There are some things you should know before you visit Paris for the first time.
First, ALWAYS say bonjour. French think foreigners are rude when they don't say bonjour. Then, in turn, the foreigners think the French are rude because they act rude if you don't say bonjour. It's all a cultural misunderstanding. Just say bonjour, and make sure you say it loud enough for the other person to hear.
Second, the bise. This is the two kisses (or three or four, depending on where you are in France - two in Paris) on the cheeks. Strangers don't do this, you don't just walk up to someone on the street and kiss them (even if it is just on the cheek !). These can be acquaintances, a friend of a friend, or a friend. There are rules. Everyone is not greeted with a kiss on the cheek. But don't be surprised if you are greeted this way.
Now on to some things you need to know about Paris.
Paris is divided into arrondissements, the French word meaning district. There are twenty of them and they form an escargot, or snail shell, shaped pattern going clockwise around the city. The first four are on the right bank of the Seine, the river that traverses Paris.
This leads to my next point, you will hear people refer to the rive droite and the rive gauche, meaning the right and left bank of the river. The right bank, the rive droite, is the north half above the Seine, while the rive gauche, or left bank, of the Seine is the southern portion of the city.
You should also locate the closest bakery, or boulangerie, to where you are staying. Paris is full of boulangeries which only sell bread, and patisseries which sell bread and pastries. You can never go wrong with ordering a croissant, but if you love chocolate and have a sweet tooth in the morning, order a pain au chocolat. Pain is the French word for bread and is not pronounced like the English word pain.
The best lunch in Paris is a good baguette with good cheese, paired with a good wine, of course. Nicholas is the name of a chain of wine shops in many locations around Paris (and France). A fromagerie is a cheese shop, and you can get une baguette (it's feminine so une not un) at any boulangerie.
I suggest a picnic style lunch on the Champ de Mars which is a big park next to the Eiffel Tower. Bring a blanket to sit on or find a nice patch of grass and have a seat. Make sure to bring a bottle opener and some plastic cups with you. Bon appétit !
If you go to a restaurant, order a carafe of water. The water is potable and is free. So save some euros and go for the free option. Use this extra money for a glass of wine. After all, you are in France.
Transportation :
The metro and bus are great public transportation methods, but not according to the Parisiennes. I come from a town in the United States where streets were not walkable and there was little (if any !) public transportation. So I have little complaints about the public transportation in Paris. The line 8 of the metro traverses the whole city, and for that reason, it is usually always crowded.
A couple notes about metro stops. Some stations are HUGE and if you can avoid it, don't get off or change trains at these stops. I always avoid the stops Chatelet, Les Halls, and Gare de Lyon.
Each metro train has maps within them, so if you see a stop with several metro lines and the RER, look to see if you can change trains at another station. If you can't, don't worry. These stations with several metro lines and the RER are bigger and take more time to walk through, and some have a lot of stairs. Paris is not a handicapped friendly city.
The option for handicapped people in Paris is the bus. The bus takes longer if there is traffic and on the weekends, the buses run less frequently.
An amusing note on this, I was watching the news last night and they talked about how Madame Hidalgo (the mayor of Paris) has a short amount of time left to make the metros handicap accessible before the Olympics next summer. We'll see if this happens.
Enough politics, enjoy your stay in Paris !!
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