Travel guide
about France

Seine and Notre Dame in Paris

For example, have a view at the Eiffel Tower from another high Tower: the ugly Montparnasse Tower (209 meters). Other good places for a panorama view are the roofs of two huge department stores: Lafayette and Samaritaine.

Since this site is called after French toilets, we do start at the worlds most famous public toilets. You find them at the Place de la Madeleine, they're nearly hundred years old en completely in art-deco style. More important: you can sit on them. It's allowed...

Want something extraordinary? Visit the sewerage museum. Sewerage still to ordinary? Skulls and bones of real people do fill the Catacombes, the subterranean graveyards dating from the 18th century. Part of it is an official museum with human remains. It's located at 1, place Denfert-Rochereau, 14th arrondissement. Isn't that lugubrious enough, then just visit the even larger rest of the catacombes. It's forbidden, sometimes even dangerous, but it's possible. Information about the illegal entrances is easy to find on the Internet.

If you're just looking for peace, you may prefer an ordinary cemetery. Take Pere Lachaise, a graveyard that's 900 years old and is the last place to rest for (among many famous others) doctor Guillotin (yes, the inventor of the guillotine), Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaff, Frederic Chopin, Jim Morisson and Baron Haussmann. There are lots of special monuments at this cemetery, where in back in 1871 a thousand anarchists were slaughtered after a rebellion. Nowadays, it's the favourite place of birdwatchers and young lovers. From this cemetery, you've got a lovely view at the city. The graveyards surface is 47 hectares. Before you enter the area, buy a map at one of the flower shops near the entrances.

Another place for loving couples and other peaceful people: the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont in the 19th arrondissement, designed by Haussmann. Here, you mai sail with small boats. Located at a cliff, a small kind of temple offers a beautiful panorama.

To explore Paris, you should use the metro and your legs. For the metro, a weekly card (carte orange) may be cheap. But pay attention! This card is only valid from Monday till Sunday, even if you buy it on Friday.

The Promenade Plantee offers a good view at 14 copys of The Dying Slave statue by Michelangeloat Avenue Daumesnil in Paris. The original statue is to be seen at the Louvre Museum.

Walking, the Promenade Plantee over the Viaduc des Arts is a special experience that is seldom mentioned in tourist guides. The promenade leads literally over the roofs of Paris, thus offering an unusual panorama. You also might want to explore Paris the way you do explore Amsterdam: by boat. Here, they are called bateaux-mouches. Several shipping companies offer trips on the Seine river and the Saint Martin Canal partly through a tunnel but also along some monuments.

You will find lots of hotels in Paris. Campgrounds, on the contrary are hard to find. The only one is located in the Forest of Boulogne, but this one isn't really clean. By day, it's good to recreate in this forest with it's rose garden and it's zoo ( bears, monkeys, birds) annex playground Jardim d'Acclimatisation. By night however, it's a no-go area. Transvestites an transsexuals do work in prostitution over here. A cabdriver will not take you to the Forest of Boulogne at night.

Paris used to have the biggest big wheel of Europe. It was demolished in January of 2002, when it's legal licenses expired.