Bear in mind that the Metro is easy once you know to look for the station that is at the end of the line. (In London, you look for "Eastbound", etc.)

I've done Paris many times, but spent a little time planning.

It's a wonderful city; have a lovely time.

I have both the Paris and the Travel Skills Handbook. Both are nice, but I suggest getting the separate books on London and Paris. There's more information at your fingertips that way. More detail. The Europe Through The Back Door book is a condensed version.

You could always slip into your nearest bookstore and take a look at each of the books you mentioned and decide from there.

I got a lot of use out of the RS Paris book. The tours of the museums and even Pere Lachaise Cemetery are wonderful. On Rick's web site (www.ricksteves.com), you can download a few Paris tours from the book to iTunes. That was quite helpful in the Louvre.

http://www.viamichelin.com/viamichelin/int/tpl/hme/MaHomePage.htm

just give your start city and your end city and voila! you get all info you need

As I type this i am looking at my bookshelf of travel books. I must have something like 150 of which 30 or 40 concern France generally or Paris in particular. These include such obscure things as "Seeing Paris," a guide published in 1931.

I go to Paris just about every year and have been doing so for more than 30 years and yet before each trip I spend several weeks planning things out and researching. I read restauant reviews, check the blogs of ex-patriates in Paris, and make extensive notes. I have a database of Paris restaurants and night clubs with hundreds of entries that I constantly update with whatever information I can glean from the internet.

The bottom line here is that you should consider doing your own research from many sources and compiling your own personal guide book.

It will be better than anything someone else can give you and you may find, as I do, that the preparation for your trip is itself an interesting activity.

Give it a try. I know it sounds like a horrible idea but it really works and its fun.

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We stayed a few blocks from the Eiffel Tower and almost died of heat every single night! Because it was so hot during the day, it stormed every single night, which was kind of nice because we opened up our window and caught a breeze.

Be sure to bring a compact umbrella for everyone in your group – you don't want to lug around a huge golf umbrella, but you will definitely need to take one every where you go because the weather is iffy each day.

We visited the American Embassy when we first arrived, and they suggested we buy a pass for the underground train – not a good idea, as the train didn't stop near anything we wanted to see! So…….invest in some really good walking shoes and plan on doing the city by foot. It's the best way to really get close to the Parisians anyway. Remember — it's PARIS, so if you are easily offended, you'll be frequently offended! We witnessed a couple making love on the grass in a park right up from the Louvre! It fascinated my young son, who thought they were wrestling! LOL

Enjoy your stay — and plan to spend several hours standing in line for the Louvre and Tower, but they are SO worth it!

I wish you well!!!

I know this sounds silly but being a "good" tourist is hard work and you should spend almost as much time preparing as you do actually being there. So don't just get a guide book but read thru it very carefully BEFORE you go.

Make a list of what you want to see based on your personal interests and the amount of time you have. Of course, its fine to come back to this forum with more specific questions after you have had the time to do some research of your own.

There's also a lot to Paris that is beyond the tourist sights. Its the ambience and the attitude of Paris which need to be lived and felt.

You should spend some time just strolling around the city to appreciate its architecture and to get a feel for its medieval layout, the Belle Epoch improvements of Baron Hausman, and the modernizations seen in places like the Les Halles Forum and the new Opera in the Place Bastille.

You should take a little time to just sit in a cafe in the Latin Quarter or St. Germaine and people watch. Go the Luxembourg Gardens and feed the pigeons. Watch little kids sailing toy boats in the big pond there.

Be a bit courageous about food. Go to places that don't cater to tourists and don't have English menus. Just point to things on the menu or, better still, walk into a cafe at lunchtime and ask for the daily special which you'll almost always see displayed on a chalk board. don't worry if you don't know what it is! Try it! The worst that will happen is that you'll have a hilarious story to tell about how you got served a calve's head with cream sauce or something else too weird for you to eat.

Mainly, don't stay in a tight little tourist cocoon. Strike up conversations with strangers, be open minded, put your map in your back pocket and just wander around, get lost, experiment, learn, take the time to really look at things.

Bonne chance!

Pensez-vous visiter Paris? Regardez cette compilation détaillée de 15 endroits étonnants dans les alentours–actuellement affichée sur la page “featuringK2″.