A List of Places to see in Paris

The Eiffel Tower is such an iconic symbol of Paris that it is important that your first sighting of it will be a memory that will stick with you for the rest of your life.

The best way to see the Eiffel Tower for the first time is to take the Metro to Trocadero station and take the exit that goes out to the Musee National des Monuments. If you don't take this exit, you'll find yourself on the wrong side of a roundabout.

Keeping the Musee on your left, walk straight past it and turn left. You'll find yourself in a plaza area called Le Palais de Chaillot (Chaillot Palace), but you won't notice that because the classic Eiffel Tower view will be right in front of you. This view can't be beaten for your first sighting of the Eiffel Tower.

place to have a picnic. Just imagine, a picnic with a view of the Eiffel Tower - fantastic.

At the end of the garden, you'll cross the road onto a bridge (Pont d'Iena) crossing the River Seine. On the other side of the bridge, you'll find yourself looking up through the hundreds of girders that make up the tower.

Don't miss going up in the tower. It has three levels that you can visit, and an elevator can take you to all of them. The first and second levels are not particularly high, but the third level is right at the top of the tower. Depending on the time of year that you go, you may have to queue to get in, but it is well worth the wait.

One of the places on your list of places to see in Paris will be the Arc de Triomphe. To get there, you will need to take the Metro to Charles de Gaulle Etoile station.

When you come out, you will find yourself on the world famous Champs-Elysees. Looking towards the Arc de Triomphe, you will find yourself amazed by two things. Firstly, it's size - it is a lot bigger than most people expect. Secondly, you will see the traffic going around it, and you will wonder how on earth do they manage to get so much traffic going around it without an accident.

Just as a little sidenote, there are twelve roads feeding into the roundabout going around the Arc de Triomphe - it is quite literally like having traffic coming in from every point on a clock. There aren't actually any traffic lanes going around the roundabout, but it is easily wide enough to take about ten cars.

As you are contemplating the scene, you will slowly become aware of something peculiar - that there are people in the middle of the roundabout, walking around the Arc de Triomphe itself. "There's no way I'm crossing that road", you say to yourself.

But have no fear - it's easy to get across this incredibly busy road. All you have to do is to find the underground walkway from where you are. So if you are standing at the intersection of the Champs-Elysees and the roundabout, looking towards the Arc de Triomphe, you turn right and go to the next road (Avenue de Friedland). Cross this road, and you will find a place that looks like another exit from the Metro station. But it isn't that at all. This is the way to the underground walkway that will take you to the Arc de Triomphe.

At the other end of the walkway, you will find yourself underneath this huge towering arc. This is a place of great history, and all around there are inscriptions from many of the wars in France's history. Amongst them is the text of a speech made by de Gaulle from England after the French government was driven into exile in World War 2.

You can look directly down each of the twelve roads leading up to the Arc de Triomphe and see how busy they are. Along one of the roads (Avenue d'Iena), you can see the Eiffel Tower. And at the end of another road (Avenue de la Grande Armee) you will see some distinctly un-Parisien looking modern buildings. These are the buildings of La Defense, a business district. Some years ago, the French audio-visual musician Jean-Michel Jarre used these buildings as a backdrop for a free concert for Parisiens.

This is also a unique view point for seeing the beautiful buildings that surround the Arc de Triomphe.

An absolute must for your list of places to see in Paris is the Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart). It is a wonderful and beautiful place to visit, sitting on the highest point in Paris with a panoramic view of the city. Because of it's height, it isn't as easy to visit as many other popular places.

There are, though, a number of different ways to get to the top of the hill.

The first way, and the hardest way, is to walk up the hill. If you've got the time and the energy to climb it, then all you have to do is to take the Metro to either Abesses station or to Jules Joffrin station. From either of these, you can see the Sacre Coeur, and you just start walking up that hill.

Most people, though, once they have taken a look at the hill, decide not to walk. And especially for these people, there are another three ways that are much. So let's take a look at those.

1. Take the Metro to Jules Joffrin station, from there you take the Monmartrobus to La Place des Tertes. This will drop you off at the top of the hill, just around the corner from the Sacre Coeur.

2. Take the Metro to Pigalle station. From there, you can take a bus (again, a Montmartrobus) to Norvins. This will drop you off very close to the Sacre Coeur.

3. Take the Metro to Abessess station and walk towards the Sacre Coeur - it is actually visible from here, but the shortest route is to walk along Rue Yvonne le Tac and Rue Tardieu till you come to Place St Pierre at the base of the hill. Here you will find a funicular elevator which will take you to the bottom of the steps outside the Sacre Coeur.

No matter which way you choose to get here, you will have a wonderful panoramic view of Paris, and you will find it a very pleasant area to relax in.

Whilst you are visiting the Sacre Coeur, you must also visit La Place des Tertres, which is just around the corner. This is probably not on your list of places to see in Paris, but it should be.

La Place des Tertres is a small square which is of artists who are drawing, painting, and selling their works. It's a pleasure just to walk around seeing the artists at their work, and to see the paintings and drawings being completed. You will see some artists starting with a fresh, blank canvas, and producing a work of art in no time at all. There are also many artists who will do a portrait of you on the spot.

There are various little cafes, bistros, and restaurants in the area that all combine to give the area a special relaxed ambience.

If you see something that really grabs you and you want to buy it, there are a couple of things you should bear in mind. The first is that you have to get it home - so unless you have something that will allow you to take home a framed painting, you should really buy something that can be rolled up and put inside a protective cardboard tube.

The second point is to be careful of what you buy. Although this is a lovely place to visit, you should be aware that some of the artists are not the real deal. The trick is this - some artists buy cheap mass-produced artwork and then start to spend a lot of time putting the "finishing touches" to it, adding a touch of red here, a bit of pink there. To the casual and uninformed observer, it looks as if they really are just finishing off a painting.

Now that you know this, it's not diificult to spot who is doing it. If you see somebody spending a lot of time just "finishing" a painting, well that's probably a pretty good sign of it. Another sign is that whenever somebody buys a painting, the artist starts "finishing" another painting.

You'll very often find that these pieces of art are very nice, so if they appeal to you, then buy them on that basis - but don't allow yourself to be fooled into thinking that it is the artists own work.

However, in La Place des Tetrtres, there are many artists who are real artists. You will see them starting with a blank canvas and very quickly producing some beautiful works. Some work in oils, some in pastels, others in watercolours. There are also some who will use a pencil to draw a portrait or a picture of a landscape or cityscape. You can easily pick up a really nice piece of artwork as a memento of your vacation.

One of those must see sights that has to be on your list of places to see in Paris is the Notre Dame. It means Our Lady, and there are literally thousands of Notre Dames throughout France, but when you hear the name Notre Dame, there is only one image comes into your mind - the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

The principal reason why this particular cathedral is so famous has to be because of Victor Hugo's novel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

The Notre Dame is very central, being on an island (L'Ile de la Cite) in the middle of the River Seine. This means that there are several Metro stations that are close by. The two closest ones, though, are Cite and Saint Michel.

Cite station is actually on the Ile de la Cite, although it is very slightly further away than Saint Michel station. The Saint Michel station also has an interchange with the RER (Regional Express Train Network), and an exit straight onto the Quai Saint Michel, from where you can see the Notre Dame.

However, I would recommend you take the Metro to Saint Michel station, and take the exit to Place Saint Michel. When you come out of this exit, you will be next to the Fontaine Saint-Michel (Saint Michael Fountain), which is a liitle known gem of Paris. It was originally built to beautify the end of the building which it is on, and it certainly succeds in doing this. It is a beatiful fountain made up of two dragons spraying water (instead of breathing fire) and Saint Michael fighting against Satan, with water issuing from the rock on which Satan has been thrown.

With the fountain behind you, take the road crossing on your right, and then turn left. This will have you walking along the Boulevard Saint Michel, towards the River Seine. Once you come to the road junction, you cross the road again. This will bring you to the same exit you would have come out of if you had taken the Quai Saint Michel exit from the Metro station.

From here you can see the Notre Dame on your right. You will do best to walk alongside the River Seine on the Quai Saint Michel to the next bridge (Petit Pont). This is an area where a lot of market traders sell souvenirs, so you are quite likely to find stalls. The road on the other side of the river (Quai du Marche Neuf) is very narrow and has a lot of cars parked on or overhanging the sidewalk, so it's preferable not to take that route.

You will be able to see the front of the Notre Dame all along this riverside walk, and when you get to the bridge (Petit Pont), you will cross it and turn right, and there you are in front of the Notre Dame.