Paris Transportation Help!

Metro is EASY ( and I speak no french. )

If your taking the train from London to Paris ( or vice versa ) Buy your tickets early as the prices are different per seat per time of day and waiting can cost you money. When we went we bought our train tickets early but a few people refused to listen and they paid $60 more for a teen ticket than we paid for an adult one.

Been to Paris and London several times as well as the train between them. It is very easy to navigate the metro. The last visit was with a group of 20+ HS French students.

DD studied abroad there, so she "knew" the Metro. It was fairly easy, as in most European cities we have been to. My only hint is to make sure you don't put the ticket or pass in a purse with a magnetic closure. It demagnetized my ticket and I had to request the turnstyle to be opened every time. PITA

London tube is SUPER easy to use, by the way. Paris can be a bit confusing at first - just make sure you are looking for the name of the farthest stop on the line to know which train you need to take, if that makes sense.

My DD and her boyfriend are in Paris right now! They have spent the last 3 weeks traveling across France by train, bus ... all the public transports. And just had a backpack stolen today while on the train. Luckily their passports and money were not in the backpack, but still they feel terribly violated and angry. Any French they know was studied for while planning this trip, with Google translate in use every day.

Both London and Paris underground/metro are easy to navigate and there are destination/route maps in all stations and on all platforms. Download a map for both so that you become familiar with the different lines/routes before you go.
Contrary to what an earlier poster said, most if not all, central London underground stations have an escalator or lift access to platforms.
Some stations which serve multiple lines do have a fair amount of level walking between lines/platforms if you have to change from one line to the other to get to your destination.

Here is a list of all stations with details of access to platforms    in London.

Everyone uses the metro in Paris because the taxis are really expensive. Plus their vehicles are smaller, although when I went in 97, the majority of the cabs were small mercedes sedans. Not many mini van sizes. 

London has the black cabs that are pretty large, but they won't seat 8 people. 

I went with my French teacher, Christi, who now has a business as a guide and helping people with their travel plans to France. PM me if you want her contact info. 

The pickpockets are supposedly the worst around large touristy areas like Notre Dame. When we were there, the police had just finished a sting and had a group of 18 pickpockets sitting down waiting to be taken away. Most of them were teens or women. 

The big thing with pickpockets right now are women who will try to get you to sign a clipboard about some issue or other. When you're concentrating, someone else working with the woman comes up and steals your items. A lot of pickpockets cover what's going on by draping a coat over their arm or bumping into you. 

We took the train around France a lot. Christi knew about pickpockets and thieves, and advised us to find a spot against a wall and sit on our luggage while we waited for another train (2 hours). We also put our legs through the straps in our bags and sat on our one large bag (We only did carry on baggage for a 2 week trip.) Christi is one of the most chic women I know, and she really helped us figure out how to streamline what we wore so we didn't have to drag a ton of luggage around.

So my mom and Christi are sitting with their backs to the wall on our bags, while I walked around and got us some snacks. We see these three guys act like they're strangers and start to get in a fist fight in front of us. I had seen them walking and talking to each other a few minutes before, and they hadn't recognized me. I told Christi that they weren't strangers, and we started looking for a 4th guy who would use the distraction to steal our bags. Yup, we found him, and Christi found a police officer and pointed out the guys, who were arrested--they were known pickpockets, and they could be arrested for attempting to steal. 

We had a wonderful time. The steps in the Paris metro are steep. I slipped during a rainy day and fell down, hurting my back. A kind French businessman gently lifted me up and carried me down the steps so I wouldn't get trampled. 

We also helped another businessman with his bags while he was running to get on a train leaving the station. We had gone to the TGV station and were trying to find a place to stand and wait for the train. There was a yellow line painted on the platform, but there were no visible signs stating why. Thankfully that man ran over and pulled me away because that line indicates the hang over of the TGV as it silently enters the station. If he hadn't yanked me out of the way, I would have gotten hit by the train. So beware. There were so many people, we couldn't walk without being on the yellow line, and we had no idea that the train was completely silent. 

We did buy our train tickets in the US. You can get them cheaper and get vouchers for the days that you travel. To take the First Class TGV, it was only a $4 a person upgrade. 

We had no trouble getting around Paris on the metro, but as another poster said, there are tons of stairs, and if elevators/escalators exist, they are hard to find. When we took the train from Munich to Paris we had to go down 5 flights of stairs when we got to Paris with our suitcases to get to the train to our hotel. The metro is not as clean and nice as the German trains were. But we felt safe all the time. We bought multi-day passes.

Gypsies near the Louvre! Oh my gosh, they are so aggressive. Grab your purses and wallets, hold them tight and yell "NO" at these girls who will shove clipboards at you, claiming to be deaf, and wanting you to sign a petition while their friends dip their hands in your purses and pockets. The police can't do anything apparently, because the girls are all very small and claim to be under 18. You have to be mean to them to make them back off.

We found the best way to see the sights near the Seine River is the Batobus. These are hop-on hop-off glass roofed boats that travel in a circle all up and down the Seine. You buy one ticket and it stops in about 10 places including Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower. Very nice for taking pictures, plus its a relaxing and fun way to see the sights. You can ride all day for one ticket.