallois, tel. 4758 1312, are private hospitals.
Medical care
Phone: 4337 7777.
Pharmacy
Pharmacie Dhéry, Galerie des Champs, 8th, 84 Avenue des Champs-Élysées, tel. 4562 0241 is open day and night.
Police
Phone: 17.
Precautions
There is very little petty or violent crime in Paris.
Banks
Hours: 9-16:30 weekdays.
At airports and railway stations they keep longer hours and are also open during weekends.
Credit cards
Credit cards are widely accepted in hotels, restaurants and shops. Visa and Eurocard (Access, MasterCard) have the largest circulation.
Electricity
French voltage is 220V, same as in Europe. Plugs are continental.
Hotels
Paris hotels are generally clean and well maintained, including plumbing. Small hotels can be very good, even if they do not have TV sets in guest rooms. Some of them are exquisite gems. A bathroom is taken for granted nowadays. “Deux lits” rooms with two beds are generally preferable to “grand lit” rooms with one bed of French marital size and are often larger.
We only include hotels with private bathrooms, and in most cases we also demand a direct telephone line, working air-condition, and peace and silence during the night. Only hotels in the city center are included as we want to avoid long journeys between sightseeing and our afternoon naps. The price ranges from FFr. 210 to FFr. 1,700, excluding breakfast.
We try to avoid the insubstantial breakfast at hotels in Paris. More tasty and economical is the coffee with baguettes or croissants on the corner café patronized by the locals. Breakfast is in most cases included in the stated price, as that is the normal price quoted.
We checked all the hotels in this database during the winter of 1995-1996 as everything is fickle in this world. We have also tested some other hotels that are not included as they were not on par with the best in each price category. Some expensive hotels in Paris are in fact inferior to our selection of small hotels in old city mansions.
Money
The currency in France is the Franc, FFr., divided into 100 centimes. There are paper money for 20, 50, 100, 200 and 500 FFr., and coins of a value up to 20 FFr.
Shopping
Most shops are open 10-18 all days except Sundays. Some small shops are closed during lunch.
Street numbers
Streets are numbered in the downriver direction and away from the Seine. Odd numbers are on your left side as you go up in numbers.
Tipping
A 15% service charge is generally included in restaurant bills. Some guests leave change up to the nearest FFr. 10. Taxi drivers expect at least 10% from foreigners, guides 10%, porters FFr. 5 per bag, toilet attendants, doormen and cloakroom attendants FFr. 2.
Toilets
Toilets are variable, but getting better all the time. You can use those of cafés for the price of a cup of coffee.
Tourist office
The Office du Tourisme has its head office at 127 Avenue de Champs-Élysées, 8th, open 9-18, tel. 4952 5354 and 4720 8898. Other offices are at the main railway stations and the Invalides airport station.
Water
Tap water is drinkable but many use bottled water as a precaution.
Accommodation
The Tourist Board offices seek accommodation for travelers. At Roissy / Charles de Gaulle airport there is an illuminated map showing vacancies and prices. Your can dial free of charge to individual hotels. Accommodation in private homes in all price categories is arranged by Paris Accueil, 8th, 23 Rue de Marignan, tel. 296 1426, open daily 9-19.
You should consider staying in one of the tiny hotels in old mansions, which have been transformed with French taste and love into personal and exquisite gems. Paris has far more of such elegant hotels than other world cities. Some of them are even cheaper than ordinary hotels elsewhere. Usually they are heavily booked so that you must reserve months in advance.
The season in Paris hotels covers the whole year. Any period can be difficult due to exhibitions and congresses. The expensive Paris hotels are as a group probably the most expensive hotels in the world.
Airport
The bus to Roissy / Charles de Gaulle airport leaves every 15 minutes from Porte Maillot. The trip takes one hour. Check-in at the airport is one hour before departure. All airlines except Air France use Terminal 1. Dial 742 5226 for current information on flight arrivals and departures.
Boats
Tourist boats leave for Seine trips from Pont Neuf, Quai Montebello, Port de la Bourdonnais, Port de Suffren and Place de la Conférence.
News
International Herald Tribune, which is published in Paris, and other important foreign newspapers are available at many kiosks in central Paris. The main French newspaper is Le Monde. There are six TV channels, TF1, FR2, FR3, M6, Are and La Sept, all in French, and additionally cable channels in many hotel rooms, including CNN and Sky.
Information on what is on is available in the weeklies Pariscope and Officiel des Spectacles in French and in the monthly Paris City in English. These papers are sold at most newsstands.
Phone
The French country code is 33 and the local code for Rome is 1. The foreign code from France is 19.
Post
The main post offices are at 52 Rue du Louvre, tel. 233 7160, and 71 Avenue des Champs-Élysées, tel. 359 5518, both open day and night.
Railways
The French railway system is inexpensive and effective. The TVG trains travel at speeds up to 300 km (185 miles) per hour.
Taxis
Phone: 200 6789.
You can wave cabs down in the streets. If you phone, the meter ticks on their way to you. Cabbies are generally honest but amazingly ignorant about the Paris map.
Traffic
Rush hours are 7:30-9 and 17-19. The underground Metro is probably the cleanest and one of the best in the world, open 5:30-1:15. It is convenient for getting around in the city. Cheap two-days, four-days and seven days tourist tickets are available with unlimited access to the whole system and all the busses. Some Parisians drive recklessly. Don’t drive yourself.
Coffee
French coffee is generally good. The cafés of Paris are meeting points and centers of society and culture.
Cuisine
French restaurants are the best in the world. The range and variety of French cooking is astounding. France is very rich in agricultural resources. There is a tradition of passion for cooking. Parisians love to eat out and to discuss cuisine and chefs, as others might discuss politics and politicians. Celebrated chefs are considered national monuments.
Western European and North American cooking is mainly derived from the French. The nearest rival to French cooking is Japanese cooking. In the last decades French chefs have emphasized their lead by inventing Nouvelle Cuisine, a light and lean version of the classic French cuisine, but more in line with modern considerations on health.
The last decade of the 20th Century has seen a resurgence in Cuisine de Terroir, earthy farmhouse cooking, partly as a counterweight to Nouvelle Cuisine and partly an evolution of farmhouse cooking under Nouvelle Cuisine influence.
Eating habits
The French do not eat much in the morning. They may have a café latte and croissants at the corner café. Lunch often starts at 13 and dinner at 20:30. Both lunch and dinner are hot meals and are equally important. The French like delicate food and consume it with due reverence.
Few French have drinks before eating as it spoils the palate. They are also careful with the wine and some only drink water. In good restaurants most people have bottled water though, l’eau minerale, often with gas, gaseuse.
Nouvelle Cuisine
French chefs have emphasized their position as the world leaders by inventing Nouvelle Cuisine, a light and lean version of the rich and classic French cuisine, but more in line with modern considerations on health.
The main rules of Nouvelle Cuisine are as follows: Raw materials are fresh, chosen according to the season, preferably not from the freezer and definitely not out of tins. Emphasis is put on seafood and vegetables.
Cooking times are shortened to conserve the taste and ingredients of the food. Precooking and reheating are abolished. Flour in sauces and soups is written off in favor of fumets and blenderized vegetables which are lighter on the stomach. Fats are used sparingly, pan-frying has decreased and deep-frying almost disappeared.
Prices
Prices have stabilized in France are on a par with other countries in Western Europe.
Restaurants
Rich and poor Frenchmen take interest in cooking and love to dine out. This tradition had made French restaurants absolutely the best in the world. Nowhere in the world is cooking as elevated as in France. Even fast food joints are good.
Lunch hour is 12:30-14, dinner 19:30-23. In most places the owner or some waiters understand some English. Paris restaurants are generally small and clean, sometimes accidentally decorated. They usually have linen tablecloths and linen napkins, most often white. Many restaurants offer set lunch menus at a lower price than dinner prices.
“Prix nets” or “service compris” on the menu means that a 15% service charge is included in the price.
Wine
French wine is absolutely the best in the world and priced accordingly. But the general quality is so high, that even the house wines are excellent. The French don’t drink plonk. The best French wine is graded in complicated ways which vary between regions, Bordeaux and Burgundy wines generally fetching the highest prices.
1996
© Jónas Kristjánsson
