Off to Paris. Any hints & tips please.

AHAR

Hi, A couple of places I enjoyed going for a wander were the Promenade plant!e which is a linear park along the viaduct of an old railway line, and Père Lachaise Cemetery which is very atmospheric.

Mariobug25

I hope neither of you need lifts there is barely any!! We were having to lug a buggy up and down tons of flights of stairs!!! Any you do find will be broken !!!!

Eiffel Tower is a must but don’t expect to go up on the slot you book. We booked for 1pm slot but we’re still queuing to go up at 3....
Sorry didn’t rate Paris much at all! seems unable to handle the tourism imo

El8482

I’ve been to Paris on several occasions and studied in Paris as well, and let me tell you: each time was different. Despite spending a decent amount of time in Paris I still haven’t seen everything and I also made a few mistakes on the way. So it is very nice that you preparing before going there. Good luck

martindow

dontone wrote: »

Obviously Notre Dame is out (but I think there is a nice looking church nearby, but can't remember the name of it).

I would still go to Notre Dame as the facade is intact if they allow you to go to the square in front of it. Sainte Chapelle may be the church you are thinking of which is on the same island. Again I've no idea whether access is still limited.



Other impressive churches are Saint Sulpice near the Luxembourg Gardens and Saint Germain des Pres both on the left bank and Saint Eustache near les Halles. No charges for any of these, nor were there for Notre Dame (compare and contrast with British cathedrals!).

dontone

martindow wrote: »

I would still go to Notre Dame as the facade is intact if they allow you to go to the square in front of it. Sainte Chapelle may be the church you are thinking of which is on the same island. Again I've no idea whether access is still limited.



Other impressive churches are Saint Sulpice near the Luxembourg Gardens and Saint Germain des Pres both on the left bank and Saint Eustache near les Halles. No charges for any of these, nor were there for Notre Dame (compare and contrast with British cathedrals!).

We were going to have a wander there just to see the facade. It's a shame that the fire happened as although we aren't religious, we like going into places like that for the history.
I'm surprised that there is no charge for any of the other churches, and I like that. Over here, the prices are outrageous. I do think that there shouldn't be a charge to visit a place of worship. If you want to make a small donation, that should suffice.

Thanks for all the tips so far everybody.
And we don't need to use any lifts (might come in useful on the third day, mind lol).
We are going to have a look at booking some tickets online like we did for Rome & Barca as it's so much easier to do it that way.
Thanks again.

hollie.weimeraner

Sacre-Cœur is amazing as is the area around it. Also if arriving by Euro Star don't get conned by the meet and greets in the station for cabs they're all rip off merchants. If you want a cab go to the rank itself or better still use public transport.

Ganga

dontone wrote: »

We were going to have a wander there just to see the facade. It's a shame that the fire happened as although we aren't religious, we like going into places like that for the history.
I'm surprised that there is no charge for any of the other churches, and I like that. Over here, the prices are outrageous. I do think that there shouldn't be a charge to visit a place of worship. If you want to make a small donation, that should suffice.

Thanks for all the tips so far everybody.
And we don't need to use any lifts (might come in useful on the third day, mind lol).
We are going to have a look at booking some tickets online like we did for Rome & Barca as it's so much easier to do it that way.
Thanks again.

We visited Durham Cathederal and there was no charge.

maman

Ganga wrote: »

We visited Durham Cathederal and there was no charge.

That's unusual. The cathedral closest to us charges £8.50 admission and say on their website that they receive no funding from the Church??? The next closest charges £7.50 but say it's a recommended donation so not sure how aggressively they look for them.


That's for people visiting as an historic site though. Anyone can attend a service (several each day) free of charge.

Voyager2002

dontone wrote: »

I'm surprised that there is no charge for any of the other churches, and I like that. Over here, the prices are outrageous. I do think that there shouldn't be a charge to visit a place of worship. If you want to make a small donation, that should suffice.

The problem is the parties of foreign language students, taken to visit cathedrals as part of the package that the language school provides. As matters stands, the language school pays the entrance fee and obviously this is passed on to the parents. If it were a requested donation instead, virtually none of the teenage language students would give anything.

There are usually loopholes to the entrance fees: I know that Exeter cathedral does not charge fees for entrance during the final hour of each day, and probably there are similar policies at other cathedrals.

waamo

St Pauls is £20 per person. The top of the Sacre Coeur is €5 and the main building free.