Some people find Venice a wonderful magical place. Some people hate Venice. The same goes for Paris, what you might like, other’s might hate. Just go there and decide for yourself if it’s good or not.

And those streets are common, just give yourself a chance to get lost for a while, wandering the streets, you’ll find appealing things.

What were the reasons people gave for hating it?

God, I LOVE Paris! Everytime I think about it, I can’t wait to go back. Infact, when my daughter turns 5, I’m planning on taking her there for her first international trip.

Go with what you feel. Sure, it’s nice to get your friend’s opinions and all, but do your research and decide what you truly want to see. Paris is incredible, but so is Venice (the only city in Italy I’ve been to). Stay 4 days in Paris!! Go ahead, make me jealous

I spent three great days in Paris that propelled it to the top of my "favorite cities in Europe" list. I never ran out of things to and was enchanted by the beautiful architecture, riverfront, artist neighborhoods, romantic language, green spaces, delicious coffees, pastries, and desserts, and by Parisians obvious love of the arts.

But not everyone is into those things. If you want a city where you can lay on the beach, drink beer, and go clubbing, Paris is maybe not the right place. There is absolutely nothing wrong with any of those pursuits, but at the risk of sounding snobby, Paris is much more sophisticated than that.

Leave your "USA" t-shirts at home and visit Paris with an open mind (and check out Versailles while you’re at it). You may be pleasantly surprised.

There are many popular cities in this world that are overrated.

Paris is NOT one of them

Even the greatest of its cynics falls for its undeniable charm.

yea, of course different people would like different places, but when every single person i talk to says the same thing, i was thinking there was more to it than just preference… but for those who replied, thanks for all the positive remarks about paris… i feel a little better now…

quote:
yea, of course different people would like different places, but when every single person i talk to says the same thing, i was thinking there was more to it than just preference..is… i feel a little better now…

Keep in mind, a lot of people here amazing stories about Paris before going there so there expectations are sky high. In that case it’s bound to be a disappointment.

To me Paris isn’t that special. I like it and usually have a good time there but I prefer Barca, Prague and Budapest. Still, just go there and if you don’t like it move on. There is no rule that has to say you have to stay in a city for a minimum number of days when you don’t like it.

quote: There is no rule that has to say you have to stay in a city for a minimum number of days when you don’t like it.

What?? There isn’t!!?? Well that’s news to me, buddy.

Oh, and to Walter

Paris is laden with History.
The architecture..the weather and the fashionable clothes of people..is unique. Cobblestoned streets are all over the place..in Europe..from Paris to Luzern .
Paris is also expensive.
At the end of the day – Paris is a big city..with the usual hustle and bustle.

Venice is more unique since…it is a little town with a maze of alleyways – they call streets and there is no transportation except boats. Where eles can you spend 2-3 days and not even sight a car?
If you had a choice, this should be the place to go.

Paris is worth 3 days..and Venice another 3.

I spent 2 weeks in Paris. It is a great place. I would not say it is my favorite (because its not) but Paris is very nice, has lots to see and do. The food is excellent the museums are packed with history as well as the city itself. Just explore and make up your own mind. If you have time to get out of Paris to the country side I highly reccomend it as it is gorgeous!!!

You must be friends with these people for a reason; maybe you have similar tastes and are likely to have similar reactions to Paris. I personally think your friends should have their heads examined and you should get yourself some new friends; Paris is the best city in the world. Three days, four days, whatever – there is no way to say in advance until you get there and decide whether you like it. If you like it, you may want to spend all your vacation time there, but if you are like your friends, you will want to leave in less than a day. And I guarantee that on Day 1 you’ll feel silly that you asked that question about Las Vegas.

We stayed in the Eiffel Tower area, around the Ecole Militaire metro stop. It simply WAS Paris. There were cafes on each corner and small groceries, bakeries, etc. It just felt so very french. We could watch the Eiffel Tower twinkle from our hotel window.

quote:Well, I’m staying there for 4 days because I thought Paris was supposed to be the best

"The Best" is what’s best for you.
It’s great you are doing research and asking questions, but ultimately you’ll just have to go and see.

I am no expert on the Paris, but I agree with the others that it has much to offer. Maybe your friends had unpleasant experiences with Parisians; differences in cultures sometimes arise, that’s part of travel, and as Wa1ter says, there is no three day rule.

Do you have a map of Paris? You’d probably find what you are looking for if you head for the 7th Arrondissement. A lot of people say it is touristy—and it is—but along with the tourists are plenty of regular people living their Paris lives, and you’ll get your cobblestones, the Rue Cler, museums (including Musee d’Orsay), and the Eiffel Tower there—and I think the Metro is convenient as well.

Paris offers some good day trips as well: Versailles, Reims, Fontainebleu.

quote:
Paris is the best city in the world.

I wouldn’t call Paris the best city in the world, but I’d say it’s probably the best city in Europe…it’s just beautiful and has many things to offer with regards to great sightseeing and people-watching.

When I went to Europe, I didn’t want to go to Paris, I’d seen enough of Paris on TV and thought it was not my type of city. I went anyways, it’s unforgivable to go to Europe, be around the area and skip Paris.

I don’t regret it for a second, I do regret not giving Paris more time though. Making a judgement on a city based on what you’ve seen on TV or what people tell you is stupid.

In the summer, seeing Rome and Venice is like trying to buying a hotdog at halftime in the Rose Bowl. You just can’t escape the crowds of tourists. But in Paris, it never seems to take more than a few hundred meters to get away from the tourists and each street has its own magic.

Wow, who are you hanging out with?

I’ve met very few people who disliked Paris, a hundred times more who love it more than any other place in the world.

Nice metaphor frihed.

I completely agree with wa1ter…the things people hear about Paris, it really sets you up for unrealistic expectations. Paris has been overromanticized in the North American mass media, and while these notions may have been very accurate in the 1950s, it’s an entirely different place today.

I always tell people, Paris is like New York…only much more attractive. So prepare yourselves for an urban experience. Not stroll in the Tuscan countryside.

Paris is still for me an amazing city, a beautiful city, in fact it’s my favorite city, and as a former resident, it will always be in my heart. But you must understand what Paris really is. Paris, folks, is a BIG CITY. Please do not go there for your honeymoon!!!!! I’ll never undertand people who go to Paris for their honeymoons. France (and Europe) has plenty of places suitable for a honeymoon….Paris is not one of them. This is why I think many people leave Paris disappointed. The traffic, graffitti, crowds, suburban sprawl, its share of seedy areas, and yes pickpockets, etc, really disenchant/disillusion people who were expecting a romantic getaway out of a metropolitan area of 10 million people.

That’s not to say Paris can’t be romantic. By all means it most definitely can be romantic, but don’t expect this to be the case for a couple of first timers who don’t know where to go (within the city), and are in a rush to see all the crowded sights, instead of soking in the real Paris experience. To enjoy the city on this level, you have to know it well.

Should you visit? Yes!!!!! Of course you should. The sites, the history, and the urban experience make it a thrilling travel destination. But in order to get a blanaced view of the city, you need to blaance off the urbanness of Paris with the city’s gentler side. Defitinitely try the Latin Quarter and the Jardin du Luxembourg, the islands (Ile-St-Louis, Ile de la Cité). And most definitely, the entire area along the river from Notre Dame to the Tuileries Gardens is highly worth a stroll around dusk-time (and later) when everyone’s out and about enjoying a gorgeous late spring or summer evening. Montmartre can also bring some nice surprises and hidden corners. Just know where to go.

Paris is more of an awesome place when you’re actually living there or spend considerable time there. For a short stay, I can see why it might be overwhelming and a tad impersonal, if you don’t know where to go and when to be there. But definitely go there, follow this advice, and have fun. Paris is best taken advantage of from dusk time until midnight (not during rush hours), and with friends to share it with.

And no, the locals are not rude. This is a myth.

take a night river cruise on the river seine. youll want to make love to your woman right there on the boat.

Hey. I live in Paris (although I am not French) and probably I can point to you a few things.

I agree with what said about expectations being extremely high. It is definitely part of why many people are disappointed.

Even if I have to say that the biggest complaints about Paris that I heard from Noth Americans (and I saw many.. i work in a hostel) were the following:

-Paris is dirty: the streets are WASHED with running water daily. Just live with what you think is dirty then. European cities are far from the standard of tidiness (or so i was told) of north america, due to the fact that our cobble stone street and tiny alleys are a lot harder to clean than cement. Anyhow, cities are old, extemely crowded, and not easy to clean in general. Expect them to be somewhat dirty but do not be disappointed by that.
-The Dog Shit: many North Americans know this stereotype. Funnily none of the European tourists does. Again, live with it and take pictures of it. We love dogs, what can i tell you?
-The streets are too narrow: ok, i heard this only once and i bursted out laughing… ridiculous in my opinion
-Girls complain being harrassed: i totally understand this point. However, please notice who comes out at you (if you are a girl that is!) since they are not French BUT north Africans/Middle Eastern immigrant. Same goes for some locations in Italy by the way.
-Hostels are bad: generally very true. Try to scout for one consistently well rated.

-Finally… the big one is that French people are nasty, especially because they refuse to speak English!

I am 100% with the French in this. In Paris especially. France is proud of its history and culture, as it should be! If possible they are not proud enough of having gifted the world with things like the French Revolution, Art Nuveau, the Carolingians, the Eiffel tower AND the Statue of Liberty and a lot more.

The language spoken in France is FRENCH! And in Europe in general we dislike a lot that our respective languages are not fully respected by tourists. In Paris the thing is just more outstanding because there are a lot of foreigners and because the attitude is just different.

If you approach anybody with a very basic French, honestly I think you will have almost no reason to come home and complain that French people are nasty.
If you do not know any French, get your lazy English speaking ass to learn some!!! Ok, serioulsy even a basic Merci and Bonjour well pronounced can get you many smiles and lots of help.
Finally, if you are really too lazy even for that, please remember to approach French people with a slow, clear, simple English, making sure to be apologetic you are not able to speak French! And this is a good advice for the entire Europe! Even in very tolerant countries like Holland.

Because honestly you should be apologetic! Can you imagine someone speaking only Dutch coming to New York and PRETEND to get by using that language? English is not spoken everywhere in Europe and it is correct this way! We have reasons, especially in Central Europe, to speak other languages instead (an example? it is little know but Italy second language is actually German. Partially because there is about a million people in the country whose FIRST language IS german since they live at the border with Austria, in the Sud Tirol area, AND because we get about twice as many German tourists than English tourists!) as we do have many.

Cleared these points, I have not heard many other reasons to criticise Paris.

So keeping all of this in mind, I think you will be able to completely enjoy your 4 days there…

quote:

-Girls complain being harrassed: i totally understand this point. However, please notice who comes out at you (if you are a girl that is!) since they are not French BUT north Africans/Middle Eastern immigrant. Same goes for some locations in Italy by the way.

Oh, this is too true. I heard so many American girls complain about the pushy-ness of French guys. These were the same girls that were bootie dancing and grinding on these guys, then acted all surprised when these guys wanted to take them home. Girls in Europe don’t tend to drop it like it’s hot quite as much. Honestly, American frat boys tend to be just as pushy.

Voice in my head, do you mind my asking which one’s your hostel? Or, what do you think of the Blue Planet?

Hey PetitPaulette!

I m rather not disclose just as yet the hostel where I work at… just because I have negative things to say about the other hostels and about my own too!
Let’s just say that I work there as the general manager and this has given me the opportunity of getting to know the other hostels in town.

In my opinion, the hostel situation in Paris is one of the worst of the entire Europe. They are all quite bad and some of them are just terrible.

I have looked closely into the ratings that European hostels get online, on a number of devoted services (like hostelz.com) and on booking services like Hostels.com/hostelwordl.com (same company ans same ratings). Hacing taken the pulse to the market, I discovered Paris verses in a terrible condition…
While Amsterdam (and Rome) in one of the overall best, Paris cannot even come close to a prize for any of the hostels in town.

You may now know that most known Parisian hostels (like the 3 Ducks and many others) are owned by the same group, running all of them, all as badly… and this contributes a lot to keep the standard low and the prices rather unfair (for the provided service).

Originally I thought that the buildings were to be blamed for the general dislike these places are getting (complains are of all sort, dirtiness and unsanitary conditions being first place, opinion i fully share). Since they are mostly located in turn of the century buildings and since I believe Paris puts a lot of restrictions on renovations to preserve historical buildings, I thought that could be the reason why bad situation arises. And maybe the high price of maintenance could also explain why the average price of a night is about 26 euros in a big dorm…

Later on, I realized, this is not the reason… There are old and gorgeous buildings used as hostel everywhere in Europe and while it is true that old buildings = old pipings, often humid walls and stranger shower setting to provide with water a house ment to have none, i have hardly ever see situation so heavily criticized. Only a couple of hostels are rising over this terrible average, but they have downpoints for other reasons (terrible location, really tiny capacity, higher prices, terrible lockout and curfews, etc…) and therefore they are not helpful in improving the situation.

I m still puzzled at why Parisian hostels are so overall bad. The only reason I came up with so far is that there is still to arrive a caring owner, not into making big bucks (using too many last minute materasses on the floor) but determined to provide a good setting to fellow travellers.
But to all of you there who think "I may just be that caring owner".. let me tell you. In Paris hostels are the perfect breeding area for sharks. Willing to take over your hostel any time using powerful means (yep, it does happen. have a look at what happened to Anne’s hostel in Amsterdam on hostelz.com)… And the initial investment to get the proper licences and the needed central, beautiful building anyway is so high only a corporation can afford it. And back we are to square one. Can you tell I hate corporate hostels?

About the hassling in Paris, please trust Pauline and my opinion over this and look at the face of who comes up at you. I have been arrassed there a thousand times. But I cannot move even one single complain towards a French person: I often found French males instead to be the quite perfect gentlemen they are often described to be and in the rest of the cases, they are just very respectful and polite. I can just thank instead many illegal immigrants for perpetrating the negative stereotypes they already have to carry. What a smart move… What for then? I m sure in one entire year of trying to chat girls up, not even one of them managed to carry one home…

I completely agree with TheVoiceInMyHead

Paris is far from dirty. It was my first visit to Europe and I was expecting it to be far dirtier. I’ve been to New York and found it much dirtier as a comprable urban city. I was pleasantly surprised that the building facades, consideirng how old a number of them are, were nicely maintained and for the most part clean.

The comment on girls being harrassed there are a number of what look like immigrants trying to pull some sort of scam. I didn’t really figure out the scam as I tried to avoid them. Just give them a wide berth and walk by them. I did find however the men to be flirts but not to the point of harrassment.

Finally aboutFrench people being nasty/rude: this is false. I myself have a limited bit of conversational french and thus tried to initiate conversations in french. Not once did i have a problem. Often people even switch to english to make it easier.
My two friends, neither who speak much more than Bonjour or Merci did not have a problem either. People seem to appreciate us attempting to communicate in their language.
We even had people speak to us in Spanish when they noticed we were all fluent in Spanish. One gentleman after having directed me to the concegerie even gave me a mini lesson on proper pronounciation!

We would no doubt be offened/if not frustrated if tourist came here and expected us to speak their language. Just approach people with a simple bonjour, meric and a parlez-vous anglais (do you speak english) and you should have no problem!

Wow, this is all really great things. I think Voice is right on about everything. But, to just add my 2 cents in about the best city in the world, here is blurb from my blogger (it was right after I had just come back from Paris for New Years).

1.18.2005
I heart Paris
A wise woman asked me yesterday, and I quote "Why-oh-Why is Paris your favorite city?" She too is a world traveler and has been to Paris many times, and just wanted to know why I love that city so much. As a proud member of the PIBTL (Paris Is Better Than London) club, this is what I told her. Actually, I can’t take all the credit—Bethany (who is President of the club) helped me compile the top 5 reasons.

1. It’s cheaper than London. I just don’t feel right walking into Harrods and seeing that everything in there is so dang expensive. Not because they are these super nice items, but because the pound is almost double than the dollar! I saw my Reefs (these awesome sandals that I wear every summer) for almost $60! Cost me half that much in the U.S. And a sale at GAP in London, sooooo NOT a sale! What a lie!

2. The people. I’ve just come across the nicest people in Paris. None of this: French people are rude, bleh, bleh, bleh. They stink, bleh, bleh, bleh. All they do is eat bread and cheese all day…well maybe that one is true. Whenever I arrive at the airport, I get a little confused because whoever built Charles de Gaulle wanted it to be that way—like the maze that it is. But, I try using the limited French that I have and they are just very helpful. Also, the men are just SOOO handsome—there’s just a better ratio of good looking men in Paris than anywhere else I’ve been to. But, yes, I have already discussed that previously. But, maybe I am a little biased.

3. The food! In Paris, I can always eat, well, pretty much because I know with all the walking that I do as a tourist, I well walk all those calories off. My faves: those tartes with the fruit and glaze on them. I love boulangeries and I totally miss them when I am in the states. In Paris there is a boulangerie on every street. Food in France is just GOOD!

4. The scenery. I like musuems alright, but what I love most is just walking and taking everything in. I love the gothic artitecture in Paris! My favorite places are by the Notre Dame, the Latin Quarter, and the Montmatre district. I just love being by the Seine, walking past all the cafe’s, the cobble stone alleyways, seeing all the historic buildings like the hotel de ville, the gothic cathedrels, the beautiful stain glass, being by Sacre Coeur (which has a GREAT and FREE view of the city) —and I can do all of this while I am holding that hot, yummy Nutella-avec-banana crepe in my hands…

5. There is something for everyone! It’s not just a city with musuems, but if you like parks, there is the Jadin du Luxembourg, one of the biggest gardens/parks in Europe; shopping: Champs Elysee, Le Printemps, La Samaritine, cute little specialty shops that don’t have to burn a hole in your wallet; touristy things: the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Musee d’orsay, Euro Disney; great places to get lost in like the Montmatre area. I talked to this woman who’s lived in Paris for almost 2 years and she still finds places in the city she’s never been to (there are like 16 districts after all); quirky and fun things like tours like the sewer tours, ice-skating by the Hotel de Ville (in the winter obviously)…I could really go on.

So, if you have been to both Paris and London, consider joing the PIBTL club—we are always looking for new members. I would like to end with a quote from one of my favorite rappers…P. Diddy himself "These people have, the food, the clothes, the love. The city is just mad beautiful."

quote:
I spent three great days in Paris that propelled it to the top of my "favorite cities in Europe" list. I never ran out of things to and was enchanted by the beautiful architecture, riverfront, artist neighborhoods, romantic language, green spaces, delicious coffees, pastries, and desserts, and by Parisians obvious love of the arts.

But not everyone is into those things. If you want a city where you can lay on the beach, drink beer, and go clubbing, Paris is maybe not the right place. There is absolutely nothing wrong with any of those pursuits, but at the risk of sounding snobby, Paris is much more sophisticated than that.

Leave your "USA" t-shirts at home and visit Paris with an open mind (and check out Versailles while you’re at it). You may be pleasantly surprised.

I love Paris, but i never quite understood what people see in Versailles. Its just another palace in my opinion, and maybe its just because the gardens are not my style whatsoever. But to the one who posted it, just go there for 4 days, no matter who likes or dislikes Paris, their opinions dont matter when youre the one walking around there.