Art and Arc in Paris

We’d been warned about scams and pickpockets in Paris. This seems to be backed up by any number of online videos showing examples of the problems.

Apparently it’s phones rather than wallets that are the most commonly stolen items. Phone theft is also a problem in London.

Seems like the thieves have worked out that phones are more valuable… at least, as long as they’re iPhones… maybe lots of people don’t activate their theft-protection features.

Before the trip I had considered buying a cross-body bag for exploring with, but couldn’t find anything I liked, so my main precaution was putting my mobile phone in my front pocket, and keeping an eye out for issues.

Anyway it was time to explore Paris.

Paris Metro tickets

(The correct spelling includes an accent above the e, eg Métro, but for ease of typing I’m going to use the anglicised spelling without it.)

Public transport ticketing in Paris uses a system called Navigo. Between the four of us, we had three Navigo cards provided by friends who had recently travelled, and I installed the phone app (offered on both Android and iPhone) which lets you load a virtual card.

The iPhone app also lets you read and top up cards… but not once you load the virtual card.

Tickets for the Metro and/or RER (suburban trains) are €2.50 per journey, including changes of service. Bus tickets are €2.00. But intriguingly you can’t load both onto a card, so once we loaded Metro tickets, we were stuck using the Metro. This was fine for us because the Metro covers Paris very extensively, but did limit our PT options a bit.

In retrospect we could have loaded a weekly pass each. Unlimited travel (all modes, Monday to Sunday) for EUR 31.60, about the cost of 13 rides, which may have been cheaper over our six day visit.

There’s also a Liberté+ option which could have been cheaper and less restrictive, but seems to require linking to a bank account, which presumably has to be with a French bank.

Unlike many of the other cities we went to, there’s currently no option to pay fares directly with your bank card.

So we set out to a Metro station down the hill from the apartment, me trying to navigate using Google Maps, and taking two wrong turns along the way.

Once there, thinking we knew what we were doing, we realised we did not. A couple of us paid the tourist tax, losing a ride off our cards trying to figure out the fare gates. At this particular station it was a basic turnstile. Don’t expect it to open for you. You have to tap your card, then push it.

You don’t push, it gives you a few seconds then locks again. And you can’t tap again for 10 minutes.

We sorted that out, and the other thing I’d note is that the Paris Metro involves a lot of steps and long corridors (with upgrades to step-free probably being near-impossible to retrofit).

Every line has trains every few minutes all day, unlike some other urban rail systems called “Metro” that I could mention. It makes interchange between lines – as long as you don’t mind corridors – very easy.

This means the individual lines work together as a network, increasing their usefulness exponentially.

This photo is from later this day – note how the screens on Line 2 advised of delays on Line 7. (A few seconds later it also showed it in English: “malaise voyageur” = ill passenger.)

Musée de Louvre

We caught the Metro to the Louvre, where we had booked for 9:30am. I should note at this point, this was three days before the now infamous robbery. (More about that in a later post.)

The queues and main entrance (including security checks) are next to the glass pyramid you’ve probably seen in pictures.

From there you go underground into a large concourse, then can head in various directions around the galleries.

It’s a huge complex. There were long queues, longer corridors, hordes of people (especially around the Mona Lisa, of course), and many steps and stairs.

But wow, what a collection. We spent hours in there, before finally deciding to head elsewhere, despite still more to see. We’ll have to go back sometime.

We found a nearby park to rest and consider options, then headed to a restaurant for a late lunch. The weather was fine, so we sat outside watching the city go by.

From there, a couple of us headed back to our accommodation, but I was keen to find the nearby “Hotel de Ville” – silly me, I hadn’t quite registered at this point that it was French for Town Hall, not a hotel.

I was keen to check out an exhibition on climate action for cities, and it wasn’t far away. So we walked up…

Well dear reader, despite a lap of the building, and asking security staff patrolling outside, we couldn’t find it.

We eventually gave up. It’s my error – the thing I didn’t realise, because I hadn’t read the information properly, was that you had to book. And no doubt booking would have provided the information, and the magic word to tell the staff. D’oh.

Climbing the Arc de Triomphe

Instead we hopped back on the Metro and headed for the Arc de Triomphe, which I did have the competence to book.

It’s a bit of a maze from the Metro station to find the correct corridor underneath the busy traffic to the monument. Once you get there though, it’s set in the middle of a huge roundabout where a multitude of roads meet, and the structure is spectacular.

We later saw some people being brave and/or foolish and crossing at street level:

You can look around most of the base for free, but with a ticket you can go up. It’s 240 steps up to the museum, then another 40 up to the rooftop terrace. They have lifts but they’re strictly for those who can’t use stairs.

We got to the top of the 240 steps with a younger couple on our tail. As we climbed the last step, the bloke remarked in English “You did very well!”

It was one of those moments when you’re suddenly aware of your diminishing amounts of grey hair and the fact that you’re not a young person any more.

On the terrace level you can walk all the way around, admiring the views, which are awesome.

Here’s a panoramic view around part of the terrace. Click here to view it at larger size.

My iPhone tracks how many steps I take each day, but also how many flights of stairs I’ve climbed. Sometimes these are the equivalent of flights of stairs… but not today. Most of these were actual flights. (Plenty on the following days too thanks to the Metro, our first floor apartment, and various museums and other buildings.)

We headed back to the apartment on the Metro.

Then out for dinner at a lovely local restaurant down the street.

More exploring to do tomorrow.